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What Would You Put Into A Software Survival Kit?
LosManos asks: "A call for help to the Everyday Heroes that are out there: I have just returned from a 4 months scientific expedition to some of the more remote parts of the South Pacific. As soon as people we met found out that I was a computer guy they asked me to help them and all to often I had to reply that I didn't have the tools.This got me thinking; what should a software toolbox consist of? OS, patches, digital books, compilers, sniffers, servers, harddisk restore apps...? Please remember that the computers I met where often old and slow. The answers to this could be interesting also when you are not several days away from nearest inhabited island. I mean, what is it that most often break? How is it usually fixed? Are more fancy solutions more error prone?" If you were to create a "first aid kit" consisting of CDs, disks, books and other technical utilities you have used to resurrect dead systems, what would you put in it?
"So far I have found:
- A utility for reading and repairing hard disks
- 'regmon' and 'filemon' from Sysinternals
- Video drivers (but I don't know which)
- A diskette for booting MSDOS with CD support
- Digital books (but I don't know which)
- Remote controlling tools, such as VNC
- CDs with OS (but there are hundreds of those)"
And maybe Norton Utilities. Those are great for when things go wrong.
Go and install linux, that will remove the need for all the patches
Bring a copy of Knoppix and a copy of FIRE(Forensic Incident Response Environment.
Nothing I've found that those two can't handle.
Traditionally I've always found the FreeBSD rescue cd to be indispensible. Before that, I used the two boot floppies from slackware (and still use that version of fdisk when the need arises.)
You're all missing the most important thing. .NET!!!
No really... a disk with fdisk and format on it.
I'll be interested in hearing just what sort of essential software I'd need about my person to help complete strangers fix their 'puters on holiday! Then I can make damned sure I don't have any of it ;-)
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
The most encountered problems are typically due to people being computer illiterate, and are not problems at all. You shouldn't need any discs at all, just your mind and a little patience to tell them how to properly operate their system.
That is my experience anyway.
It's a floppy based linux distro
M$ Boot Disks
7 0.html?tag= list
/ pstools .shtml
If you have to build a boot disk for a M$ machine, putergeek is
invaluable since M$ doesn't seem to want to you to boot to a DOS
prompt any more. You can find Win95B, WinME and Dos Bootdisks.
http://www.putergeek.com/downloads/
RegClean
If you do any development using COM or ActiveX components then
RegClean is a must have tool for fixing registry problems.
http://download.com.com/3000-2094-8814
PsTools
Listed in the Article are FileMon and RegMon from
Sysinternals.com, but I would add PsTools to that list. This
suite of tools is incredibly useful for diagnosing and solving a
vast array of problems. PsKill is probably my most frequently
used tool when I need to actually KILL a process instead of
politely requesting it to exit via End Task.
Oh and nearly everything works on remote machines as well.
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware
MDAC Utility
If you have to deal with programs accessing a variety of
Microsoft Data Access sources, the MDAC Component Checker is
essential. It's unbelievable to me how typical it is that MDAC
get's corrupted.
www.microsoft.com/data
Unfortunately, most of the essential tools relate to Microsoft
Software, but the reality is that it seems to be more difficult
to find "good" utilities to trouble shoot and fix problems under
a Microsoft OS than pretty much any other OS I've worked on.
Microsoft also publishes a tool that will automatically identify
any known security vulnerabilites that need to be patched, but I
can't find the link off hand. Again for a Microsoft OS it is
pretty handy.
Doug Tolton
"The destruction of a value which is, will not bring value to that which isn't." -John Galt
http://www.memtest86.com/ It's helped me any number of times when I was beating my head against the wall over a weird problem. It's just a diagnostic tool, though.
- Jonathan
linux boot disk
[non-windows item]
[non-windows item]
[anti-windows item]
[non-windows item]
and kazaalite of course
Gotta have the dead trees in case you can't access digital...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
These and a DOS floppy with the right kinds of tools (fdisk, format, edit, etc.) have saved my bacon so many times that I've lost count.
The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. -- Calvin & Hobbes
I find myself needing over and over again is a Windows '98 boot disk; the one with the CD-rom drivers.
And of course a list of windows serials.
Oops.
Did I say that out loud?
I want the fire back.
I think it would be impossible to fully prepare for something like this without a portable internet connection (i.e. laptop and satellite connection).
There's also a good summary page of rescue discs that are available. Didn't look at windows specifically but I have used this to mount and fix various FAT type partitions. NTFS may be a slightly different animal.
Delpart.exe is useful for deleting NTFS partitions from dos. It got my computer working after I thoroughly f*cked it up.
catapult
gasoline and matches
long chain, car with boat hook
sledge hammer
that should help get you started
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Single-floppy linux boot with a tremendous array of rear-end saving utilities.
http://www.bootdisk.com has a bunch of boot disks. Always good for finding out what's on disks if the OS has barfed.
What more could you possibly need?
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
You have to include fortune. It's nice to have somthing to read when you are frustrated to lighten the situation.
You need one of these :)
a sh lights/active/hdl33a1.PDF
http://data.energizer.com/datasheets/library/fl
$15 at Target stores (in the U.S.), available for just under $10 on sale online some places.
3 AA batteries (works great with rechargeables). I am on #2 because I gave #1 to my mom when she took a medical missionary trip to Haiti (motto: "Sometimes we have electricity.")
Great for reading in bed, but in the computer context great for looking inside cases, looking for tiny screws that fell on the floor, etc. Small enough that it can fit into odd spaces inside a case, too, and sometimes the angle of illumination makes all the difference.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
1) a disk imaging tool. ghost or drive-image.
2) an antiviral of some sort. hopefully one that easy to update via multiple ways (online, cd, floppy disk, etc)
e
Bring Knoppix and LNX-BBC -- the former on a full-size CD in a bag or backpack, the latter on a business card CD in your pocket.
Ye olde copy of Doom II
I know there's better games, but he said old, slow computers.
Work sucked, until it became unemployment, when it became slightly more tolerable. -Tet
I don't know how many times a USB NIC has come in handy for repairing systems, I also keep a driver diskette with drivers for versions of Windows (I assume you are mostly repairing Windows PC's ;) that don't autodetect the NIC.
Works great for transferring files (backup/restore) and doing updates, software/driver downloads, etc..
Oh yea and of course a few Windows install CD's, hush hush.
THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE
Usually, this is mainly for data recovery - its almost easier to image broken workstations than it is to waste 2 hrs fixing it.
Nuff Said.
This article doesn't sit too well on the homepage directly opposite the current poll.
What Would You Put Into A Software Survival Kit?
- Salmonella
- Botulism
- Trichinosis...
Ladies, form queue here -->
I have always found a use for my Win98 boot disk. I know, I know, I use Linux all the time now, but back in the day, a Win98/95 boot disk was the way to go.
Nowadays, I would use a linux boot disk, but most old computers I have run into typically run Windows 98/95 or in rare occassions Windows 3.1 (gasp!).
I would have the Debian CDs (I consider Debian to be the best distro) and the Windows 2000, ME, and XP CDs. I would want some kind of modem (external 56K, probably) that will work with almost any version of Windows or Linux. I'd want a bunch of blank floppies and CD-Rs for making backups. Lastly, I'd want any hardware I had around (CDROM drives, hard drives, floppy drives, processors, RAM, vid. cards, etc.) for when stuff breaks.
My 2 cents
here is FIRE
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Write letters to their financial supporters and bosses and tell them that scientific instruments (computers) are being mismanaged by these scientists. Get those bozos fired.
That's outrageous that they wouldn't have made contingency plans for these issues or had a process in place.
The planning is similar to standard emergency planning that everyone should do for their systems. This is not that difficult.
Your suggested band-aid/one-size-fits-all approach is laughable. "Uh, here. I brought a Norton floppy."
This is a Department of Defense Computer System. This computer system, including all related equipment, networks, and network devices (specifically including Internet access) are provided only for authorized U.S. Government use. DoD computer systems may be monitored for all lawful purposes, including to ensure that their use is authorized, for management of the system, to facilitate protection against unauthorized access, and to verify security procedures, survivability, and operational security. Monitoring includes active attacks by authorized DoD entities to test or verify the security of this system. During monitoring, information may be examined, recorded, copied and used for authorized purposes. All information, including personal information, placed or sent over this system may be monitored.
Use of this DoD computer system, authorized or unauthorized, constitutes consent to monitoring of this system. Unauthorized use may subject you to criminal prosecution. Evidence of unauthorized use collected during monitoring may be used for administrative, criminal, or other adverse action. Use of this system constitutes consent to monitoring for these purposes.
All too often what I ultimately need to do is get a machine to the point where it will boot with a clean hard drive and the ability to read the CD-ROM drive. I have yet to find an easier method than the oldschool DOS method, but whatever method works for you is fine so long as you can format and check the hard drive and access and fire up an installer off the CD-ROM.
Just my two Mac OS X 10.2 CDs.
The Political Programmer
In the M$ world, WinZip (or pkzip for dos). I learned the hard way that all my other utilities didn't help much if I couldn't unzip them.
They have the Internet on computers now?
Take me with you to the South Pacific... I work for food.
I left a copy at the local computer store, and within a week everyone had the mini-cd in pocket and at the top of their emergency cd spindles.
I haven't tried using it that way, but I've heard that it can not only tell which parts of ram are absolute crap but also generate a kernel patch/module that makes Linux avoid those areas. A kickass way to use cheap as dirt ram.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
In my computer toolbag, I carry a CD case with copies of every Windows CD I have, since most users use Windows and can never seem to find their CD when I need to install drivers and things. Also, I have common video drivers, MS patches and service packs, lots of free (some as in beer, some as in speech) software. I also have a Win98 boot floppy, since it comes with a CD-ROM driver, a Linux boot disk that can reset any password on an NT system, and various other boot and rescue disks. A couple of blank floppies are in there, too, for when I need to make boot floppies to install OSes when an old computer won't boot from a CD. Of course, there are also some Linux distros in my CD case, for people who want to try something new.
It's an operating system, not a religion.
When I did tech support, I never left home without:
- Boots (for kicking said system)
- Spare ISA / PCMCIA NICs
- Spare floppy drive / cable / IO card
- Laptop with spare partition (preferably with CD Burner)
- Ghost / DriveImage
- Windows / Linux CD's
- Basic tool kit
- Norton Utilities
- Virus scanner
- CD with most common drivers
There's not much you can't fix with this basic survival kit. If you're anticipating repairing hardware, take spare RAM, NICs, HD's, etc. At least 1 laptop HD and 1 PC HD for testing / temporary storage is good to have as well.
*RANT WARNING* Without a unified recovery console, MS products will always force you to have the OS CD-ROM with you. It would have been nice if you could boot an NT4 box with the Win2K recovery console. How about a 2K box from an XP Pro disk? Even if it didn't "freshen" any files, it would be nice to be able to replace an errant registry hive with an older version.
I'll stop ranting now and go sort my "emergency" CD-ROM case now... hrmmpphh..... That's one heavy case!
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand back in the mid 90's and was often asked to "look" at someone's computer.
With computers so expensive and knowledge about them so rare, these people were usually VIPs - the governor of the province, dean of a local university, important businesspeople... It behooved me to scratch their back so that they'd later help me.
Now remember, this was when Windows '95 was still brand new and a lot of people in Thailand still used DOS. CDROMs weren't in widespread use yet (I think if anything, the CDROM built Panthip Plaza - a bootleggers heaven!)
I found myself carrying around a complete set of MSDOS 6.22 disks, a Win95 CDROM and a couple of custom made boot disks - with things like FDISK, SCANDISK and such on them as well as a few floppies with common drivers on them.
Biggest hardware problem I saw on a regular basis was floppy and CD drives crapping out due to the dust in the air and, of course, moldy floppies (110 degrees F and 100% humidity will grow mold on ANYTHING that doesn't move and a lot of things that do!)
Ah, those were the days...
It's a card-sized bootable GNU/Linux CD-ROM
--K.
Sig: Bad people happen. Try to avoid being one of them.
Then all you need is enough to run VNC and SSH, then just tunnel home and use your home machine..
That will fit on a couple of floppies...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
1)ISO Buster to restore corrupted CD's. Isobuster
2)Partition Magic Partition Magic3)Restore lost data on hard disks Google and Download.com
4)Hard disk diagnostic tool PowerMax from Maxtormodern tools like
Links
and
Pine
Gotta Get at Me ascii pron.
--meh--
FtoF cuplers and short crossover cable
or a cripping tool and a bag of RJ45s
would not hurt to have a nullmodam cable also
About two years ago I created my own bootable CD that contained the Cab files for Windows 95, 98, 98SE and ME, along with scripts for unattended installs for each of them. This CD has saved me countless of hours. Can't really do the same for 2000 and XP, more's the pity. I also made a second CD that contained a full install of Internet Explorer 6 for all OS versions. It's amazing how many problems you can fix in Windows just be installing the latest version of IE. I also carry around of set of floppy disks with me:
Maxblast - Maxtor tool for copying hard drives, works with other brands too. I prefer this to Ghost.
Powermax, SeaDiag, HDDiag, WD Lifeguard - Various manufacturers HD diagnostic disks
Offline NT password and reg editor - Need I say more?
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
I work as a tech and everdya found i needed specific drivers and OS's
I did create a cd that had 85% most drivers if not compatible ones too. I also had 3 os's on it
95 98 and NT had a disassembler too
i always had a medium philips with flat head on other end. would carry a Large capacity HD this way i could back up and redo theirs. portable burner today is the best way to go now.most of everything i had fit nicely in a laptop bag
P*O*R*N
...and lots of it too!! Once they start seeing some of that action, who gives a crap what the problem is!!
pi=sigma{n:0-infinity}[(1/16)^n][(4/(8n+1))-(2/(8n +4))-(1/ (8n+5))-(1/(8n+6))]
How about something that also tests CPU, ports, vga, etc.. Just standard hardware, nothing esoteric...
Sort of like a 'open' QA+FE....
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The first thing I try to keep is a list of how to clear the BIOS settings for every computer I manage. You would be amazed at how dumb you feel if you have all these nifty CDROM/floppy based utilities and are unable to make the damn PC boot from anything other than the screwed up hard drive.
