USB drive recovery kit

[carrot]

i am building a cleaning/fixing/speeding up suite of free software to put on a USB drive that i can take w/ me when i fix computers. i am looking for some good programs to put on it. i dont want to buy anything though. i would prefer programs that run directly off of the USB drive (like http://portableapps.com) I need antivirus (i heard that AVG http://www.free-av.com/ can run off the USB drive?), anti-spyware, and other stuff that i wont go through cause i am lazy. :D I also want to make one that can be booted from. id actully like to make one drive that can do ALL this stuff (boot from and have desktop-accessible apps) if thats possible.
Thanx everyone!!

[Rick]

Here is a good place to start
http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

Now to fit all the program you want onto that usb
You want be able to use the thumb drive But a good external or portable drive will work well

I prefer the thumb drive myself
but it has major limits

[Paul Komski]

Booting to pen drives is problematic at the best of times and since it is also dependent on any particular PC's own BIOS this largely negates any value in having a "bootable" drive to carry around with you. Setting up a pen drive to boot to DOS as if it were a floppy drive is one thing but booting to a windows partition (thus emulating a HDD partition) is most unlikely to be successful at all.

In my opinion it is better (in the current state of play) to create a boot CD (such as an EBCD or a BartPE) and customise the utilities you want on it. With A/Vs this will generally entail installing a DOS-based version of the software. However the BartPE CD can run a Windows based version of Avast - though that particular plugin is not cheap.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
http://ebcd.pcministry.com/

PS
Also bear in mind that for portable troubleshooting you will likely need to "repair" Win98 and earlier versions of windows that dong have USB support. Thus CD's are often the best way into a troubled system.

Remember to that a Knoppix live CD as well as a BartPE CD are two ways of "getting in" to access a USB device on a problematic system.

[carrot]

ya, thats what i thought. oh well, ill build a boot CD, but that is for later.
right now, i am still looking for software to load up my thumb drive with. i will have 1 GB of space, more if i find that many apps though. The only site i have really looked at is http://portableapps.com and i am gonna use most if not all of their stuff. its great. However, i still need antivirus and antispyware and any other fixer/cleanser/and any other general make-my-computer-run-better er. :D
thanks for your help so far!

[Rick]

In your setup
I would use Hijackthis and CCleaner

As for the AV
Your going to run into major head aches
Most provide a dos boot cd
With the limits of fat32
When used on an NTFS they are worthless and can not read any of the partitions

Another thing to think about is the brand of thumb drive you use
or type of drive.
I have a 128 that will take the info for a freedos boot disk
But once the system starts to boot .
( displaying FREEDOS) is will freeze
I have even formatted this drive down to 1.44 with the same results.

The boot cd is best
But only is the system has a working CD

In the case of a failed CD drive
Your in major trouble
Looking into external cd drives or even external hard drives that support booting
You may find yourself with very few options

[carrot]

ya, i think it is just way to problematic to try and make a boot USB disc. but i am still wondering about softwarei can just access from windows. i want the software to be able to fun off of the USB stick w/o installing first. I know that that isn't a possiblitiy for most apps, but i still want to try and find as many as i can.
Antivirus tool:
A clear necessity. AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic (free) is a good budget choice that runs off a thumb drive. Keep an installation file handy to load on the PC after it's cleaned, too. Users with U3 drives can also download the McAfee VirusScan and Avast scanners.
(from http://www.pcworld.com (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,123793,pg,4,00.asp#))
what file do i need to make antivir personaledition classic run from a thumb drive?

thanx again!
PS::D

[Rick]

Here is the link to their site
http://www.free-av.com/

It looks like a simple install using a clean system and pointing the install to a thumb drive

Just follow the top menu to the download page .

[carrot]

i installed it and it looks like it has a bunch of services and stuff that wont let it run directly from a USB thumb drive on a computer it hasnt been installed on previously. what a run-on sentence that was! :D im not sure u understand (although it's prolbably that you do, and i dont) what i want. i want to get as much software that will run from a USB drive without installing it first. if this is impossible for that kind of software, then i am just looking for the best free stuff. so far, i am using most of the products from portableapps.com (http://portableapps.com/), but i would like to use some others.
thanx!
P.S. if only i had one of those U3 drives....

[Rick]

You may find as I did a long time ago.
Using one media type ( USB thumb drive ) is going to cause you more head aches in the long run than it's worth

An asortment of media is the way to go
cd,dvd,external hard drive, internal drive, usb thumb drive, IDE to USB card ( external exclosure ) and yes even the old floppy disks are in my rescue kit or should I say working carry case

In the case of a major infection on a system
I find it easier to just attach the infected drive to a clean protected system ( laptop)
via a usb or firewire and scan / clean it out
Less time less hassle

One thing I setup or should I say built was a little box
By using the internal board from a usb external enclosure and a small plastic box
I can connect a drive to my laptop and scan it without power up the infected system
or removing the drive itself from the system case
Just plug it into the drive and run the power and usb or firewire cable to the little box
and my laptop

Don't limit your options

[Paul Komski]

There are programs such as HijackThis which don't need installing but the majority of windows programs need to be installed. DOS programs mostly run directly since there is no registry to even consider. That's why a DOS based a/v is so suitable for portability. AVG do a DOS version and FProt is the other "gold standard" in this area. For NTFS partitions, Avast on a BartPE is the only app I have come across unless you are able to get on-line with the infected machine and then get an on line scan such as housecall.

If you have a laptop and are able to network to the infected machine then you can also run an a/v across the network. All in all I agree with Rick that slaving the HDD is often the best way to get things running quickly and/or backup data before its too late.

[jkonrad]

Just posted something about this on my tech blog. Check it out. Hope the links help.

Link to Jon's Tech Blog (http://www.brhs.ab.ca/techinsight/blog_tech/index.php)