So I’m working on another PC, The Main Problem was that it crashed an needed to recover. I was able to accomplish that in an hour. by letting the OS Scan itself. Good Job…. The only Problem was the fact that Originally it went off a number of times, i guess due to overheating.. or dust in the fan.. Situation's non existent right now.
After getting the PC Up and running at about 4am. I get to the logon screen which needed a password to gain access. So I going in Safe Mode to see if the Admin account would show.. Nope… so i figured the XP way would work (Note: I’m working on a VISTA this time) I got NOTHING… after attempting to login, I was given the option to recover a password from a USB drive or Boot Disk… *BINGO!* .. No I didn’t get in.. but that’s what Prompted me to Check Online, for password recovery & Bootable Disks…. So I Searched..and of because I have no VISTA OS Disk. I’m no able to it anyway ..
On To The Live CD
So I Found this area on WikiHow in regard to Password Recovery So it basically gave instructions on downloading a DOS Boot Disk from a DVD. I Did that, but it DID NOT WORK due to an error of some kind..
Somehow after, I was briefly able to access the Classic style Login. but attempting to login as Admin didn’t work either. so i Had to find a decent enough boot disk that would do so, I downloaded another DOS Demo Disk, It showed wher I could remove the passwords, so that prompted me to search the sites to find one a cracked copy and EUREKA! It Worked.. Not only did it allow me to view the contents (with a limited access) by the looks of it I could have performed a number of tasks. I may try it on my Brother N Laws PC in a Hot Minute. (in 10 hours when its done transferring to a bigger hard drive)..
There was also a list of Live CDs related sites on http://www.livecdlist.com/, I may look in to downloading a few free ones . some for work, others for show.
Now Back to The PC.
Now that I’ve looked inside I see that the only thing this pc lacked was Updates. other than that the Virus protection was out of date. I’m nearly done with the thing.. other than that, she’s got to be more careful.. I may Defrag and run a chkdsk as well, but basically I’m Done. The PC seems to be stable now,
All and All
This whole things was sort of a Learning Experience on my part. asside from my usual Scans for Malware/Viruses and other Diagnostics. hadn’t done this much work on a Windows Vista System as I have with XP and other past versions of windows.
It also reminded me my Tech For All days, sitting at a desk for hours making logs of nearly everything i did. from the problems to the solution. I even posted some of those reports here on my blog.
More Specifically, This Reminded me of one of the few Katrina Recovery Luncheons TFA Hosted. We all Split in to groups to explore some projects in the making.
A this point I was Introduced to a guy named Rob Hiltbrand, who was working on a Live RAM disk as part of his project. (Project White Hat) At the time (late 2005) Live CD’s were fairly new. with that said, Many of his Ideas being Feasible. The One that interested people the most was the Idea of Manipulating an Operating System.
After Booting up the Disk, I have you a Linux Based Desktop setting which allows to do nearly anything the normal OS would do. the only difference; Saving Data required removable mediums such as flash drives & floppy, (those weren’t yet as obsolete as they are today) Even better;Virus Immunity. if you were to come across viruses or spyware just click reboot and “Poof” it’s gone… unless it saved to your flash drive (lol)
The Idea of the disk was a big interest of mine, Being a network Admin, Avoiding Viruses meant allot, especially due to our PC’s being refurbished back brands (win 2000)
As for exploring this technology, the One thing that slowed me down is that The guy who Acquired our CTC's copy Kept the disk to himself, I was only able to use it once while attempting to revive a pc owned Mrs. Nash; one of the CTC Volunteers.(and a success story in my book of PC literacy..lol jk)… Otherwise I hadn’t seen the thing since day one. My Only Cons about the program was the boot time.. for nearly anything.. but once on it as Rob explained, it ran smoothly..
From then On, Technology grew strongly and more things like the LiveCD were Emerging, there were even online storage sites which are Java & Flash based storage sites which appear to look like a themed OS Desktops yet it’s not the same as a Live CD, and were built for two different purposes anyway.
But Generally, I knew there was going to be a time where a Live CD would come in handy for me. and I never know I’d have my hands on some Free ones. it’s been nearly 5 years since my first time hearing of it. and with it coming in handy for me. It sparked my interest even more now than ever.
This is all I have for now.
The Book
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