The second thing I keep is a NT password recovery disk. About 90% of my problems are based on not knowing the admin password for a machine that has been in some users closet for 3 years. The user suddenly needs the PC on his network, and there I am trying to figure out the admin password. The best disk I have found is here.
The third thing I keep is a Norton Utilities CDROM. You can boot off the CDROM and scan for a virus or diagnose a flaky hard drive.
I also keep a Gentoo live CD. I have thought about going over to Toms Boot Disk, but the Gentoo disk usually does what I need.
Although I don't carry it with me, I also keep a spare hard drive and a Win2k disk with all the latest patches and utilities that my company uses for the standard install. If worse comes to worse, I just move the users hard drive over to the secondary IDE and then install on a fresh hard drive. Then I can copy the users data onto the new hard drive. After that, the users old hard drive becomes my spare for the next user.
I also have a folder with a hard copy of every config for every switch, router, and other configurable device on my network. This folder also has IP address schemes, network maps, building diagrams, and user names and phone numbers. The folder also has a floppy with soft copies of the above, PuTTY, and a TFTP server for uploading into a router quickly.
I try to locate at least one geek for every office. I try to show this geek some of the details about his office. I let him have localadmin for the computers in his office. If the (l)users in his office need a printer reinstalled or otherwise need localadmin access, I direct them to their local geek. This also serves to deflect all the "my home PC is acting dumb and can you fix it" type users.
Finally, I try to write a "Why Stuff Breaks" document for all the major problems on my network. "User in office 12a keeps unplugging the switch so he can make coffee" type comments for common problems can help my minions diagnose a problem quickly.
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
When things get too hairy for your sissy Linux boot floppy to fix, ACR will rescue things for you. It's expensive, but it's worth every penny.
Why don't you tell us what they needed, and we could identify the software that would be best.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
you can do wonders with the right floppy and a null modem cable.
- Rolling papers
- Scissors/grinder
- Poker (I like using a bic pen cap)
- Cue-cards (for filters)
- Any laminated card (for sweeping up stuff)
- Plant substance (hint hint)
This kit has solved all the problems I have ever encountered, computer or otherwise.A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
If I told you then I'd have to kill you.
Usually you don't need to do anything too fancy.
Ask them what was the last thing they did with their computer. They will tell you a lot of useless details and embedded in there will be "Installed Software X" where Software X is usually a virus scanner.
Boot in safe mode (if using a windows machine), remove the offending program. Reboot, and accept the rightful praise and adoration that you are a computer genius.
- Drivers: Via, nVidia, and Intel chipsets; ATI Rage 128, ATI Radeon, and nVidia GPUs; Highpoint HPT37x and Promise Ultra IDE controllers; miscellaneous 3Com, AMD, Intel, Linksys, and NetGear NICs; Sound Blaster PCI, Sound Blaster Live, Santa Cruz, and Via integrated sound cards; DirectX; Palm Desktop; Nero UDF reader
- Applications: Mozilla, CDex, OpenOffice.org, Pixia*, SmartFTP
- Plugins and viewers: Adobe Acrobat Reader, Flash Player, Ghostscript and GSView, IrfanView, Java Runtime Environment, QuickTime, Winamp
- Emergency rescue stuff: Norton Disk Editor, Diskman, DOSLFN,
MBRWork, Norton Disk Doctor, RegEdit, CTMOUSE, FIPS, Ghost, NTFSDOS, Partition Manager, Partition Resizer, RawWrite plus a DOS boot disk image, Info-Zip UNZIP, Restoration
- Miscellanous utilities: Ad-Aware, UnxUtils, wget, PGP, Privoxy, Restoration, TweakUI, TweakUI XP, VDMSound, XVI32
Needless to say, this isn't something you want to put together in one sitting (I've been throwing stuff I find useful onto the CD for about 4 or 5 years). Most of it is freely-distributable (either free-as-in-beer or free-as-in-speech) but you might have to nix some of them (like the Symantec stuff) for licensing reasons.* I'd like to include The Gimp, but I often install the free/Free stuff from this CD onto computers I give to charity, where people might take offense to the name. I'll probably replace Pixia with CinePaint in the future.
when that software crunch time comes - nothing helps more than a six pack of Mountain Dew and a box of Krispy Kreme donuts.
And also a dos boot floppy with format, sys, fdisk, and a text editor.
Make sure to put in your copy of Tsu Dho Nimh, your favorite "techical writer" to explain to you in an insulting manner how much the rest of your software sucks.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer is the tool you mention that you couldn't remember the name of:
Mmmm.. Donuts
DOS 5.0, NetBSD (makes old "junk" useful again) partition magic, any Win9.x tools like SiSoft Sandra, Norton utilities and virus removal tools
#vancouver-free on undernet
Slashdot sucks, linux is 4 fags, asciipr0n 4 ever!
I will NEVER take Windows to any seriously remote travel!
a satellite modem and a floppy full of URLs.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
If you're going to be maintaining windows boxes go to www.sysinternals.com and download EVERY single tool they have. Their stuff is awesome and extremely helpful when dealing with windows boxes. Heck, the even have an NTFS file system driver you can use to get read access to an NTFS drive from a 9x/dos boot disk.
This space for rent.
Leisure Suit Larry
really and truly, I wouldnt take a lot of software out of the country. If you actually read the EULA on some of them, taking them outside of the US is a felony at least. Not that you'd get caught, but you never know who theyre going to call a terrorist nowdays.
Jeff
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
Jack
"Mike's Root Boot Disk" is definitely a must. It's a complete Linux distro that fits on a floppy. It includes all the basic drivers you need to get monitor output, keyboard support, NIC drivers, etc. And it even includes rudimentary text editors and commands. Stick this thing in the machine, mount the HD, and get to work. It's saved my ass more than a few times.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
MS DOS 2.1 and DEBUG.EXE
... and cheaper
Aren't you forgetting a lighter?
Or do you just plan to eat your little creation?
-a disk with cabs for win 95 abc win98 1 and se and ME (this was mentioned before) ;)
-a list of windows serialz (come on like you dont already do it)
-the latest maximum pc cd (for winzip etc)
-troubleshooter 7
-norton ghost (any version)
-dos 6.22 disks (there's only 3)
-disk detective
-custom dos boot disk
-tech toolkit (I know software was specified but this is a must)
-mandrake cds and install floppy
-plan 9 disk and install floppy
-solaris 2.x disks
-a rubber chicken and some goat cheese
-windows 2k disk
-nero and crack
-rolling papers, paper clips, etc etc
-2 kitchen sinks (just incase)
-a zippo lighter and some refill fluid
-a compass
-a large magnet for hdds of customers that don't pay
-win32 perl from activestate
-java 2 sdk (1.3 or better)
If you're working with computer people, you'll probably find a few of them need to take a shower. So take a towel. Better yet, take 2. Or 10. Or 42. Also bring a garden hose.
segmentation fault.
I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
Find a version of antivirus that lets you create a DOS bootable floppy set, and take that with whatever is the latest def files. You wouldn't believe how many machines I've stumbled across without antivirus (or with a 4 yr old deffile, which is less than useless) that contain some not-so-new viruses on them. This is assuming you might stumble across some Windows machines.
Now keeping them safe after you leave while still being legal is another story.
Plug! Plug!
Jumper settings for 15,000-18,000+ cards, motherboards, and peripherals. Most useful with older computers (mostly since newer ones don't use jumpers as much).
Withdrawal before climax is very ineffective and those who try this are usually called "parents."
Definately take GPart. I've used it in the past to fix corrupted partition tables. Combine this with Tomsrtbt (floppy disk linux).
I wouldn't bother carrying any kind of Windows rescue disks. You should be able to fix whatever problems you can with their original Windows install CDs, and if they don't have the originals, they shouldn't be running Windows in the first place. In a pinch, the Linux CDs let you mount and fix most problems with Windows volumes. And with the RedHat install CDs, you can fix the most serious problem: the fact that these people are running Windows in the first place :-)
Debian is usually my preferred installation, but to run it, you probably want to have an Internet connection, and if you had that, you wouldn't be carrying all this stuff. For people without Internet connections, RedHat is probably a somewhat better choice.
I made a bootable CD with several utilities, including ethereal (sniffer for both Windows and Linux). also I include an image making utility with several boot floppy images including ghost etc... Several different small server apps including thttpd for Linux and a small Windows ftpd. I have security tools like firewalls like ipf for solaris, etc... port scanners remote access tools like VNC. The old winnt telnet client. Unix tools ported to dos. Slackware boot and root images etc. People are always asking to borrow it. No need for boot floppies when CDs are bootable.
Titties!
I need those to suck on!
Used to just drag a whole pc in my trunk.. Plus cds for every application and OS my clients had.
If I found one I didn't have id copy it.. True not really legal, but it was purely for support ( I already owned what I USED.. ).
Also a networkable laptop with basic network tools on it.
Oh, and a spare hub and extra IDSN interface.. ( hey it was a while ago )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
You forgot about porn. Once linux is up and running you have to have something to look at.
Namely, this one. :)
The boot+root floppies from Slackware could be useful. Older versions may be available for older hardware. Adding an extra floppy or two of essential command-line apps might also be good.
The Gentoo boot CDs may be worth a look, but they suffer from the same problem as Knoppix -- may not be so good on older and/or slower hardware.
An assembler. So you can write any tool you need on the fly. And it fits into one floppy too, that is only if you haven't turn it into a starship enterprise.
"After a system crash Windows frequently doesn't even start up anymore, and this puts the restore program out of reach, too. Therefore, a bootable and virus-proof Windows installation on CD ROM should really be found in every well-stocked emergency kit." See http://www.heise.de/ct/english/99/11/206/ for instuctions.
Really, given the cost of getting to a remote island and staying out there for four months, the cost of of a backup laptop and a link to the outside world that will work from anywhere should be down in the noise.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
Use jv16 PowerTools. It is better and with more features! Console, analyzer, etc.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
The most important tool I've found is Off By One which is a 1.1 mb browser that can run right off the CD. Also it's free as in beer and does SSL. Very handy
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
Old decrepit systems or stuff cobbled together from parts may not even HAVE a cdrom, which would shoot down most of your repair utilites on the spot. Also, cheap CD-ROM drives die very frequently, especially in dirty environments. I would definatly bring a spare CD-ROM drive to swap into whatever systems you run into. If possible, i'd also bring a spare floppy drive, as floppy drives are notoriously unreliable and you never know when you're going to run into a system that does not suppot El-Torrito booting.
It might not be a bad idea to look around and try to download as much of the documentation on every piece of hardware you can find as well and stick it on a CD. That way when you hit the mystery board and the one jumper that fell off into the bottom of the case, you might stand a chance of figuring out where it goes. I'd also look around for those old DOS hardware configurator programs that old Ethernet card manufacturers (I'm looking at you NE2000 clones) loved before ISA plug and pray came around.
I read the internet for the articles.
Full kit is two bags, a laptop in one and a few tools in the other. The laptop has a working modem and network card. The tools are an old single speed CD, a box of software and a screwdriver kit with nut driver, torqx and all that kind of attatchments. The box of software has:
Debian has anything you could want or need. The DOS boot disk is for funny old devices that need to be configured, but DOS devices drivers might be impossible for you to get. The boot floppies are good if you can't boot off the CD. If the computer won't boot off Woody, put in Potato. I know that Red Hat will drive a printer but I have not figured out printing with Debian yet. The other stuff is sort of superflous.
With this kit, I can make just about anything work and do what people want it to do. A 33 MHz 486 can dial up with wvdial, browse with lynx, email with mutt and edit with emacs or vi. I'm told that emacs can do the browsing and mail checking too. Anything else hardware wise is gravey.
For your case a CD burner might be useful.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I would also add:
1. A copy of a decent AV. Norton/Mcafee basically suck with its new business model, I am sick and tired of cleaning up machines with expired AVs. The people from Grisoft make free nonexpiring AVs for noncomercial use.
2. Lavasoft Adaware is also a vital component. So much malware is responsible for irresponsive/crashy machines, I could set a business just selling copies of this and recovering machines.
3. The long list of SPs and QFs for Win98 and IE. Actually I am begining to ponder wether to start ditching IE and OE on the new machines I see in favor of Netscape.
My other OS is the MCP!
vi
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
Leatherman - Always carry one with you. Has damm near every tool you will ever need to fix a computer
Oh yeah... since when has there ever been a Leatherman that has a hammer on it?
Besides the common hardware tools, how about format and FDISK utilities. Maybe something like a Knoppix linux CD that you can boot off of.
List is an old DOS utility, but I still find it useful. Very compact file browser, viewer, including search capabilities and ascii/hex display and probably other things I've never discovered. It does do long filenames; type '1' during the file list.
As soon as people we met found out that I was a computer guy they asked me to help them and all to often ... I didn't have the tools.
Yes I myself have frequently encountered this problem. Walking around, minding my own business, when BAM, someone sees me with a laptop and a copy of some old programming tome. They inevitably ask for help and then my day is just gone right down the drain... if only I had the proper tools at hand to avoid these kinds of situations.
Some suggestions:
-If you must carry a pda, conceal it in something like a hollowed out paperback. Make sure the book is something on a 7th grade reading level. Never carry technical tomes, always use the concealed pda. If someone sees the pda, hold it up to your ear and pretend you are talking to someone on a cell phone.
-If you must carry a laptop, have something hotkeyed that brings up a blue screen of death on command. Start "diagnosing" their problem with your laptop all the while hitting the BSOD key every 15 seconds or so. Swear everytime it pops up. Keep "trying" pretending to be more and more embarassed until they say nevermind.
-In your car, keep a copy of the Idiot's guide to Windows 95. If anyone asks you anything about any kind of OS/Software, attempt to look up the answer in the Idiot's guide (assuming the problem is not with Windows 95). Have them adjust unrelated settings until they realize you are inept.
or just say no.
I'm amazed noone has mentioned softice yet. What kind of nerds are you? You can't _run_ Windows without softice, what with all those "Please enter your registration code" messages popping up all over the place! And don't get me started with those GPFs. Do you honestly expect me to believe that you run IE without having to patch it manually every ten or twenty minutes? And what do you do on a BSOD, just let it crash? Come on. It's like a dying patient on the operating table, you've GOT to try and revive it and keep it breathing, or else it might die and go to hell or something.
