Hi all,

Well I need to do alot of recovery work in my line of duty and to be honest it's a pain in the arse. We use Easyrecovery pro mostly since it's verry good and fast. But we need to rip out the hd, connect it via an enclosure etc etc etc.

I was wondering if you guy's knew a software that I can run from a usb stick and boot from with offcourse USB support to connect an external drive to backup to. I have a cd called I HAVE THE PASSWORD witch contain's all the tools but can't use it in the shop since it's kind of aheum "illegal"

So I'm looking for a good software tool that I can try out and would be happy to pay for.

Franky

Maybe you could give it a try with BartPE: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#intro

AFAIK it doens't boot from a USB stick, but it allows you to create a legal windows XP bootCD (if you have a legal windows XP of course, but I don't think that's a problem for you)

well I asked my microschoft account manager and she said it isn't allowed either... I would have to use a license on every pc I put it on

Don't know of any licensed portable apps, but maybe you could convert some licensed app into a portable app.

Check these sites out if they are of any help to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software

http://www.portablefreeware.com/

http://portableapps.com/forums

http://www.theinfobox.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

http://www.quate.net/newsnet/read.php?30

http://pendriveapps.com/

http://lifehacker.com/software/portable-applications/

http://www.tinyapps.org/

http://klik.atekon.de/ (For Linux)

http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps/ (OS X)

jC

Are you sure your account manager knows what she's talking about ?

You install BartPe on your own licensed PC.
You don't install anything on other PCs.

I understand that when you boot BartPE on another PC you are in fact booting your licensed XP. (but you're not installing it).

If you take out the harddrive from the PC and put it in your licensed XP, you're also booting your XP, so I don't really see the difference.

So what does the mighty microsoft suggest as a solution to your problem ?
Maybe you should mention a bootable Linux, I'm sure she will like to hear that.
( http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html )

@ jc: Thnx for the links will review them tomorrow.

@ Rafke: Well that's a good question ! Does anybody at microsoft know what they are saying ? I'll take her word for it anyway. I hope I find something...