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  • Hiren's Boot CD for troubleshooting your PC

Hiren's BootCD (also known as HBCD) is a bootable software CD containing a number of diagnostic programs such as partitioning agents, system performance benchmarks, disk cloning and imaging tools, data recovery tools, MBR tools, BIOS tools, and many others for fixing various computer problems. Many people consider HBCD an invaluable tool for use in troubleshooting and recovery of computers; however, due to a questionable past, it has received little press.

As it is bootable, the operating system of the computer need not be available for the tools to be usable. All that is required is that the computer is able to run Microsoft Windows and Linux.
This Boot CD is just awesome. It has tons of software to troubleshoot your PC , recover data, remove viruses spyware and repair your OS.
It has a Linux and Windows XP live Disk inside.
You can even install it on your USB (Like I did). It's very handy especially if you're fixing computers all the time..(Note that the USB flash drive needs to be 1GB or above).

Hope it helps you solve your PC problems. If you have any questions just post it here.
i checked.the site and their were only 2 guides, on for changing boot order in bios and the other about resseting windows password, nothing about the other stuff you mentioned. So as a noob, if i wabt to use to get rid od viruses and spyware, what should i do?
Metalloy wrotei checked.the site and their were only 2 guides, on for changing boot order in bios and the other about resseting windows password, nothing about the other stuff you mentioned. So as a noob, if i wabt to use to get rid od viruses and spyware, what should i do?
To have the latest virus definitions, you must download the latest version of the boot CD.
To get rid of the viruses, you need to boot into the CD and log into Windows XP (From the disk ofcourse)
When you log in, there are several programs to choose from. You can also use the HBCD Menu also located on the desktop. You just scan and delete the viruses and then run a check disk so that it repairs corruptions in Windows which were caused by the viruses.
Metalloy wroteis their anyway to mess things up?
Mess what up ? Always be more specific.
well i meant in a general context: if i did any of the procedures possible to do, can i somehow damage my computer, in both software and hardware? is their any procedure that you wouldnt recommend for a noob to do?
Metalloy wrotewell i meant in a general context: if i did any of the procedures possible to do, can i somehow damage my computer, in both software and hardware? is their any procedure that you wouldnt recommend for a noob to do?
Well, the disk is designed to have useful utilities that help you test or repair your PC.
I don't think you can damage anything , especially hardware. Hardware is rarely damaged by software.
If you use a utility that may do something to your PC , it would warn you about what you're doing.
Basically a person who is smart won't just click randomly on stuff they see , a smart person would read what he is clicking on.
Well thank you for your time and for sharing the software with us.
8 days later
tonight ill be downloading it and tey it my girlfriends laptop, i want to perform the virus scan and elimination.
about her laptop, it is an hp-dv6 special edition , it came with vista, after a while it became slow and clearly needed a format, so she sended it to a repair shop and they've installed windows 7 ( i dont think that they have installed all the drivers required, i am sure they didnt install a driver for the dedicated graphic card), anyway this time the computer became in a really short period much slower then before, so i thought that ill try to fix it myself.
Now if i did the viruse scan and elemination and repairing corruptions using the Hiren's boot CD, will the data like the media on the laptop be affected? and is their anything i.should take into consideration before perfoming the task?
You already asked this above and I already told you it most probably won't but I recommend you run a check disk after the scan, so that if the virus has corrupted or damaged any files , the check disk will fix those problems.
sorry for bothering you, I burned the iso file on a Cd, so next step is booting into windows Xp; From my humble knowledge inserted the Cd and then restarted it the windows, and it directly took me to the login widow, am I missing something? because I'm still in windows 7 and not windows xp.
thanks for your patience with me.
Metalloy ,you have to go into the BIOS and set the boot options so thqt the laptop looks for a disc to boot from before proceeding with booting Windows 7 from the HDD. to access the BIOS, you need to keep pressing F2,F10, or Del repeatedly when the system is just powering up and displaying POST.
Press ESC when it shows the HP logo on your screen. Then choose change boot device options, and then choose your DVD Rom. (Same thing yasamoka said)
i ran.the cd in the windows 7 where i chose from the menu to run a scan using clamwin, it has been 2 hours now and still didnt finsih, do you recommend to stop and boot in Xp or keep the scan going?
and i found that this laptop has a recovery drive which will take the laptop back to vista, now i have never done this before, so i will ask you, how to do a recovery to the old os, and if i do, do i lose all my data?
is their a benefit in running the virus scan in Xp instead of 7?
and i did not find check disk, however i did find test disk, is that what you're talking about? and that i should do in Xp or in 7?
one last thing, for updating the drivers, shall i do it in XP or 7?
Metalloy wroteis their a benefit in running the virus scan in Xp instead of 7?
Yes , since the XP you'll be using is from the disk, which means it's not from your HDD.
Metalloy wroteIf it were from the HDD some viruses can't be removed because they will be used by Windows.
and i did not find check disk, however i did find test disk, is that what you're talking about? and that i should do in Xp or in 7?
All viruses will be removed by the boot CD since they aren't active when you boot to XP with the disk.
As for Check disk , you should use it in XP (The boot CD). It's located in: My Computer >"Right click Local Disk C:"(The drive Windows is installed in)>Choose tools at the top. You'll see a window similar to this :
Click the fist "Check Now" button and tick the first two check boxes and then click "Start". After a few minutes it will finish scanning and fixing the corrupted files.
Note: If you have more than 1 local disks scan both of them and be sure to use check disk on those drives as well.
Metalloy wroteone last thing, for updating the drivers, shall i do it in XP or 7?
You don't need to use any drivers in the boot disk (XP)
Use Windows 7 to update your drivers.
To do so, right click on Computer >Properties >Advance System Settings (Top left)>Choose "Hardware" at the top>Device installation Settings>Choose " Yes, do this automatically (recommended)" >Save Changes.
Now go to device manager (Which is in the same window) and update under Display adapters, IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, Mise and other pointing devices, Keyboards, Network adapters , Sound,video and game controllers.
To update right click on the device and choose "Update driver software" (First button) and click "Search automatically for updated driver software".

Cheers.
thanks alot for the explanation!
i will do the scan today in XP just to make sure that i got all the viruses out, and then the check disk and ill let you know what will happen.
Thanks again :)
Metalloy wrotethanks alot for the explanation!
i will do the scan today in XP just to make sure that i got all the viruses out, and then the check disk and ill let you know what will happen.
Thanks again :)
Be sure to also scan for malware and spyware as well before you run check disk.
i didnt reply fast just yo make sure eveything is going just fine, and it is !
no lags or hiccups or anyrhing, this laptop is back in shape :D thanks for this great recommendation and for your advices, just perfect! ill be doing the same thing to my sister's laptop tonight. Thank you