And you call yourself nerds. P'shaw.
Moo
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I keep a bunch of different versions of dos/win9x boot disks as images on a CD. That way I can use dd to put them onto floppies.
I don't trust floppies to store data on them for more than 10 minutes.
Reality is in the mind of the beholder - me 1996
If you're dealing with Macs, carry an iPod. If your machine has FireWire, you can keep a copy of the system folder on there and boot right from the XXGB drive, which also lets you store all your junk along with it.
For dealing with other kinds of computers, pack a lot of spare (blank) floppies along with your boot disk and possibly some USB flash drives with your kit on it.
On the software side, pack Partition Magic, an old copy of FWB's hard disk toolkit (for Macs), and memtest86. A floppy-based linux distro that can read ntfs (dunno if there are any) is probably a good idea to pack to recover Win files from a crashed HD. Oh, and bring cat5. Every time you deal with networking supplies and you need to test to see if the cable is bad, you won't have another nearby.
On some older computers with a dysfunctional floppy drive, the only way to get files onto the machine is to use Laplink (or a clone) with a cable and another computer; it is able to self-instally over the tty.
The Free Software Foundation membership card is a bootable linux CD in the shape of a card. It has many nice utilities and it's Linux!
I'm a SysAdmin at a University
- Ghost 7.5 Corp, Part. Mag. 8
- NovaStar Instant Recovery (Clones what Ghost Can't, like Linux boot sectors)
- Modded Win95b floppy from putergeek.com w/ Norton DiskEdit
- Jaguar, Win2kSp3, WinXPSP1a Vol, Redhat 8
- Office XP (Dept Site Lic)
- 3dsMax (Dept Site Lic, network authenticates)
- Knoppix
- CD of Forensic Recovery Tools, SpinRite 5, etc. (For when that drive's been formatted)
- Info for getting online
- iBook, with tcpdump, nessus, ettercap, KisMac, etc(When you gotta get a professor's machine online in some random building)
- Cisco Aironet 340, Linksys 10/100 PC Card
- RJ-45, gotta have the RJ-45
Partition magic is golden... and always bring your Windows CDs with you.
Whoa! Hold your fire, linux geeks.
Now, I'm not suggesting that anyone pirate windows (Horrors!), just that sometimes CDs walk off, and you can reinstall with their license by using the key code off the sticker on the box.
Also bring a good current virus scanner with you, (connectivity has its hazards), and tools. When I say tools I'm talking tiny screwdrivers, torx bits (security torx bits and regular), grounding strap, etc. The torx bits are a lifesaver; you never know what kind of screws they use to hold the boxen together, particularly govt. boxen. Spare 'puter parts are also critical when you need to repair stuff.
For instance, I was out in the middle of Saudi Arabia one time (about an hour from the nearest major city) and had a hard drive failure. Complete, total, utter failure. I didn't bring an extra drive... sooo... I had to wait weeks to get a new drive (you don't even want to know how difficult it is to RMA a drive from the middle of a 3rd world country).
Yes, I realize the article was about software... but if the hardware ain't runnin, you might as well use those CDs for coasters.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
In which case you can resort to fun violence.
A sledge and/or a garbage can are my weapons against legacy PC's.
Colossians 2:8
My survival kit for Windows/Dos. For computer ranging from IBM PC-XT under DOS to Pentium 4.
All kind of release of DOS from 2.11 and up. No need for the 3.0 4.0, 5.0 (the major releases) etc... always go for the 3.2, 4.1, 5.1 (the minor releases) and so on.
A good summary and a very good bible about DOS.
All the release of windows you can find. Remember than most 'upgrade' release cant be used for a a new installions (MS will give you an error).
Norton utilities, old and new release. You will need the old ones if you encounter hard disk with metrics other than IDE. (I never tried the new realease of Norton on those real old disk.. so I wont tell you to try it)
Partition Magic: Because I like that tool to manage disk partition.
All the other OS you need and their respective tool and DOCUMENTATION.
Supplemental toolkit
EVERYTHING FOR A BACKUP: floopy disk drive, tons of floopies and a backup software. A software that would allow a connection using a serial port and 9/25 adapters. The floppies and the drive is the worst case scenario.
AN EXTERNAL MODEM and it's communication sofware. if you have access to the internet you will need a browser (bring also a text browser if your machines are real slow). If you dont have access to the internet make sure your modem is also a FAX that can receive FILES. At worst you can phone(?) someone and ask him to FAX you THE FILE using a similar FAX/MODEM.
SOFTWARES: Bring your own set do not rely on the set they have and bring any additional hardware you may need to install those software.
BTW, when I say documentation I am speaking of books not CDs. You will problably need your documentaion in the middle of the installation.
at last but not the least... something to read while you wait after those 'workhorses'.
Have fun!
Leopold
One tiny piece of Neodymium, Iron, and Boron alloy. Presto! No more computer problems!
I usually take a CD case with the following: one cd containing all versions of Windows prior to Me (3.0, 3.1, 3.11, 95c, 98se) Win 95 upgrd, Win 98 upgrd, Win NT 4.0 wrkstn, NT 40 srvr, 2000 Pro, 2000 advn Srvr, Xp Home, Xp Pro, Mandrake Linux 8.2, Drivers Disk w/ most common drivers, Utilities disk w/ HDD info, as well Norton Utilities and a Boot disk for ALL OS's. Weight is less then 5 pounds and is all I need. Total number of cd's: 24+2 floppy cases w/ 10 3.5 floppies ea. containing partion magic, drive copy, hardware diagnostic utilities __________________________________________________
I don't do Windows
When the going gets tough, the tough get drunk
I have created a nice collection of floppy images created with dd in Linux. (Win3x,Win9x,NT,driver disks, etc) Now, when losers come around looking for such and such a floppy, I dump one for them. These would easily fit onto a cd, most likely with a tiny Linux distribution (I haven't tried any of the really small ones, but am sure they exist
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
If you're going to the South Pacific, you have NO idea what sort of hardware passes for "computers" and what sort of activity passes for "computing." If repairing these things is really at a premium to you, you're better off bringing prepaid UPS or FedEx labels to ship the stuff somewhere it can be worked on.
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
- Slackware boot/root disks
- CD containing
/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/games/qua ke3
For hard drive problems, you need to have fdisk, fsck, and hdparm. PCI problems you need scanpci and/or lspci. procfs also helps a lot in diagnosing any hardware problems. And you can use lilo to repair the MBR. And then of course, you have quake 3 to play when you finish.We have a standard computer repair box for student techs to use on a sick computer...
(note: my school is 100% MS to the point of sickness; so this is windows only, no mac or linux considerations here)
1. Most useful would likely be a win98 bootdisk (it works well for what we need it for)
2. GhostPE (for ghosting harddrives, or images) - quality product!
3. Partition Magic (2 boot disks) this isn't part of the tech class, but for a gui partitioner, with support for ext2 and ntfs along with fat, it is good stuff.
4.Microscope is a single bootable floppy that is fairly expensive, and is used for testing ports and hardware... pretty cool stuff.
5. Oh, and bring a screwdriver and harddrive jumpers! SCREWDRIVER AND JUMPERS!
One utility that I recommend all my clients and friends use is Startup Cop. This is a great tool to find out what spyware and other annoying crap loads at startup.
I just had this conversation at work today. I work at a network tech support centre for a university residence, and generally things are extremely disorganized. I plan to make a disc containing everything I'd need to fix nearly any problem.
This disc may differ from someone who does support in other places...the problems students have are fairly similar in nature (virii, malicious spyware, etc). My kit will contain:
CD:
- Bootable to linux or dos
- AVG free antivirus software (to leave behind after scanning)
- Virus removal tools for Klez and others that are available
- Adaware (to stop xupiter, gator, ienhance, etc)
- IE6, IE4, Mozilla, Netscape, and Opera
- Network diagnostics (traceroute, etc)
- Partitionmagic
- network drivers for every card I can get my hands on
- TCP/IP stuff for windows 95/98 (old OSes don't use network by default...only modem)
on a floppy:
- bootable to dos with cd support
- fdisk
- dos antivirus tool
- scandisk, etc.
I also carry copies of windows 2000 and the cab files for 95 and 98. Routinely, too, I take a spare three-port switch (they have a surprisingly high rate of failure) and a length of cat5.
-- Bandit450...If-Else-Do-*TWITCH*!
OS 9.2.2 CD
OS 10 Install
OS 10.1 Install
OS 10.2 Installs
TechTool Pro
DiskWarrior
2.5 inch Firewire case with at least a 20GB drive
1.8 inch Firewire case with 5 GBs
Apple Software Restore
Application CDs or Disk Images and a CD-RW
I carry around a slim version of tomsrtbt that does:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda
right after booting up. It comes in very handy.
That way you'll have something to do while you apply patches.
Here's what you need to fix PCs older one's especially I _was_ an expert PC mechanic until say two years ago. (Everything I know is "obsolete")
.cab files for win 9/98/98se
.cab files to the hard drive
1 Hemostats
2 Phillips head screwdriver
3 Flashlight
4 CD with
5 CD with full install files for as many versions of IE as you can fit.
6 A norton utilities CD maybe two of them.
7 The newest best command line antivirus file scanner you can come up with.
8 Your favorite linux distro.
9 DOS 6.22 and windows 3.11 disks
10 You could substitute dos 5.0/and win 3.1 and 6.22 and 3.11 and whatever other flavors
This does not assume you're going to engage in any piracy of said microsoft products, on numerous occasions I've discovered PCs that could be repaired by a simple re-install but the owner has lost one of the 14 floppies that he got win95 on or the win98se disk is ruined. Other times I've found machines with a license only, and no CD, or some OEM boot/restore disk that absolutely will not work. (Think Packard Bell) and you could save the day with a simple re-install and copy of the
But it has saved my ass a million times...
While I was at ITT Tech (didn't learn anything but this) one of the instructors showed me this:
here
Very very helpful compliment for linux and dos(win) recovery. It should be at least one of the tools in your bag.
- Life is what keeps you occupied while you are waiting to die
In my "tech kit" I've got:
/Library/Receipts folder with my up-to-date software update files
* A 20-GB iPod
- 10 GB of music (legal, I might add)
- All three MacOS 10.2 disk images
- The synchronized
- A MacOS 9.2.2 disk image
- An OS 9 bootable system folder with all stock cdevs/extensions, plus Toast's latest CD-R drivers. This'll probably change to an OS X folder in the next month or so.
- A copy of Norton Utilities
- A copy of Roxio Toast
- A copy of ResEdit
- Non-gimped PHP, Apache, GDLib, Freetype and mySQL packages (from Marc Liyanage, www.entropy.ch)
- Backups of my dialup fallback connection config files
- Various Free/Shareware files
* A leatherman
* A paper clip
* A smug look on my face when I say "Sorry, I'm a Mac guy"
No problem I can't fix in under an hour. Win troubleshooting, on the other hand, takes ridiculous amounts of time. You said you were on holiday -- right?
If you work in tech support for Windows users, you know how easy it appearantly is to forget all your passwords (christ). Or render your harddisk permanently unbootable. So..
This Windows NT password & registry editor bootdisk (linux based) is essential.
Knoppix rules. Boot it up. Recover files from ntfs partition, smbmount the users homedirectory. Voila.
Also, since evey time you need a Win98 bootdisk, you think will be the last time you'll ever need one.. bootdisk.com will come in handy.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
Lions and tigers and bears ... oh my!
:
Honestly though
Boot disks - make an emergency boot disk in Windows98. This thing makes a 2M RAMdrive, copies enough utils to jumpstart any computer, and CD drivers for every computer that can run 98 (which is pretty much all of them still running today.) I recommend this on a 3.5" floppy and also create a bootable CD using this as the boot image.
XTGold 2.0 or 2.5 - runs on DOS
ZTree 1.41 - in case they have a Windows environment 95 or higher running. Doesn't run in DOS but doesn't puke when the hard drive has more than 10,000 files on it.
McAfee Virus Scan, command line version.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
For broken workstations:
Norton's ghost bootable floppy with cdrom support plus 2 60 gig drives worth of standard images.
For servers:
Veritas back-up exec 9 plus latest backup tapes
For both:
Tom's root boot disk
Win NT/2k/XP password recovery disk
CD full of tools, VNC, Dameware, putty, pumpkin, regedit...
OS CD's
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
-Xenocrates
Here's what I'd put in a Mac version of the tools.
OS CDs
Any Mac with a CD-ROM should boot from CD...
System 7.5.3 + 7.5.5 update disk images on CD
(good for booting up 128k through many PPCs and free from Apple)
System 8.1 & 9.1 CDs
8.1 is the last for pre-PPC, 9.1 the last pre-G3
8.6 is solid, but possibly unneeded...maybe take.
System 9.2.2 and OSX 10.2 CDs
For my system or G3 and above
Arguably one could just have a CD or two with working system folders for each version...but I like to be able to install for the machine.
Utilities
Diskwarrior - Fix filesystem problems
Techtool Pro - Diagnose and fix problems
Stuffit installers
Apple disk tools floppy images on CD (in case no CD drive)
Mac general software (browsers, clients, etc)
A serial cable (can do Appletalk networking with one)
A firewire cable (target disk mode for newer models)
Pack o' floppies and a USB floppy drive (so I could use the antiquidated media)
Ethernet crossover cable
AUUI->Ethernet adapter
if there's room...
a SCSI external Apple CD-ROM
external SCSI HDD and/or SCSI ZIP
2.5" firewire HDD
a 1/2 AA battery
Mac->VGA and VGA->Mac adapters (you never know...)
that's all I can think of offhand....
Windows XP Professional.... Who needs anything else? ;-)
Here's a question - how do you set up this kind of "recovery" kit without running into licensing issues? If your kit consists entirely of open-source tools then fine, but from the submission as above don't you get the feeling most of the requests for help he gets are going to be e.g. Windows-based? In which case, won't carrying what is probably most useful for fixing these kinds of problems (particularly considering how so many Windows problems usually have one solution possible, which is "reinstall"), in other words copies of "a complete set" of Windows - Win95, 98, 98SE, ME, etc., involve possible violation of the EULA? Or does it mean that, if one wants to be a helpful-handyman-for-others, you'll want to give MS yet another big bundle of cash?
