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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)"
- Leatherman - Always carry one with you. Has damm near every tool you will ever need to fix a computer
- Norton Ghost - Ghost images of computers are so very, very, very,very helpful of a trick/tool
- Every copy of windows you can find with there respective boot disks
- A Laptop with NIC/Modem. seriously helpful if you need drivers off the internet and a computer is broken.
- The largest collection of drivers you can find. Just grab em and keep them. Drivers aren't that big and ever my collection (a few thousand) doesn't exceed 1 gbyte
- Maxtor/IBM/WD/etc hard disk testing software. Each company puts out it's own disks with these testing utilities on them. Search their pages to find the respective ones you will need.
- mcafee viruscan, updated w/ a emergency repair disk(I prefer to use 4.x version. Still updated regularly and works quite well). Self-explanatory
- Windows Service Packs, etc just in case they only have a modem connection
Looking through my backpack that's about all I can find.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!
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.
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!
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 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.
Re:On the other side of the fence... Indeed.
This has got to be one of the most flexible and innovative "toolboxes" around. The cool thing about Macs for years has been the ease and flexibility with which they boot. One can boot any Mac going back years from the CD. Additionally, as the previous poster illustrated, one can also boot from a variety of devices like the iPod (Verrrry cool), to other computers functioning as boot drives. I used to use my old Powerbook 5300cs as a "rescue toolkit" for other Macs since I could boot from it via a SCSI connection treating it as an external hard drive.
Macs are so flexible that in fact, a couple of years ago I was accross the country at a scientific meeting when one of the other graduate students had a Windows harddrive melt down, corrupting her registry thus preventing her from booting or rescuing her Powerpoint presentation scheduled for early the next morning. (always bring a back-up of your presentation on CD) She was in absolute agony and on the verge of a total emotional breakdown. At any rate, I simply took her hard drive out of the Windows laptop, replaced my internal hard drive on my Powerbook with hers, and booted from a colleagues iBook via Firewire allowing us to rescue the presentation. Day saved and she became another Apple convert.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
We just combined it all and threw it together on a bootable CD-R. Used it for a while, modified it, used it for a while longer, and I'm working on the "V2.0" series disc now.
We need partitioning and filesystem navigation utilities, primarily, but we also have scant few networking tools available to us.
In general, the rescue disc is used to make a system bootable which doesn't have critical hardware problems. For those, we use a suite of diagnostic tools. Once the system is booted, we use various native OS tools.
My next endeavour will be to make a dual-booting rescue disc with a network system onboard that will allow us to mount (via SMB or NFS) a backup drive on our server. This will probably become one of the most frequently used components of our disc.
We do keep a current copy of Norton Utilities / Systemworks handy, as well as CDs for all versions of Microsoft's client operating systems (OEM CDs and pre-installs) for their own native rescue functionality, as well as a small assortment of Linux and FreeBSD discs. We also stash generic (not tagged to a specific brand) CD burning software package, and the latest of each of the major word processor packages 'just because'.
Also handy is both a regular and high-speed CD-RW disc.
BD Phone Home!
Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.
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
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
Often I'll come across low-end Pentium and K6 systems with one or two USB ports. If a system is much older than that, well, we tell them how much more expensive our increased trouble will cost them versus an upgrade. Strangely, some people actually opt to spend upwards of several hundred dollars in labour charges (across multiple visits, usually) over buying $300 worth of parts to build a new PC. I think our record is about $500 dropped on a 486 DX-33 with 16MB of RAM crammed into it and about three hard drives totalling about 600MB. We've kept it together (upon great insistance) with whatever 'best of breed' used equipment we have in the shop, but with a failing motherboard, chip, and RAM and a case that won't stay closed without a length of duct-tape there's not much more we can do for it. But now, see, they've got so much invested in it they don't WANT to buy new.
{shrug} I take their money and get paid either way, but I'll still never understand people.
BD Phone Home!
Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.
Also try these:
FreeSCO - great for routers
tomsrtbt
DemoLinux
RIP Linux Rescue System
SuperRescue CD
Morphix
For Windows software, take a look here
OLPC Australia
Not sure if you're trolling me or serious and curious. I'll assume serious and curious.
:-)
In the end I (and many other Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) I've talked to) feel that Peace Corps is the most wonderful thing I've ever done.
I was able to teach ~120 students a bit of English, set up a scholarship fund for poor students (public school in Thailand is not free like it is here in the US), refurbish the school's water system, build a community computer center... the list of how I was able to help goes on and on.
However, I feel the Thai people gave me far more than I gave them. They gave me friendship and memories I will cherish until the end of my days. They also gave me indigestion because I just could not stop eating their amazing food!
Specifically helping out various people with their computers: Yes, helping them did help me out. The rule of law (contract law, specifically) is not too strong yet in Thailand so relationships, friendships and trust still count for an awful lot. I benefitted both directly and indirectly from helping the people I did.
Directly because I made friendships with some very powerful people who helped me later. Indirectly because many people recognized that I was a person who could be counted on to help and trusted. Just as I 'selflessly' helped some people with their computers, others 'selflessly' helped me out in many ways.
It's like karma... what goes around, comes around. I gave some and got some and everyone benefitted.
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.
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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
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.
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.