What software should I have in my bag for paying customer work?

[fixman31]

Hi I work as in IT Technician for a large company. I thought I would start doing outside work aswell.

I,ve got my toolkit with lots of parts in it. But the problem I face at the moment is what software to use.??

At work this isnt really a problem as we have a huge budget which covers enterprise licenses on everything.

Sadly as a small indie looking to start out cant afford enterprise gear lol. So what software should I be using without fear of people knocking on my door??

So far I have :

1 - Knoppix : For data recovery
2 - Ultimate Recovery CD : For Drive Cleaning, Password Unlocking etc
3 - Bart PE : For attempeting data recovery

4 - Ghost installed on a laptop : For imaging and cloning attached devices.
[NB] Would this be against the EULA??

The EULA states that it must not be used for commerial or non commercial use for multiple pc creation. But is ok when there are mutiple attached devices on the registered PC.

Well a customers hard drive connected to my laptop via an IDE to USB cable surely would deem ok. According to their statement.

Backing up data and cloning is also important to customers. If I cant use Ghost what else could I use?

5 - Norton Anti Virus : I can scan any attached drive to my laptop using IDE or SATA adapter to USB.

Is there a tool that allows me to perform a bootable sypware and virus scan??? PE Style?

What else should or shouldnt I be using?

Thanks

[Jiggy]

Give this a look see - Technician's tools (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=50801), also welcome to PC Guide.

[fixman31]

Thanks

I,ve just checked that thread makes good reading.

The problem is that there seems to be dodgy ground on most application licenses.

eg : Maxblast 4 clearly states that it should be used for single pc, non commercial and not pc technician.

Can somone clarify what software is good to use and not? ie what will we not get in trouble for using in our trade.

This Ghost issue is bugging me as its a great tool to use. And we use it at work all the time. But their license wording is so tricky.

[Variable]

It's good to see someone concerned about breaking licensing agreements. I think that asking here about licensing issues with various applications is probably not productive. I would simply email the software company and explain your issue - this way you have the answer from the horses mouth, so to speak.

[Budfred]

I believe MaxBlast is available for free download from their site... In the case of programs like that, I think it is fair to use them on any machine that you encounter since they are available for free download anyway...

In the case of Ghost, it is only available for a price and that makes it a different issue... If you use it on multiple machines without some kind of special licensing, I suspect you would be in violation of the terms of use and subject to legal action...

[fixman31]

Thanks. I know what you mean about maxtor. If its free then why put the licsence at the begining. Stating that it should only be used on a single machine.

Going back to the imaging subject.

What tools do you use for backing up your clients data? And restoring it?

Here is part of the GHOST EULA

A. If the Software You have licensed is Norton Ghost, notwithstanding any of the terms and conditions contained herein, the following additional terms apply to the Software:
(i) You may use the Software on one computer to clone, or apply an image of a hard drive on that computer, or to another hard drive on the same computer, a replacement computer, secondary media, or network drive.
(ii) You may use the Software on a computer to create an image file of a hard drive on that computer and store the image file on fixed or removable media for disaster recovery purposes.
(iii) You may use the Software as a boot disk to re-apply the hard drive image that was created for disaster recovery purposes to the hard drive on the computer from which the disaster recovery image was made or on a replacement computer provided that the software has been removed from the original computer.
(iv) You may use the Software to clone a hard drive from a computer to a replacement computer, in the manner described in the Software documentation and to use the Software on the replacement computer provided that the Software has been removed from the original computer.
(v) You may not use the Software commercially or non-commercially for the purpose of creating multiple computers or hard drives, except for multiple hard drives installed in or attached directly to the original


(v) You may not use the Software commercially or non-commercially for the purpose of creating multiple computers or hard drives, except for multiple hard drives installed in or attached directly to the original


A customer drive attached to my original pc would be attached directly. By means of USB. Why couldnt I back up and restore it then?

[Budfred]

As Variable said, I would contact Symantec about how to use the tool commercially... I suspect that they have an enterprise option for that purpose, but it may be more expensive than you want to deal with...

A customer drive attached to my original pc would be attached directly. By means of USB. Why couldnt I back up and restore it then?
Edit/Delete MessageI think the technical term for this is "splitting hairs" and would lead to you losing big in court if it came to that... :)

I generally don't use imaging software to back up hard drives that I am working on... Most of the time, the hard drive has malware on it that can't be removed by more conventional means... I will try to back up document and settings files that can be used in a new install, then scan that data well before using it...

[fixman31]

Yeah I may contact Symantec. But I know the enterprise edition is mega ££££££. I have my works one but cant use that for personal commercial work.

There must be some imaging tool that we can use? Clients need to back up their data. And most PC shops off data backup services.

What methods do you think they use?

Thanks