:-)
Logically speaking the people you're helping ought to have the necessary tools, discs, etc., but quite often you find they either don't have them anywhere ("uh, I need to keep those?") or they don't have them easily accessible. I've had a lot of experiences of being called in to help fix truly f@#$ed up Windows machines before and that's been generally the situation. This is additionally a bigger problem when you consider that some vendors nowadays no longer ship recovery CDs with their machines and instead keep the OS image on some hidden partition on their hard disk, which if it gets hosed then essentially there's nothing you can do.
Anyways, for NT problems what you've got to have is a copy of ERD Commander. Licensing for this is on a per-administrator-per-organisation basis (unless I misread the licence), i.e. for your company, if your'e the only one guy using it, no matter on how many machines it may become necessary, then you need one licence. If you've got a colleague with the same duties, then you need two. Hrm, if I consider All Men My Brothers and the Whole World as my organisation, does it mean I only need one copy to use with everybody's machines?
Two words,
Denise Richards
With that I could put with any computer problem that got sent my way!
Then I have a number of CDs sorted by type of application.
Sigs pose an operational security risk and help the baddies aggregate data. I guess commenting does too, oops.
Anyways, first, I'd be interested to know what OS's he encountered on these remote islands. My guess is that it would be some flavor of Win95 or 98 (or even, gasp Windows for Workgroups). Having a Linux boot disk isn't going to do much for you, unless you can't boot to the OS. And in that case, I'd try an MS-DOS disk and do a C:\>fdisk /mbr to rebuild the bootsector FIRST.
Second, what types of problems did these people report they were having? Were they strictly software based, or could hardware issues also have been a factor? If you're REALLY interested in doing tech-support in this type of situation, you need to carry more than just a bunch of boot disks. You'll need:
* RAM, in both the new 168-pin AND the older 72-pin flavors
* a spare Floppy Drive
* an ISA video card, and probably a PCI one too. (probably NOT an AGP)
* a spare hard drive, AND its Master slave settings, AND a few of those little jumper thingys
* several IDE and floppy drive connectors
* a tiny bottle of WD-40 type oil, for squeaky (or non-spinning) power supply of CPU fans.
* I'd say 'a bottle of compressed air' for blowing out dust, but I don't think you can take this on a plane nowadays
* a floppy-disk cleaning kit, with a bottle of cleaning solution (I have to admit, I rarely use these nowadays, but PCs on islands may benefit. YMMV, of course.
* a few blank floppies
* pad and paper, for writing down notes and configuration and jumper settings (BEFORE you change them)
* an ISA network card, preferably a 3COM 3C5x9 (or any older common network card, plus a bootable floppy with its drivers and the program that lets you configure the card
* a Cat-5 patch cable or two, plus a small 10mbps hub * tie-wraps, in a few different sizes. These things are second only to duct-tape in their usefulness and variety of applications.
I've supported Windows systems since the 'original' 3.1 version. More often than not, software based problems could be solved by either mucking with win.ini, system.ini, autoexec.bat and config.sys and/or other DOS and Windows files. Use scandisk to see if the harddrive is bad. Use FDISK to see what's up with the partitions.
Having a few flavors of MS-DOS boot disks can't hurt (www.bootdisk.com) I also agree with previous posters that having a linux boot disk with the NT password recovery utility would be great idea. And, of course, if these are WinNT or Win2k systems you can't go wrong with ANYTHING you find on www.sysinternals.com.
In general, if you're going to do this at all, and you can't just 'run home' and grab what you need, you really need to have anything and everything at your fingertips. The above list is what I carry with me when I get called to a client site to do support. I have all the cards in those static-proof bags, the cables are tie-wrapped to keep them organized, and I have a collection of print-outs of various stuff.
By the way, if you see any job openings for PC support next time you're down there, please forward them to me. Boston, Massachusetts (USA) is getting ANOTHER snowstorm tonight and I'm losing my mind.
I've never needed anything other than Diskwarrior on the road to fix up problems.
Unless you plan to install Mac OS X on others' machines, that's all you need. And in that case, you need to worry about whether or not they have a license to it. Easier just to not bring the CD so you have an easy excuse.
Unless this thread is all about piracy, heh.
Definatly a copy of FixKlez or something like that, seen too many systems infected with Klez.
My kit: Hardware USB2 external hard disk, 120GB External serial modem NICs - ISA, PCI, PCMCIA My handy $7 toolkit from Menards, that includes philips and torx bits small enough to work on laptops. Wrist Strap, if I'm being fussy 2.5" to 3.5" drive adaptor 2GB 2.5" drive, for really old and pathetic machines that don't do USB or large hard disks. Video cards - ISA w/ ET4000 chipset (widely supported), PCI with Matrox Millenium (ditto) USB2 CD burner. Spare RAM: 4x 4MB 30pin FPM, 2 32MB 72pin FPM, 64MB SDRAM, 256MB high density SDRAM, 128MB RDRAM + CRIMM, 256MB PC2100 DDR. Spare fan for SS7/S370, P2 Slot 1 HSF, 80mm case fan Lots of spare screws Software OS Install disks - DOS5, DOS6 on floppy, 95a/b, 98, 98SE, NTW, 2000 Pro, XP Home, XP Pro (someone with ME, I'd push them to 2000 or 98SE). Norton Ghost 2003 (native support for USB/USB2, CD-R/W, Firewire, NTFS) The SysInternals Administrators kit MS Office 97, 2000, XP OpenOffice AVG AntiVirus, or maybe fprot. My Bootable CD - 2.88MB bootable CD image including most of your better DOS programs, plus ghost and ghostwalk, with 98SE, 2000 and some extra drivers in the rest of the space Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro Partition Magic Nero 5.9.x Install discs for larger ISPs. I draw the line at actually installing AOL, but I do carry the disc around Driver-wise, I condense my needs down to a couple of CDs worth. Top of the list: Drivers for crappy PC Chips motherboards WinModem drivers from Lucent, Conexant, Intel/Ambient/Cirus, Motorola, PCTel Sound drivers for Creative (not always available through creativelabs web page), Analog Devices, Philips, RealTek, Via, Cirrus, ESS and Yamaha chips Generic motherboard drivers for Via, Intel, SiS, ALi, Nvidia boards Video drivers, particularly the full range of S3 Trio/Virge and Savage4 chipsets and ATI Rage* cards. Man those are a PITA. Also nvidia's detonators, recent-ish catalysts for ATI cards (+MMC and capture drivers), and a full set for Matrox Millenium - G450 cards. Also Intel video drivers. If you're really bored, try collecting a set of onboard video drivers from Compaq, HP, Gateway et al. Once you discover that the generic drivers rarely work for namebrand machines, you'll never buy one again. Promise and Highpoint RAID drivers Adaptec and LSI SCSI drivers RealTek, SMC, DEC, 3Com and Intel ethernet drivers Win98 boot floppy with CD-Rom support Win98 boot floppy with LAN Manager Support Win98 boot floppy with TCP/IP support Several different version of DirectX Several different versions of Netscape/Moz, IE (you need the Admin kit to get a redistributable IE6) and a copy of Lynx for DOS. NT SPs 3 and 4 2000 SP3 XP SP1 Oficce 2000 SP3 Office XP SP2 ... and as many patches from the Corporate Windows Update as your attention span allows.
Novell's Netware Clients
A Knoppix disc of some kind
ZoneAlarm
Spamihilator
That's more or less what I carry around every day. There's maybe 25 CDs worth of stuff, all told, and the amount of hardware is, well, it's not bad. There's maybe $350 - $400 in the bag, probably about 10lbs. of stuff.
I don't know how old the machines you're working on are, but if there are any Apple ][ systems there - Beagle Brothers used to have all sorts of great utilities. You won't find software at that link, but a museum to what they had.
And Disk Muncher is always key in case any of your scientist buddies show up with a game (say, Conan?) that's not yet in your library.
2) Warez
I've got a complete set of tools I use. One of the best uses I have for them, is installing a computer that does not have internet access. I'll highlight a few good ones.
.EXE file of a bootdisk. Make bootdisks of ALL major OS's. (http://www.winimage.com/download.htm)
:) Don't forget to download an install version of the latest Java JRE (http://java.sun.com/j2se/downloads.html)
p -serv.polito.it/winpcap/
y /)
:( (damn sypware)
t m), OllyDbg (free) (http://home.t-online.de/home/Ollydbg/), Ida Pro (http://www.datarescue.com/idabase/). You might want to take along a set of password crackers for the various populair programs too, in case a user forgot his password.
- Install CD's for WinXP, Win98 and Linux. These are always usefull, since a lot of them also boot from CD.
- DirectX9 and the WinXP SP1 (137MB, not the net installer)
- Extra DLL's like mfc42, vb6setup and cygwin1.dll
- SFX-Bootdisks. You can use WinImage to create a self-formatting
- DOS programs: the latest Symantec Ghost, Norton Commander 4.0, ZIP, RAR, ACE. Bzip2 and gzip for DOS or Win32 won't hurt either.
- WinACE supports a lot of compression formats natively. It's really good. If you work in a mixed Win/Mac enviroment, get a copy of StuffIt for Windows.
- Drivers.. Hard to choose for 'generic' use, but a recent set of ATI and NVIDIA reference drivers never hurt. Also don't forget 'Via 4-in-1' and generic NE2000 and PPPoE drivers. ASPI drivers for cd-rom drives or writers are good too.
- For graphics ACDsee is king. For editing a copy of Paintshop Pro is useful.
- Compile a complete set of internet tools. These are some that are very useful:
Mozilla, ofcourse. That way you have a mail client too
Agent (NNTP) http://www.forteinc.com/
PCMacLAN (Let Mac and PC share files and printers on the network)
Ethereal, really good free sniffer program
http://www.ethereal.com/
http://netgrou
ICQ, latest version (www.icq.com)
Mirc (IRC) (www.mirc.com)
Gonna use SSH or telnet? Putty! (free) (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putt
If you want to remotely contol a PC, check out Radmin. I like this a lot better then PCanywhere. (http://www.radmin.com/)
- Movies
Codecs are important, try using codec packs like Nimo or klcodec. Bring a copy of VirtualDub too. Don't forget Quicktime, PowerDVD and such. RealPlayer won't work well since it cannot install without contacting the internet
- Sound
Winamp, Lame, CoolEdit
- CD stuff
Nero CD writing software (www.ahead.de), Daemon-tools allows you to mount CD images right from the harddisk (www.daemon-tools.com)
- Harddisk
R-studio can recover both NTFS, FAT32 and EXT2 files, Ext2FS will let you mount an EXT2 drive under Windows.
- Misc
Norton anti-virus, Adobe Acrobat reader, UltraEdit. Microsofts free Word and Excel viewers.
- If you're going to code some small programs, you might want to bring a copy of CygWin (www.cygwin.com) or a Borland compiler (the old ones are free) useful to make a small tool to do some repetitive task for example.
- For the real hardcore debuggers: SoftIce (http://www.compuware.com/products/numega/index.h
good'ole pron i'd put in me kit!
Advil, tylenol, etc.
a null cable or 3 wire hangers
As a windows tech primarily, I carry around a bunch of CDs and a floppy or two as far as software goes:
:O
- CD with commonly used drivers in the environment (currently about 550MB)
- CD with commonly used software on enduser machines
- CD with utilites used by me, those contain lots of things such as unixutils from sf.net, resource kit support tools from NT and 2000, registry monitor from sysinternals.com
- Windows NT and 2000 CD, used mostly for the recovery console
- bootable floppy with cd-rom drivers, fdisk, format, edit
- bootable disc images w/ imaging software for about three classes of machines in case the above tools fail
More and more, however, I have been fixing software problems remotely without leaving the office. Obviously I still have to handle hardware problems, but most software problems I see are corrupted email profiles/mail caches, deleted desktop shortcuts, and hung processes.
And I don't mean Clippy
The paper clip is for opening the CD-ROM drive after you powered off the machine without removing your troubleshooting CD. I always keep one or two in the jewel case with my kits. Usually turns a potentially embarassing situation into a learning experience for the customer. They often don't know the drive can be opened with a paper clip.
If you were to cary fifty CD's (not too heavy!) that would be 50 x 700mb of data; a lot of files. I'd carry the major recorvey utils for most osses *osx, windows, linus, bsd, etc) as well as some reinstalls (if you have a site .licence) Also, carry some hgames for gods sake!
Don't forget the condoms! When that hot chick with a corrupt boot sector sees her OS booting for the first time in weeks, the only thing on her mind will be jumping your bones!
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
For me, a six pack of beer would do nicely. It may not fix the actual "problem" but it sure would improve relations between the help desk and the supported customers/users really.
We all know the bloke that called in a computer problem didnt' -really- want to work that day -- he just called the problem in because he'd look unfit if he didn't. So, puddle in there with your backpack, tell the guy you can fix it in 5 minutes if he wants, but if it's okay with him you'll sit there and kill a sixer with him. We geeks are all to often accused of being unsocial, so lets fix the problem -and- the computer glitch at the same time. Plop down, crack open a few cold ones, and the two of you can bitch about how much your job sucks. When there beer's gone, you crack open the -real- gear, fix the crap, and head on your way.
Guarantee you'll be the #1 requested support guy in a short time too.
I have my own computer service so these are the tools I haul around with me.
Win95, win98, win98se, and WinME CABs.
A hard disk copy utility such as copy commander.
A memory checking utility.
Boot floppies for all the above, and bootable cd's.
A partition utility such as Partition Magic.
IE 5.5 and 6.0 full install files.
Netscape full install files.
AOL CD. (yeah, but ya gotta give me what they want)
Latest RH and Mandrake cd's.
one cd with misc windows stuff (adaware, etc...)
one cd with misc Linus stuff (just in case)
There's more that can be added, but that pretty much covers what would basically be needed on any random call.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
TOM'S ROOT Boot!
All items except those in bold are optional.
