Dowload of The Day: BartPE

BartPE is a free utility that lets you build a live CD-based copy of Windows XP that can be used for data recovery.

"Bart’s PE Builder helps you build a “BartPE” (Bart Preinstalled Environment) bootable Windows CD-Rom or DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 installation/setup CD, very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.

It will give you a complete Win32 environment with network support, a graphical user interface (800x600) and FAT/NTFS/CDFS filesystem support. Very handy for burn-in testing systems with no OS, rescuing files to a network share, virus scan and so on."

Update: A reader writes in about a useful extension:

Even better than BartPE is “UBCD for Windows”. It uses Bart’s PE Builder to create not just a bootable Windows CD, but a bootable Windows CD with many useful tools included — antivuris, browsers, PDF Reader, CD burner, drive backup/cloning tools, diagnostics, recovery tools, etc. See the full list here.

BartPE

Die Dulci Fruere