repair windows with linux is this helpful?

[fleamailman]

I have just come across this distro(system repair CD linux) and it seems to have a lot of the apps I want right out of the box, anyone know of this distro, has used it and can tell me if this is what windows users would consider useful to them. I don't have windows but I am thinking of ways to get windows users to delve into linux or at least keep linux handy

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

[kelly]

Never used it, but have used Knoppix once in a while when XP is not working well.

[qldit]

Good Afternoon fleamailman, yes that disk can be very useful, but there are several like it that are equally useful.
With most of them it requires a bit of a learning curve to appreciate what they can actually do.

Although they use a GUI there are also other commandline programs included which can be more useful than those in the GUI.

So a basic understanding of Linux is generally needed plus an understanding of what those included programs actually do and how to use them.

PC Rescue System CD and the Ultimate Boot CD are similar and worth having a play with for anyone interested in this stuff, basically aimed at Windows system recovery etc.

Cheers, qldit.

[fleamailman]

qldit, thanks for posting back, I have used knoppix but not in actual repairing of windows system, I think it and puppy are very good,

back to this distro though I have noted posts on their forum about problems mounting windows drives so I am not as warm about it as I was, trouble is that I rarely use a windows system now, except when it's an Internet cafe like now so thinking of ways to help windows users by linux become theorectical, but still the idea is a good one I believe.

[qldit]

Good Morning fleamailman, I found much of the problem with unbootable windows systems was that they were often full of replicated numerous viral and malware kinds of problems.
Often critical files had been altered or replaced with different ones or some sneaky program had been installed that was virtually impossible to remove and was controlling a lot of operational effects or the hard drive had developed some odd problem.

Using programs like Puppy or Knoppix allowed access to the drives to recover important data etc, and they will most often still read many defective hard drives, but getting a lot of those failed systems restored as far as I was concerned was a wasted effort, by the time you get the various repair programs operating and begin replacing files etc, it was so much simpler and easier to just reload windows, at least you know you haven't missed anything and have system integrity.
A system clone can be very useful, but the system must be pristine to begin with.

One interesting point is that the windows updates for XP has reached an enormous amount of extra data that needs to be reloaded, even the dot-net framework is 50 odd megs alone, and the active X and other critical updates amount to a massive ammount of virtually neccessary additions but this remains the clients responsibility in association with malware protection security stuff.

Some of those rescue disks have malware scanners on them that I find very useful, you would laugh I have one live malware scanner CD that beeps when it finds something. I received a heavilly affected computer to repair, so I ran this CD and set it for auto-delete any detections, the thing started beeping repeatedly and after a while my wife walked in and asked "what was that music I had been playing", I had to explain it was "Classical Stuff, you wouldn't know it"!! LOL!!
There were hundreds of detections, of about a half dozen different variants in that particular case.
But even things like a corrupted font are very difficult to sort out in windows. (for me at least!! LOL!!)

I do feel that trying to repair a lot of malfunctioning windows installations is not only a waste of time and effort but even when the machine may appear to be operational again, invariably it still may have hidden problems, so for critical useage machines I no longer bother wasting time analysing them.

Others will have different ideas about this kind of thing.

So from my point of view these repair tool disks are useful but have limited application.

Cheers, qldit.

[qldit]

Good Evening Seth, post ignored as requested.

Cheers, qldit. (Operating Puppy Linux online continually for nearly 3 years with no A/V or malware protection whatsoever and no problems)