It's amazing how much more complicated things have become, without a real gain in productivity -- and, in some cases, with major losses. I still haven't seen a modern IDE suite that could match the ease of use of Turbo C++, or a text editor with the elegance of the DOS MultiEdit. Sure, games have become more complicated, and multitasking is cool, but most of the time, good old Norton would get twice as much done in half the time...
>|<*:=
How about PuTTY, WinSCP2, TortoiseCVS
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
hey, I laughed. Come on.
...any tool becomes a hammer
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Mostly to clean those hardware components that are unlikely to have been cleaned properly already. It's fine to have a rescue disk, but if the drive destroys it because of grime on the heads, or can't read the CD because of dust on the lens, it's won't do you a bit of good.
Also a can of wd-40, or unpreasurized can of fine machine oil to clean heads of dot matrix printers you may encounter.
Couple of notes, you may be able to find local alternatives to some of these things even in remote areas. Gun cleaning kits often have a variation of brake free which can be used to clean print heads. Unless you are at a place that does not have a bar within a mile, you will probably be able to find some high proof alchohol. You can create makeshift q-tips with thin sticks and a piece of cotton out of a first aid or even a makeup kit.
You may also want to build a custom live-cd out of the debian project, as most of the current live-cd's in the wild are going to be using kernel 2.4, where you may want to use 2.2, or even 2.0 for backwards compatability with earlier processors.
Just some ideas.
-Rusty
You never know...
Maybe Debian, FreeDOS, gnu parted and maybe Q3 Arena
The only thing I need is a good hex editor. Or at least that's the way it was back in the Apple II days :-) Just a copy of Copy II+ had just about everything you needed for repair and rescue on the software side, it was the ultimate disk utility.
A c64 Emulator and a copy of Crazy Taxi is all I'll ever need.
Hey, Taxi!
The best toolkits are self-designed. Find yourself the tools to make a bootable CD with menu system, then dump install files for every Windows you can cram on there-- at the very least, 95, 98, and 98SE.
You want NTFS DOS Pro to clean up NTFS partitions from a plain DOS disk, Knoppix for working with systems you're really having problems with (and emergency internet access), a memory tester utility, diagnostics to test hardware, and Partition Magic never hurt...
Oh yeah, and a few tools to grab Windows install keys from the registry. Be sure you grab one that supports XP; you'll probably end up working on at least one install when you can't find the keycode.
On the hardware side, pick up an extra PS/2 keyboard and mouse to keep around for testing purposes. Also an old style DIN keyboard and serial mouse, if you can find any. You can't underestimate the value of having replacement hardware for two of the most common pieces of broken kit.
Well, that about covers the setup I've been carrying with me for my repair jobs.
Interestingly enough, I once saw a pirated XP setup disc called "8-in-1" at my local college; by extremely careful use of deliberate crosslinked sectors, they were able to get eight different installs of XP onto a single CD, plus a copy of Partition Magic, and NTFS DOS Pro-- plus the disc was still bootable (it had all of the original boot sectors from the original CDs) and had a nice menu for which section to boot.
I'm not advocating piracy here, but that's the kind of tools you want-- extremely compact and workable.
I maintain a large network, or at least 75 machines feels large, of computers spread across 12 locations. It is a point of sale network using a private WAN and an application hosted on linux servers. I must be able to repair a machine in one visit to be worth my money. I keep the following in a box in my trunk, and if I were you I would bubble wrap and ship two of each to your isolated destination.
:-))
60 gb hard drive
Cdrom
floppy drive
Socket/Slot 370 Motherboard (tyan board has both interfaces on one board)
Socket 370 cpu fan (coolermaster)
Case fan
DDR and SDRAM chips. I have a few PC100's and a few PC133's. The DDR is pc2100.
Power Supply -sparkle, full size 350w atx and smaller 175w
IDE and Floppy Cable
Power Supply Cable
50 pin scsi cable
68 pin scsi cable
68 pin lvd-se scsi cable
68 pin scsi terminator
Generic ati video card
Tekram scsi card
Several 10/100 nics
5-port switch
USB Switch
USB Cable
Print Server
Power strip
DC Adaptor with lots of tips in an altoids tin
Lots of tie straps (quick release)
Philips Head (not magnetized)
Straight Screwdriver
Small eyeglass screwdriver
Printer Cable
Several Cat-V Cables 6-ft to 50-ft
Several Phone Cables and line splitter
Extra DSL modem (our private wan is dsl-based)
DSL filters
Cdrom sound cable (fixes the "my cdrom only plays music through the headphone jack" problem
Power Cables intentionally redundant
Mouse/Keyboard extension cable
Mouse and Keyboard
AT-ps/2 adaptor for keyboards (I think it is AT)
PS/2 to usb adaptor
In my software pouch I have copies of:
Debian for PowerPC and i386
Redhat 8 (nearly outdated now,
Mandrake 9 for PowerPC and i386
Copies of win98, win2k, winxp, win95 (try to buy one of the recent issues that come with the Service Packs on cd. It is not current, but it is closer.)
Copy of Norton Antivirus (cd only, I need to add floppies)
Partition Magic (cd and floppy)
Partition Commander (I bought it without researching that it couldn't resize xp partitions)
Win98 boot floppy
A road-runner installation cd because I can install microsoft internet apps from it (sorry)
A cdr called stuff with securecrt, secureftp, wsftp, far, tridiavnc, mozilla, and openoffice
The most recent edition of Knoppix.(this is a sysutil dream unless the cdrom is bad or unbootable)
The name of the game is eliminating the variable, and if you have the diagnostic tools, working replacements, and enough time and patience you can track down the problem. It is a big box and I obviously have a business level budget, so to speak. I actually keep a ready to go machine that dual boots win98 and rhat8 in case I just want to swap it out and work on it at the house. All of this really would fit in a foot locker (not the spare machine unless a *small* case) that I am sure you can ship there with you next time. I hope others can suggest a comprehensive but generic enough book, I don't have one.
Success without humility is an indulgence in arrogance
But let me just tell you what I put in my kit. As others have pointed out, Knoppix is fantastic. Also on the list: PARTITION MAGIC. Talk about an indispensible tool. And finally, you should go to every hard disk manufacturer's website you can think of, and download their hard disk tools. Many manufacturers' drives really respond well only to the "appropriate" tool. They're usually small pieces of DOS software. Also highly recommended is a wide variety of antivirus software and a recent trojan remover, for obvious reasons.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
A copy of Win95 OEM 2
It will work on every old computer, supports TCP/IP, and runs on 486's. Footprint is small.
It lacks a decent browser; I recommend you make a bootable CD with it.
I would definantly have some sort of boot disk with networking support. (Novell, TCP, Microsoft, etc.) That can be a valueable tool in extracting files from a toasted machine. Norton Ghost is another useful tool.
Although I don't carry it with me, I also keep a spare hard drive and a Win2k disk with all the latest patches and utilities that my company uses for the standard install. If worse comes to worse, I just move the users hard drive over to the secondary IDE and then install on a fresh hard drive. Then I can copy the users data onto the new hard drive. After that, the users old hard drive becomes my spare for the next user.
Yours is a logical solution, but probably illegal for most people who would follow your advice. (Though you do mention doing it in your own office, rather in some of the more remote parts of the South Pacific like the original poster asked.)
Not that I'm slamming you, (I'm guessing that your company has one of those blanket licenses) I'm just a bit frustrated from explaining to people why the copy of Microsoft Office or PhotoShop that "the nice computer guy" installed on their desktop to "help them out" could get their company "shut down" in the event of a BSA audit.
Argh. Sometimes I think that software should be much harder to install.
I won't use software that I didn't pay for. Since I'm a cheap bastard, I tend to use Linux.
Cheers,
Jim
-- My Weblog.
8x dvd drive
2 nic cards
1 pci video card (5 dollar card for testing)
1 pci modem
rj45 crimper
rj45 ends
2 case fans
2 different types of heat sinks (nothing expensive)
any other old computer parts could help (old processors for fixing older computers)
different types of old ram if your like me you have tons laying around
1 dvd-r that includes windows OS's dos 6 all the way to windows xp (this disk is also bootable win98)
all windows patchs
1 dvd-r with all the rest of the utilities witch include
zipping programs
Browsers
burning software (nero with neros virtual drive)
drive imaging (drive image 2002)
Partition Magic Pro 7
drivers for the nic cards (in the toolbox)
drivers for the video card (in the toolbox)
drivers for the modem (in the toolbox)
ftp software
webpage design software
testing utilities (memory testing, fix it utilities)
ad busters (ad-ware, lsp fix)
virus scanners
other person programs will also fit on the dvd-r
a bootable win98 floppy disk incase the dvd doesnt boot on older systems
with everything here should be able to fix almost any problem or at least get to the bottom of it
seriously, bring an unused (to get the free time) aol disk, it may be your only ticket to the internet.
on 12 DVDs you get everything microsoft makes. Servers, dbs, OSes, dev tools, and documentation / code samples
o /l evels.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/prodinf
- tomsrtbt, or similiar, perhaps knoppix cd
- win98 boot disk, with zip drivers
- xtree, dos commander, and ztree
- windows cd's
- screwdriver, flathead and philips head
- needlenose pliers
- extra stuff like hard drive shunts, hardware screws
-- "Perceptions create reality. By changing your perceptions you change your reality."
PartImage
PartBoot
FreeDOS boot CD
It all depends what you are trying to survive.
:D
Personally, I have the O'Reilly Perl CDROM Books on the same disk as a download of CPAN called Mini CPAN.
I also have all the code I have ever worked on on several CDROM's as well as sets of source code of open source programs like web servers and the like, in case I need to see how something works. I write articles on the web too and have a copy of all that on CDROM too, because I explained to myself how things work really well.
All this is just a few CD-ROM's.
For pleasure, grab a download of the Guttenberg project, Magazine Collections on CDROM, and a lot of internet porn.
The Guttenberg project will be a few CD's, each magazine collection on one or two CD's, and if you are like me, the remaining 100's of CD's will be porn.
I would take the 5MB RIP-52 CD from Kent Robotti, which includes the free Partition Image (partimage) which handles Windows XP NTFS, and has cdrecord/mkisofs. RIP (Recovery is Possible) is available from http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplin ux/rip/index.html
My modified RIP52 CD dual boots into Linux/
Freedos 8 (fat32 support), and includes a ton of
Windows utilities, and 3 snowboard games, all free
(currently 440MB and is growing).
You're taking the wrong approach - you should bring your favorite Linux installation, and tell them you can't fix Windows, but you have another OS... :)
Survival Gear for Macheads:
.TXT.
System Software:
MacOS X Jaguar install disks
MacOS 9.2 install disk.
MacOS 8.1 install disk (for Oooold hardware)
System 7.1 boot floppy (for really, really old hardware.)
Software Utilities:
Alsoft DiskWarrior
Norton Utilities for Mac
Norton Antivirus
Retrospect
Hardware:
Apple-branded Firewire emergency backup and restore device (Or as we like to call it when not adding it to our equipment req: the iPod.) Go for the big one, you'll be glad you had it when you need to rescue your data from a flaky powerbook. Use Retrospect to make sure you get everything backed up proper.
Firewire to SCSI adapter (for getting data to and from older Macs.)
If you're going to dealing with real old Macs: AAUI dongle, phone-net adapters, Mini DIN 8 to DB24 and DB9 serial cables.
Unix Survival Kit:
Hardware:
Powerbook or iBook, with aforementioned Firewire SCSI adapter, USB serial adapter and a nice terminal emu program.
SCSI external HDD
Bunch 'o SCSI adapters/cables/testers
A SCSI CDROM... if you deal with Sun equipment, make sure it's able to boot a SPARC box.
Software:
Install CDs for your Unix flavors of choice.
CDs with the most current OS patch levels on it, one per OS.
Another CD with your customized dot files, shell scripts and all the useful stuff you really wished came with your vendor's Unix, but didn't (GNU).
NetBSD install CDs "for when all else fails." Comes in handy when you need to repurpose an old Motorola VME system previously installed with telco switching software to interface with lab monitoring hardware with shell scripts, a serial port and a prayer.
Documentation:
Unix System Administrator's Handbook on CD.
A copy of the "Fixing Solaris" howto in
Linux Kit:
Mac Powerbook or iBook, haughty sneer.
Software:
Slackware to inspire feeling of inadequacy in self proclaimed Linux gurus. Gentoo Level 3 on a USB keychain drive... especially usefull if you're stuck with a 2400 baud modem in a jungle where the pbone only works for three hours alternating tuesdays. (Ah, sarcasm!)
Copy of NetBSD or OpenBSD install disks to get real work done.
Windows Survival Kit:
Hardware:
Powerbook or iBook
Software:
Condescending sneer.
SoupIsGood Food
I'd suggest most people reading Slashdot put a bar of soap in their survival kit.
A jar of Peanut Butter,and some bread.
if you are taking redhat 9 ... remember the apache, samba, and sendmail in it have serious vulnerabilities .. patch first.
.. you probably will) then take a bunch of utils from http://www.sysinternals.com ... especially their nt/2000 filesystem utils.
also, take a copy of gentoo linux with a util to md5 files/drives. Freedos may be useful/come in handy. If you are going to be dealing with microsoft stuff (even if you donbt think u will
Also, make sure you have plenty of drivers.
later,
Johan
he could hit anything, say "heeeey...." and it would magically work again
aka PLAC: http://sourceforge.net/projects/plac/
"True programmers are artists and someday we'll respect programming as self expression and personal effort." - fateswarm
Plenty of gasoline, dish washing soap and styrofoam. Stir until mixed. Stuff each and every box(of which I presume all run Wintendo) with this substance of joy. Fetch your Zippo(TM)(R) and let her rip!
Thor, how I love the smell of napalm in the morning!
PS. You better bring some socks as well; it's a fine remedy for nagging mouth's...
"The only clear view is from atop the mountain of our dead selves." - Peter Carroll
Needless to say, I actually carried a little box of floppies with these exact contents, for the longest time. I still have it tucked away somewhere.
>|<*:=
Im going to have to agree, it seems to have EVERY app i have needed, and as worked on every x86 system i have tried spanning pentium 200 to p4.
This is more usefull than the handy w/95 boot disk.
Im glad
check out http://www.nu2.nu/corpmodboot/
quite a bit of work is involved with this but its worth it.
Lately I've been partial to 'leka'. It's a single
disk linux OS with a bunch of useful tools
that are useful with linux and windows. It also
supports adding modules. One of the most common
uses I have for it is to run memory tests on just
built hardware. Once I'm building a machine
and I get the ram in it, I boot up leka, then mount
a second floppy and install my memtest module from
there. I picked the module up from the leka
homepage: www.leka.net.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
A HD, with BSD, DOS 6.0 and various windows OSes on it, with partition magic and as many utils as you can fit, as well as a dozen floppies. If it is passable computer, you can hook this up as the main drive, select the appropriate OS and you are good to go. If it is older, put it in as the main drive, use the floppies to create boot discs and the utils you need for the appropriate OS and you are good to go again.
^_^
My Windows dev toolbox wouldn't be complete without:
1. Spy++
2. DEPENDS.EXE
3. ATL.DLL, MSVCRT.DLL, and other frequently out of date DLL's
There is a freedos that boots off cd, basically I'd add all the dos utilitys I could find to that, that I used to use
..Useful drivers (univbe for dos is now free!) for cdroms/soundcards etc
(dialers, ppp, unixy things like wget etc, editors... *everything* that could be packed on) and have a few boot options (different ramdisks etc).
For newer comps knoppix, but often dos is better w old ones...
+ A few bits on floppys
hardware diagnostics.... etc etc
visual studio.net!
I know I'm jumping into the fray a wee late on this but I noticed that no one has mentioned this tool yet (or I missed it). I have a folder on my USB flashdrive full of floppy images for everything from boot disks to utilities to BIOS updates. Very handy. I only have to carry one or two floppies in the event of an incident. I also carry this on CD for those pesky non-USB-loving machines out there...
Check out the details here...
1). tomsrtbt Linux on a floppy - essential!
2). Windows 98SE boot floppy
3). Knoppix 3.2 bottable Linux on a CD.
4). Memtest86 bootable CD for testing RAM - excellent!
5). DOS freeware F-Prot and recent virus definitions
6). Norton's DOS utilities
7). Various HD setup utilities (eg: Western Digital, Seagate boot floppies)
8). Freesco Linux router/webserver on a floppy
9). Sample linux config files (eg: XFConfig-4, fstab, etc)
10). Frozen-Bubble bootable CD for times of stress
Can't put anything in your survival kit without putting in TORGO which is a subsystem of THE MASTER.
so here - LosManos - is what I would put in your survival kit!
You have Listed about every single utility I use for my rescue disks right now. Except that I have a copy of winipcfg and msconfig for windows 2000 and XP, which comes in handy.
The problem as I see it is that I have no personality of my own.
If your kit has floppies in it (it usually will) BRING MORE THAN ONE COPY ! (or bring a cd with a copy on it). Floppies always break when there is no easy way to get a replacement.
beauty is only a light switch away
My Zaurus in case i need to jot down notes, my PC laptop running Linux for making/formatting boot disks, some blank floppies, a tool kit containing blank CD's, a 2D-cell maglite, a pc repair kit, and a whole slew of standoffs, screws and jumpers, and a precision tool kit (16 screwdrivers and 4 pairs of pliers). I also carry a CD wallet containing Nero burning Rom, Norton utils/antivirus, my own Utils CD (contains just about every win98 tweak or repair program ever, from fdisk to memmaker, Sandra, even the images for the win3.11 for workgroups install floppies and the Linux Bootable Business Card!) Full install media for Dos 6.22, Win95, 98, NT4, XP Pro Corporate, 2k Pro, Server, ADV server, and of course the upgrade CD for ME, full installs of Mandrake, Slack, Redhat, Debian, FreeBSD, OS/2, and BeOS, a Knoppix boot cd, and for you fellow Mac fans, Full installs for OS X 10.2, OS 9.2.2, and a whole cd full of mac tech manuals! I also carry an anti-static wrist strap and all the win32 utils you could want (winzip, winamp, etc etc etc. I have the OEM #'s for all the windows versions, plus i carry around all my games and such since they all fit neatly in my cd carrier (208 disc carrier.) I also carry around my iBook for it's cd-burner feature and ability to connect to the internet in almost any way you could ever want. I also carry a supply of 5 fresh bandaids in case i cut myself on some jagged case metal or an old expansion card turned sawblade.
;)
But then, that's not what i carry when i know i'll be fixing a pc
You like your new Mac more than you like me, don't you, Dave? Dave? I asked...She said Yes.
For working with OS X machines, you really only need to OS X CD (for resetting passwords quickly) and Drive 10 from Micromat for repairing disk problems. If the machine you're using supports Firewire target disk mode, you can restart it and mount its internal hard disk on your iBook.
/Volumes/SomeFirewiredrive/ /Volumes/SomeFirewiredrive/System/Library/CoreServ ices"
Aside from that, your iBook with developer tools should have all the functionality you need for fixing a Unix. You might want to grab MacOSX::File from CPAN which makes it much easier to work with resource forks and whatnot. psync (part of that package) is a pretty good utility for quick backups, just:
sudo psync -d /
sudo bless -folder
will do a bootable backup of your disk onto an external Firewire drive. There are other options for bless to make bootable backups of OS 9, too, and it is supposed to work over network mounts.
Working with older MacOSes is a bit more challenging. You'll want system CDs for 6.whatever 7.6.1, 8.1 (the latest OS 68K machines can run) and 9.2.2. MicroMat's TechTools is pretty comprehensive, but I've used FWB's tools and HardDisk Speed Tools, and of course Norton Disk Doctor.
A survival kit? For 4 months in the Pacific? Forget bootdisks, bring these:
- 1 box of condoms
- 1 case of Jack Daniels
- 1 Hawaiian shirt
- 1 Gig of porn, in case all else fails
5 Grams of meth, an ounce of skunk bud and a dozen hits of acid.
And a gun!
Yaegermeister and knoppix.
42
Knoppix is a good idea, but you should custom burn it to have as many different winmodem drivers as you can find, especially if you're using it to repair or diagnose windows installations.
...porn, one 100 MB file can fit between those utilities, right?
this is my list of most everything I'd carry: http://www.thegoldenear.connectfree.co.uk/gg/toolb ox/win32/the-software.htm
The ideal solution is to fdisk it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
I've got a few windows systems back with tomsrtbt disk too.
I always have a pair of leather gloves with me. It makes it soooo much easier to pull unwilling power connectors apart.
at least I think it was that. A few years ago, I wanted to write a program that wrote a disk image to a floppy disk in DOS. However, when I copied some code from the C library documentation, I forgot to change the device code from the hard disk to the floppy disk! Consequently, the FAT seemed to be FUBAR. Fortunately, I found Disk Doctor on the other hard disk, and it was able to repair most of the damage. I only lost a couple of Windows files, but since I almost never used Windows anyway, that wasn't such a big loss.
That's all you and your all beloved users need :)
SCNR, Alex.
You look like a million dollars. All green and wrinkled.
This little program allows you to boot just about anything. http://btmgr.gnuchina.org/
Jynx
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it well worth the effort.
"Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find:
one forty-five caliber automatic;
two boxes of ammunition;
four days' concentrated emergency rations;
one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills;
one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible;
one hundred dollars in rubles;
one hundred dollars in gold;
nine packs of chewing gum;
one issue of prophylactics;
three lipsticks;
three pair of nylon stockings.
Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."
Just from reading all these replies, hardly anyone has suggested that the computers might not be 32-bit x86.
How silly are you going to look turning up with Partition Magic and a W98 boot floppy, only to be met by a row of Sun Microsystems kit? All that we're told is that they're old. The world has old Sun's, old Vaxen, old Alpha's, etc.
To be honest, it's a bit too much of an open-ended question. To prepare for any and every eventuality is hard given the diversity of kit available.
If you're really hardcore you can probably get by with a good leatherman tool and a Nnoppix CD, however...... for software Knoppix is great or GNUWin as it contains an OS, a number of apps and a lot of tools/utilities that can be used for diagnostics and fixing. I highly reccoment Knoppix, as all you need is a bootable CD drive and RAM to run it. Plus it's Linux based ($0.25 for a CDR) and even has some games. On the hardware side, i always have a pair of needlenose pliers, a screwdriver with multiple bits for different sized screws, a can of air (I once saved a computer that wouldn't start solely becuase of the amount of dust buildup) and i like to have my own NIC and drivers should a network conection prove available. The vid card drivers would be good but you would have to know specifics and its far easier just to work with minimal graphics for repair/maintainence. That's the bare minimum. If you have the space, i would also tack on bootable floppies (win98 boot disk is decent enough);2-3 blank floppies for random file movement (you never know what you may have to back up from a machine); a 56K modem + working drivers in case a network connection should be unavailable; I also reccoment some high-explosives or a big hammer, because some machines just can't be saved and after hoursr of frustrating trying, sometimes it's better to put them down in a fitting manner.
In the Compuserve branded small plastic case you get a knife (obviously for trimming over sized VESA boards) philips head and flat head screw driver and of course a hammer, thats right a hammer, that i have found remarkable useful on a number of occasions.
"Error reading drive A", ah hammer time
"GPF in kernel31", ah hammer time
"ID10T error", HAMMER TIME baby!
ERR 411[Max number of witty sigs reached]
you need a blessed rustproof +7 mjollnir and a shield of reflection. An amulet of livesaving could also help a bit. What's a must is a blessed scroll of genocide :-)
Johoho
ThinkGeek has the perfect solution for this. Just get this T-shirt [ThinkGeek.com] and your vacation will go smoothly. :-)
:-)
Oh, I remember the good ol' days when all I needed was a boot disk with PC-Tools and Norton utilities/Disc doctor.
This message has been ROT-13 encrypted twice for higher security.
use explorer.exe and click on the show hidden files option.
I always use BootIt NG to create/resize/modify partitions. It contains nearly as many tools as Partition Magic, works with virtually any partition type, and has a decent interface. You can create a bootable CD or floppy and not have to worry about which OS is installed (unlike PM).
How about a convienent copy of a service contract containing hourly rates and liability clauses for them to sign before performing any work. Wouldn't won't to get into any trouble for doing FREE work now would we?
Someone hates these cans.
I carry a Swiss army Knife like thisc fm?pro duct_id=1589&category=39t =R
,poorly labeled driver collection
,
http://www.swissarmy.com/webstore/moreinfo.
A Mini-Mag http://www.maglite.com/product.asp?psc=1AAACELL&p
Im a computer tech by trade, I have put together a 4 cd set used by myself and my co-workers, Its very MS oriented, but thats what we do.
4. Drives, just an ugly, large
3. Service Packs. Some 98 patches, NT SP6 , Win2k SP3 , SBS SP1 , XP SP1 , space filled with Office service packs.
2. Zips of alot of major windows versions, for when you just need that one file.. Has Win 3.11 , win95, win98, win98se, win2k
1. Super CD, this is the one that took all the work, Bootable cd with boot menu, scsi support, cd rom support, unattended install scripts, network support in dos ( never, ever works), no way I can list everything but here is a bunch of it...
dozens of boot disk and floopy images, including all dos and windows versions, some mini linux distros, some nt password recovery disks.
Software included Partion magic for dos, spinrite 5, Ezdisk, Burn in and diag tools, NTFS mounting,
and password recovery tools and directions, serials2k for dos, linux command line utilitys for win32, and a slew of Win32 programs, powerarchiver, serials2k, winroute, adaware, mcafee,dependency walker, directory snoop undeleter, the cleaner, VNC
web page detailing ram chip ID codes, dos web browser, index.html files in each directory , APSI version checking and version updates, dimmid , latest DirectX , some resource kit utilities from various versions of windows, putty , real player, rapid backup , startup.cpl, speedfan , tweakui , zomealarms, dos zip drivers, winzip, netscape, opera, ICQ, YIM, PC relocator.
Whew, now utils I may repeat some,
f-prot for dos ! latest version
Aefdisk, 50.com , arj.exe, bat2exe.com , BackgroundInfo, Bcopy, Binhex.exe, chkmem, d, deltree, dumpusers, dir2html.exe , rawrite, winimage, XMSDsk (Dos ram drive) , mouse.exe, loadlin, undelete, tridos, touch, timewarp, tweakOL.exe , univbe, univesa, WBAT !!!, pkzip, pkunzip, pkzipfix, zip2exe, reboot.com, pv , qemm , grep, grep32, cat, chmod, cp, cmp, cut, date, dd, du, gunzip, gzip, head, ls, kill, mv, nice, pr, , rm, strings, tail, uptime, wc,which
I see I missed listing the traffic monitor, port scanners, and a dozen other things, Currently this last CD has about 100 megs free, Ill probley fill it reading this thread, anyway, between my 4 cd's the swiss army knife and a box of cables, I can pretty much fix anything I run across.
SuperUTL is a damn useful CD. It features: bootable DOS with NTFS support, boot to partition magic, drive image, ERD commander (reset a lost password), Ghost, Norton SystemWorks, SpinRite, tomsrtbt, ...
On the CD, you can also find the Winternals Administrator's pack, recoverNT/98, tweakUI, 4dos, and MANY other small useful apps.
The author of that disc, Michael K.H. Au-Yeung has plenty of details on his site about the way to create such many-boot CDs. Definitely worth a look.
Note that the CD image is not available on his website, only the way to build it from YOUR version of the applications. Of course, I'm sure it's crawling around the P2P networks. And no, I don't have it.
Of course, Knoppix is your other best friend as it'll bring you your beloved Linux system in no time.
I'm rather surprised no one mentioned a USB hard drive enclosure along with a laptop (but maybe some one did, I didn't read all the replies because I'd rather do more than that today). It seems to me that one could be insanely useful if your system isn't booting at all for whatever reason.
What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
The ability to utilize software is greatly increased by the ability to take a backup- and chances are, you'll also be stuck dealing with flaky hardware.
My suggestion for the most flexible solution would be a desktop-style 640MB 3.5" Magneto-Optical drive in your favorite IDEUSB / IDEFirewire box. Why?
-MO media is fairly indestructible, important for a traveler.
-By using a 'desktop' drive, you can easily pull the unit out of the box and cable it into an old 486 with no USB ports or CD-ROM, allowing you to 1. make backups (bring enough media!) and 2. install software (though you'll have to experiment with this ahead of time, as your MO will be acting like a HD, not a CD-ROM).
In lieu of this, a few cheap 2.5" ("laptop") IDE drives and associated cables (2.5" 3.5" header adapters, power converters) would probably take up the same room in your pack, but be slightly more fragile.
With these tools, I can usually get the machine up and running; MicroEMACS lets me edit autoexec.bat and associated scripts. Should I need to write and compile a simple program, the compiler is invaluable.
I've found these tools to be useful on machines up through Win-95. They don't help much with machines of more recent vintage.
[this
Oddly, the most useful utility I ever found for the Windoze/MS-DrOSs world would have to be Borland's Turbo Pascal 3, which I believe you can download from the Borland website nowadays because it's so old. It's a gem - it can do everything you need a programming language for, at least in the DOS environment, and it produces fast, small executables in no time. Even tho it's ancient, it still has its uses simply because the editor, compiler and runtime environment all fit on a bootable 360K floppy. Find me a version of C# that does THAT!
I have discovered a truly remarkable
a tar.gz of a wget I took of the internet last week.
42 + 1 = 42
If you really need to get a file on or off of a PC with no removeable storage, eg broken CD and floppy, then something like FastLynx can be a godsend. If your just using DOS and or Window 9X then the the old DOS interserver is also a way to go, it will even transfer itself over the serial cable (I seem to recall Laplink used to do this as well). FastLynx has the advantage that it can transfer files between XP and say DOS or Linux, over Serial, Parallel, or USB. I haven't used Laplink for years, it may be as capable now.
Oh, and remember a double headed serial cable and appropriate parallel file transfer cable (4 UKP each last time I bought one, cheaper and easier than rolling your own!)
Actually it is rocket science...
PUTTY!!!! you can't go wrong there.
is an internet connection - if you hav some floppys, cd-rs, network-cables, a cd-burner, a floppy drive, wireless-lan, ethernet and a modem in your notbook that is everything you need.
:)
some dos/linux/rescue disks and os cds would be good, but you'll never be able to have all tools for everybodys needs, so you need an internet connection to search for them (e.g. on groups.google.com, the best source for tech info on the net imho)
It sounds like what you're going to be taking with you is a CD holder that holds about a dozen CDs, and maybe a few floppy disks. A little bit of hardware won't hurt either, but I'll try to keep it to fitting in a medium sized pocket.
You're going to want:
Windows 95c
This is a good version of Windows 95.
Windows 98se
This is the OS that most people in small business are still using. It's the best of the Windows 9x series. You'll find that it could come in right handy.
Windows NT
You never know when you'll come across it.
Windows 2000
A lot of people are using this product. It's not bad, and the repair utility can be nice.
NOT Windows XP
No real reason to carry this around. Most people who have their XP machines should still have their restore disks.
Office 97 Pro
Most small business are still using this
Office 2000 Pro
This is a better product that Office 97 Pro. Sometimes comes in handy when you just cannot fix Office 97 Pro
Norton Ghost
When a small business buys PCs, they tend to buy two or three at once. This means that you can just drop a copy of a good build onto a bad build. It saves a lot of time.
Norton Antivirus
It's a good thing to have. You can use it as a bootable CDROM to search for viruses on a PC.
Partition Magic
It's also a good thing to have. It can save you work when someone has set up a PC foolishly.
Your own utilities disk
You're going to want to get a CDR and put the following on it: WinZip, Novell Client, Adobe Reader, Various Microsoft Office Readers, Possibly AOL, Sun's Java, Microsoft's VM, WinAmp, Possibly RealPlayer, Quicktime. Recent versions of MDAC. You get the idea.
You're also going to want four or five 3.5" floppies.
Windows 98 bootable disk.
This comes in very handy.
Dos 6.22 Utilities Bootable Disk
Not quite as handy as the 98 disk, as it doesn't handle FAT32
Two Blank Diskettes
For Ghost to use during TCP/IP operations
As for hardware, we'll make it easy. You'll want 2 older Intel Pro/100 NICs. These things are beautiful.
You'll also want a cross over CAT-5 cable to make ghosting easier.
A good leatherman wouldn't hurt either, but a small toolkit would be best. Those leathermens just aren't very good screwdrivers.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
I have been using Checkit for years - and when you buy it now, it includes loopback connectors for testing serial/parallel ports, and a a boot disk with the text mode version of the utils, so you can run tests without an OS obfuscating the util's view of the hardware!
I wouldn't go to the south pacific without it. www.smithmicro.com.
If you're going to take the time and trouble to install a Linux distro, get the ONLY linux that is robust enough to handle even the oldest hardware...Ninnle Linux!
ISOs available now at www.linuxiso.com
Claudia Black (From FarScape), then their problems wouldn't be important anymore... :) Selfish? NEVER!!
Actually that's a good question.
What is good reference material to carry as part of one's survival kit? The manuals for every motherboard ever made? The ASCII table? A copy of the FCC ID database for oddball devices? A ports table, male and female? The jargon file?
I've found Ontrack's Easy Recovery to be one of the most useful hd recovery tools out there.
I would take a set of breakin tools for nt (sysinternals comes to mind) in case you have to legaly hack into a NT box that some one has forgoten the password to.
A pen, An a4 pad and your fingers. Non of them require windows or lunix. They do not require booting up and they do not crash
Sir, we need you to step into this quarantine chamber. We believe you may be carrying SARS. ;P
Ah am not a crook! (\(-__-)/)
"Linux Bootable Business Card" www.lnx-bbc.org is a nice collection of tools. Network drivers, openssh, a browser, et al. Kicks ass with ye olde win98 bootdisk :)
Ok, no frills emergency combat boot disk containing:
Fdisk
Partition Magic
Norton Ghost.
Seeing how finicky my XP layer has been with graphics drivers and video codecs as of late, this combination has been a nessesity and i can't tell you how often Ghost has saved my toasty round buttox with the ability to overlay my OS partition with a base working copy of Winows (stored in the D: partition or on CD).
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Dameware
Filesync
BGInfo
BSOD Screensaver (MUHAHAHA!)
Treesize Pro
NT 4/2000 Resource Kit
PrimalScript
Terminal Server Client
NT 4 SP6
Win2K SP 2
IE 5.5 SP2
Windows 95 Boot Disk with CD Driver
3COM Etherlink NIC Driver
Intel Ethernet Driver
NTFS DOS Pro
What are the applications which these computers are being used for? If they are used for mission critical systems I'm very supprised that they arn't redundant and that backup systems arn't in place. If they are general use computers, why not just carry a distribution of GNU/Linux. Generally, GNU/Linux distribution such as Redhat and Mandrake are very good at handling old hardware, but not always so good at handing new hardware and since you said they were old systems. ...
Seriously for general use computers I'ld consider GNU/Linux as a better restore tool than Windows 3.x/95/98/ME. Frequently, special drivers are required for hardware, and if the people you are helping don't have the windows disks, what are the odds they have the driver disks. If you are in the middle of nowhere you probably don't have internet access (probably). Most distributions of GNU/Linux are now pretty big and come with drivers for just about all common hardware from a year ago.
Galium Arsenide is the material of the future, and always will be.
HFNetChkLt from Shavlik will identify more vunerabilities, and its engine is updated more often than M$' MBSA.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
And you have it all, with a free license. Furthermore you have the sources if you are in need of modifying something.
There's also HfNetChk 3.86, which allows command-line analysis:
HFNetChk.exe is the multi-threaded command-line tool you can use to assess a computer or selected group of computers for the absence of security patches. You can use HFNetChk to assess patch status for the Windows NT 4.0, WIndows NT Terminal Server, Windows 2000, Windows XP operating systems, as well as hotfixes and service packs for IIS 4.0, IIS 5.0, SQL Server 7.0, SQL Server 2000 (including MSDE), Exchange Server 5.5, Exchange Server 2000, Windows Media Player, Front Page Server Extensions, Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), and Internet Explorer 5.01 or later.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
Please remember that the computers I met where often old and slow.
These machines he speaks of are probably unable to boot from the CDROM. Not many motherboards older than Pentium II class types had boot from cdrom capability.
If he's working on old pentium's or even *shudder* 486's, he needs a floppy based solution.
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
The LNX-BBC (Linux Bootable Buisness card) is all you really need.
http://www.lnx-bbc.org
They come in ever so handy.
Also a bootable virus remover.
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
Now I agree with including Regmon and Filemon from this great company, but also I would include Process Explorer (Gives you access to process like the Task Manager for Win2K for non NT machines), Portmon (Allows the monitoring of the serial and parallel ports, which can be useful to debug printers and the like), and PsTools (remote administrating through the command line).
As far as a bootable OS to put in the kit, I would recommend Knoppix since it has several utilities built in just for data/computer recovery.
--If only there was a license required to use a computer.
A WRITE-PROTECTED bootable floppy with:
- Cd drivers
- Text editor
- Norton diskdoctor, unerase and unformat
- Fdisk
- A command-line based virusscanner
Can't remember the rest
As a former tech(moved on to programming), sometimes a windows 95 install would be so bad off, and the user so dead-set on NOT formatting, that we would have to load windows 98se upgrade, thus fixing most of their problems. Of course, the only problem may be in buying licenses, but we had found a place that sold them, I'm sure you can too.
Also, when i did on-site jobs, i had a tech Cd with updates to IE, cd burning software,winzip/winrar,the windows 98 shutdown patch, and windows 95 usb support patch, along with 300 mb of drivers.Well, of course, I had a windows cab files cd, saved my butt on various occasions. And last, but not least, a win98se boot disk with fdisk and xcopy/xcopy32.
i use linux and windows oh god how can i have an opinion
You need to bring a towel! http://www.skywriterpress.com/Spice/adams.htm We miss you...
If you're going to take NT4, you need to have at least SP5 with you.
And I'd take the XP disk just to be sure.
And a USB Flash Drive (256mb or higher).
A sat phone + a modem that works with it is gonna be the only sure fire thing. Barring that focus on getting the computer connected to the internet and able to download whatever else you need.
That being said, CURSES to the INTELs and LOGITECHs of the world, whom: instead of putting the specific driver you want online, instead put a 8meg file with 100 drivers and their stoopid crappy UI for using whatever it is you need a 1k driver for.
M@
Krispy Cream is people
Especially for those old systems, I'd bring the following:
1. A brand new copy of the MicroWarehouse catalog. They can choose whatever upgrades they want from that.
2. Large beach towel
3. sunscreen
4. SCUBA gear
5. Oh yeah, sunglasses and a wide-brim hat
Every single application on TinyApps.org will fit on a single CD. There are a wide variety of applications and tools, most of them very easy to use. These applications mostly do one job but, they do it very well. With the entire collection, you would be well prepared to deal with almost anything Windows or DOS can throw at you (and I assume most of these boxes are Windows/DOS based).
If the space you have allows you to do this, I'd bring a bunch of copies of the CD and I'd leave behind a disk at each location. This way they would have a fighting chance to fix their own problems after you left.
Also a good idea to keep a list of important IP addresses handy - your DNS servers, and servers you'd need to access when/if your DNS server went down. I tend to keep them as contacts in my PalmOS device.
In addition to that, my emergency toolbox contains instructions on how to convert ext2 to ext3 and back again, since Norton Ghost 2003 doesn't seem to like ext3.
The one piece of software that has saved by huge amounts of time is TuffTest. TuffTest will check the hardware for you. Do use trying all the other tools if the HD/Mem/Parallel Port/etc is shot.
I paid for the 10.00 version, and it has proven to be worth 10 times that.
P.S. -- I spend a lot of time repairing old and discarded P.C. -- Hence the need for a way to check the Hardware.
Just curious about this post and its purpose. Will someone, after this post is frozen, gather all of the suggestions and then create these kits for download?
ThinkGeek could sell them. Yeah.
--If only there was a license required to use a computer.
ceeeedeeee? *puzzled look*
Well, it all depends on what exactly you have, how much you can carry, and the space allowed. I work for a computer repair center on my schools campus that fixes everything from disks (whatever can be done to them), to OS/software problems (99% M$), to Hardware problems. If you had to carry something in your jacket pocket I would stick with the OS CD's that you would be using and a boot disk (if they wern't bootable). I am aware that most people have already said these things but hardly anyone if anyone at all has thought about hardware (there were a few mentions) but lets face it, not everyone is as civil to computers as we [nerds] are. People come to the office with everything from spilling soda, water, coffee, or anything else on keyboards. Why not throw in those expandable keybords that can fold up with a USB/ps2 mouse. If I had a dollar for everytime someone comes to the office with a CD-rom with a broken tray or just a old burnt out CD-Rom I would be able to retire soon. So what about a nice USB external CD Burner if you need to make copies (it's very useful) and it can double as a regular CD-Rom (of course). Ram doesn't need to be thrown into this toolbox because how often do you see ram break? A PCI video card would be handy (stay away from AGP because not everyone has AGP). If Floppies are still around when you make this "toolbox" throw in an extra floppy drive (very cheap ~ $5.00). Now of course this "toolbox" wouldn't be something that you would take into the jungle but if you were in a stationary place for a month or two it might be useful. Also useful is everything that everyone was talking about in all the previous posts but burn everything to CD (make backups if needed) and throw them in a 25 CD booklet or a 12 CD booklet or even a 4 CD booklet so they are secure from dirt and anything else that may come in harms way. Just throw all this in a small tool kit (plastic), or a box, from lowe's or the home depo and you've got yourself an emergency computer repair toolbox.
If you wanted to get into more detail and if you had more room there is always the choice of lugging around an extra power supply becuase they go every so often. There was a post about a hard drive but I want to stay away from them because in a plastic box they might get fried or damaged and just from moving it across the room let alone the world can just be a waste of time. But bring the essential tools, Phillips head (small, medium), Flat head (small, medium), needle nose plyers (for jumpers on mobo or master\slave jumpers).
Just think of how long your going to be there, what kind of computers will you encounter, How easy is it to get supplies if you need them, and all you can do is be prepared. A computer nerd can never bring to much computer stuff to prevent home sickness!
I keep one of those hermetically sealed AOL floppies in my glove compartment. Unfortunately I can't get them anymore. So far I haven't yet had to use up the last one I have.
It's amazing the number of times I've been at someone's house and I need to make a boot floppy and of course they don't have any blank floppies available. I've had to unseal quite a few of those blank floppies to save someone's computer.
So the most usefool... ooops I mean useful tools were:
Non-Linux Penguins ?
note: i compiled this list with the fact that a computer would die and needs to get up and running as soon as possible, but a better part/solution could be attained at a later date 30 days.
:)
hardware
1. floppy drive (a must, if old it probably dead or needs a good cleaning)
2. cd-rom (nice to have but less likely, if the cd-rom is dead and all you brought are cds your fubar)
3. hard drive (unlikely, but nice in a pinch) a small old hd filled with sware and drivers would work great if no cd or cd is bad
4. cables (unlikely, but they are small) if person was farking around and the cables are old they may have pulled the ends off the ribbon cables, since they take almost no space, better safe than sorry
5. cheap, crappy video card (not a bad choice) if a card is gonna go, it will probably be this one, and it would take the computer out. people can live without modems/network for a while, but not without video. single point failure so a cheap/crappy pci video would eb a good bet, isa wouldn't be bad either if computers really old.
6. screwdriver (phillips) a must, electric would be nice
7. tweaker (small flat bladed screwdriver) good for flipping dip switches and straitening bent pins
8. tweasers or chip puller - if like me with bear claws for hands the stupid jumpers are a pain to get off, these come in handy here
9. jumpers - in case you drop the stupid thing you dont have to spend hours looking for the lost bugger, just grab a new one
10, flashlight - cases are dark and if old dusty, a nice flashlight or lantern that can shine light where its needed is a must
11. mouse w/serial converter - small and easily farked so a spare is nice
12. keyboard w/din converter - like mouse except less likely to be ruined and larger, however single point failure if one dies your farked until you get a spare
13. spare muffin fans - 40, 60 and possibly 80mm, quite likely a problem may be that the cpu fan has died and causing problems with machines this old. spare muffin fans are small and can save the day.
software
1. os of targets, most likely windows (95/98 most likely)
2. disk utils (norton util, spinaker)
3. virus utils (mcafee, norton, fprotect (a must 1 boot floppy) )
4. boot disk, with a spare or 2 (fdisk, format, etc)
5. compression tools (zip, arj, ace, tar, etc)
6. ms office cd (most likely windows, if target is linux, then freeoffice or staroffice)
less important
1. drivers - nice but most items will function with a generic driver until a better one comes along, and there are so many choices for hardware i deem it an optional item
2. linux/tools - most likely the user will be using a wndows system, nice to have handy but probably wont use. redhat seems to be the most popular so probably go with that
avoid
1. usb items - older computers may not have a usb port so any usb item brought would likely do you no good
2. agp - if stuff is old as say then they prob dont have it anyway, and they can suffer with pci card until replacement comes
3. dvd - useless, unless you put your sware on dvds and brought a drive (not a bad idea)
personal savers (not required, but could make your life a lot easier)
1. cd burner w/sware - make backups of data if have to format
AIDA32 is handy for finding out what hardware is in a system as well as licence codes for Windows and other software (except Office 2000 - I don't think anyone's found out how to retreive the product key).
It's all handy info for a reinstall or hunting down drivers.
YOu can play it for months without getting bored. Works on slow computers.
You're on holiday (yeah yeah, scientific expedition) in the Pacific Area and you're planning just to fix every man's computer you meet?
Man, I'd love to get to a place like that, and finally leave my computer at home!
"We can confirm that Debian does *not* ship the version with the trojan horse. Our version predates it." [CA-2002-28]
I've been doing this for YEARS. Every 6 months I refresh by software kit, not hardware, for hardware I have my home office full of supplies. But, when I'm off at work or at someones house doing a "favor" then I just grab my CD holder with CDs filled into special catagories:
...)
Applications CD1:
Adobe Products (Reader, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premier, Livemotion, yadda yadda yadda)
Applications CD2:
Macromedia (Allaire) ColdFusion Products
Application CD3:
More Macromedia Products (flash, director, studio mx,
Application CD4:
SQL Monitoring/Dev tools (DBArtisan, etc)
Utilities CD1:
Norton, Web Browsers, Quest Software (Partition Magic, Drive Image, MusicMatch, etc
Utilities CD2:
Smaller tools into directory catagories (MS Plus, mIRC, Compression [WinZip, WinRar, SFX, StuffIt), drivers for most common stuff (network, modem, video), DOS utilities, JPG Viewer, etc.) You get the idea
Utilities CD3:
Cracks and Serial #s, downloaded personal small apps, also a huge repository of other apps (System Commander, Sandra, PowerDVD, etc)
I also bring plenty of blank floppies and different boot dists (Custom Multi boot disk with common CD-ROM drivers)
Be sure to include a bootdisk for SCSI drives.
Like I said, my toolkit is software orientated. For hardware I will be better bringing it to my own home lab/office.
I know what I'd put in: the Internet. ...or at least - the copy of the Internet that google has :)
SpinRite is quite fast even on slower machines.
Checks data for failure, refreshes data and in teory prevents hard-disk failure. Post-Disaster Data Recovery capable.
Saved my day many times.
[And please don't start a Gibson-flamewar.. ;-)]
Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
You will definitely need a (digital) towel!
I worked a bit in Africa in the mid 90s. I didn't tell anyone I was a computer guy, it was a chance to get away from all that crap (Windows was big in those days and a real pain to deal with). So I told people I was a mercenary. Kept them off my back.
Anways, watch out training up all these third world computer geeks, next they'll be taking our jobs on the H1 visa programme.
Since you don't seem to have a limit on space, I'd bring a CD filled with Linux/MS/Mac FAQs and HowTos in text format to be safe :P
a giant magnet
http://crashrecovery.org
Robert
PORN! Lots and lots of porn.
The Jargon File and books from Project Gutenberg!!!
-uso.
Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
The scenario you mentioned was a bit of overkill - Nothing that a Knoppix CD couldn't have done in a fraction of the time. (Boot up, copy to floppy/network/whatever, rather than taking out the HD, risking frying it with static, and finding a *third* machine)
:) Just not as sturdy and reliable as I'd like it to be. (CDs can be dropped at heights that not even a Panasonic ToughBook could survive.)
A cool one nonetheless, though.
I hope that soon someone writes an SBP-2 endpoint driver for Linux. (i.e. not a driver to access SBP-2 devices, but to ACT like an SBP-2 device.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
DVD with ISOs of windows and major linux install diskettes. Bootable CD with SCSI & CD-Rom drivers, Powerquest Partition Magic, Powerquest Drive Image and DOS utils.
Instead of carrying 20+ CDs I can carry 4 DVDs and a few blanks. If I need to create a CD, I copy the ISO to my hard disk and burn it. I now walk semi-erect.
Haven't seen much mention of a null modem cable to all term'ing into switches, etc.
T-Shirt http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/388b / ,LART (When a luser walks up is it considered a Pre-Emptive strike to yell NO!!! and use LART?), Loud CD (Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Rob Zombie, Mudvayne......), Discman with serious headphones, extra batteries for said Discman, BOFH series, and if they are really insistent a placard on one side write "RTFM" on the other write the number for the Help Desk (even funnier if that's you).
If she's cute who cares about fixing the computer.
In addition to the usual tools many people have mentioned (the SysInternals tools, various partition, disk image, and repair tools, etc.), I always like to have a copy of these (the implicit assumption here is that you'll be in a mostly Windows environment - if you want to really free them, take a pair of FreeBSD boot floppies...
;-)
Ethload - A very old, but very useful and reliable ethernet analyzer. You'll need a NIC, of course, and a packet driver, too, since this is a DOS thing. In spite of it's age and limitations, it's still one of the very best tools I've seen for doing network traffic characterization. It's not a true packet sniffer, but it's much more useful than most that are. Only Etherman/Etherape even come close, and Ethload does a better job on Novell networks, of which there are still quite a few out there. Unfortunately, it's starting to get hard to find packet drivers for new cards...
CyberKit - This one's essential if you're working on Windows in an IP environment: it's sort of an Internet diag software Leatherman tool. It includes ping, traceroute, nslookup (a real one, that lets you set servers, ask for particular responses, etc., not just go through the Winsock lookup, which it can do, too), NTP, and a bunch more. Highly recommended.
AxCrypt - Handy if you'll need to protect anything, or exchange protected data with anyone over there. I use this (among other things) to exchange info with missionaries in countries that kill known or suspected Christians. It also has the significant advantage of being easy for non-computer people and working on Windows and Linux. You may not need it, but it's handy to know about, anyway.
ZoneAlarm - a decent personal firewall. It's best to build your network so you don't need this sort of thing, but let's face it, if you need it, you need it bad. Also essential for wireless users that ever want to roam. Free for personal use, reasonable license for others.
U/Win - Some have suggested Cygwin for a Unix shell environment on the PC, but that's awfully heavy for a little fixing here or there, and Cygwin requires *way* too long to install for a quick fix. U/Win is smaller, lighter, and has better online documentation, not to mention a real sho-nuff Korn shell (it's written by David Korn, among others.)
HTMLDOC - If you're going to be doing any web work (wanna bet you won't?), HTMLDOC and curl (wget just wishes it was curl) can be really handy.
Finally, FWIW, Knoppix is a decent Linux playground, but I really think it's not in the game as a diagnostic distro, and way too piggy and slow to ever be a good tool for that. It appears there are way too many Linux bigots here on Slashdot - what else is new? There are several diag distros out there, all of which will do far better than knoppix.
Oh, one final thought: remember that most of the world's CD-ROM drives will NOT read CD-RWs at all (especially all but the newest laptops), and many won't even read CD-R's reliably, so dragging your toolkit may be tougher than you think. Although clunky, a parallel port Zip drive works darn near everywhere. Just pack it well, as Zip drives have very low ratings even for non-operating shock.
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
The best tool is a hammer ...
I can't believe that no-one has mentioned RS232 stuff. Maybe your idea of "old and slow" includes writable CDs, zip drives and ethernet, mine doesn't. You'll need some way of getting data between two machines at some point, or just to debug a modem connection. Floppies are a pain in the *ass*, so a serial connection is a useful tool. It's less than 10 years ago that I was using this stuff daily (albeit for RS-422 hardware control).
I'd take a selection of RS 232 cables, gender benders, 9 to 25-way adapters, null-modem cables, a copy of some DOS utilities like kermit and laplink, an RS-232 breakout box, and stuff like that. The breakout box lights when a line is high or low (different colours) allowing you to debug a serial connection. Ooh! Shiny!
If you can get a couple of RS422 to RS232 converters you can drive much longer cables too.
Some old keyboards (no PS/2 connectors), and serial mice might be useful too.
Note to ACs: I won't mod you up, even if you are being funny or insightful. So take a chance! It's not real life!
Looking through my call out brief case we have:
Screwdriver - electric - with normal and security bits
Screwdriver - human power - 'cause those batteries go at the worst time
RJ45 crimper + plugs
cables of various sorts.
a dremel, with bits - 'cause its been to bloody useful over the years.
screws of many, many, many type.
knife, pliers, masking tape.
now, down to software
All versions of windows i can get my hands on - 95, 95/osr2 98, 98se, 2k, me, xp - many types
knoppix
a custom disk based on ebcd pro http://www.ebcd.i-am.ru - also has every version of directx from 5, ie 4,5.5, and 6, media player 5,6,7,and 8, and a freeware clone of xtree gold - i forget the name, file master i think and also the VB runtime files.
I also have two cds crammed with office of various types, and other commercial software that the client usually has the licence for, but not the disks.
Plus two (yes, thats right, just two!) floppys, one which is the win98 emergency boot floppy, and the other is Smart boot manager, so that i can boot the cd's on any machine that can boot from the floppy.
also have pcb cleaner, antistatic foam, and a can of air, plus 5 minute araldite - for those must not move for a day emergancies!
thats it, notable missing items are laptop(just my trusty palm) and driver cds.
Only other thing in there is a sign - reward for safe return - the most important item!
Home
Hmmmm... well my kit is an ana-morphic kit, meaning it changes based on the needs of the site I'm visiting. I support a range of systems from your old MS-DOS, Windows 9x to your common Linux platforms. But here are the constants in my kit...
No.2 Phillips/Cross screw driver
Multi-head screw driver with accompanying bits
Needle Nose Pliers
Cutters
Razor Blade
Crimper
Spare Screws
Straight-pair UTP network cable
Cross-pair UTP network cable
DB-9/25 RS-232 null cable
Digital Test-meter (you just need ot know how to read the results)
Symantec Ghost Boot Floppy (God bless norton for this)
The variables in my kit
Boot CDs of the relevent OS I'm responding to (typically it's Windows more than anyting)
Various common day applications such as word processor and spread-sheets
some "can't-live-without" apps like power archiver
I'd say the 911 Rescue CD.
It contains more than 50 DOS-based diag tools collected from all over the internet and integerated in one compact and very easy to use interface, with help screens and features not found elsewhere.
I've tried it and I can't live without it, it's with me 24x7 for any problem.
Ah, I forgot to say it also includes a Windows 2000/XP installation right in the same CD, so it is very easy to setup Windows without even replacing the CD.
The most important tools are in your head - knowledge and experience. Computer tools for the road, like any other, should be small, simple, light and multi-functional. They each should fit on a single floppy, if possible, and none should be GUI based if you intend to fix 286/386 hardware.
My list:
A binary editor
A text editor
A hard drive and file system repair/recovery utilities
A Web browser
A command line (non GUI) OS all of the above work with that boots from a floppy.
The easy, one word answer is Linux.
Just to be redundant and so I can quickly find this thread...
--- Every day I am forced to add another to the list of people who can kiss my ass...
Yes, software internationalization is an issue today. Try VTrain (Vocabulary Trainer) for a good software you can use for language learning and, more generally, for rote learning.