If you are a computer technician, an advanced computer user or just someone that likes to try to sort out their own PC problems, one of the most important tools you can have at your disposal is a bootable repair CD. Repair discs have become hugely popular in recent years because if your computer won’t boot you can perform a number of repairs to the “offline” operating system straight from the CD.
One of the most popular and at the same time controversial boot CD’s throughout the years is called Hiren’s Boot CD. Released in 2004, Hiren’s Boot CD boasts a huge array of repair utilities and diagnostic tools that can help in a vast number of different situations. The controversial part of Hiren was the fact that for several years, a sizable portion of the software was commercial and downloading and using the CD was classed as illegal and using pirated software.
On the command screen, change your drive type and give XP setup a source path. First, type 0 and press Enter so that USB Stick appears at the end of the line. Then, type 1 and press Enter and to select the Microsoft Windows XP path. On top of all of these utilities, Hiren's Boot CD comes with a stripped-down live installation of Windows XP known as Mini Windows XP that runs completely off memory without needing to be installed on the hard drive. Mini Windows XP has network adapter support, and includes USB 3.0, SCSI, RAID, and many other device drivers that were not.
Prepare a fixed size vhd containing Windows XP using Oracle Virtual Box. Tweak it and add any extra drivers/apps you like. Copy the.vhd file to an Easy2Boot USB Multiboot drive. Boot to full XP! As this uses a.vhd file, you can easily back it up and restore it at any point in the future. UM700 Mini PC AMD Ryzen 7 3750H 4C/8T Windows 10 Pro Desktop Computer, DDR4 16G RAM+256G SSD, HDMI/DP/USB-C 4K@60Hz Output, 2X RJ45 Port, 4X USB3.0 Port, WIFI6 AX200 BT5.1, Radeon Vega 10 Graphics. 4.6 out of 5 stars. This guide explains how to create a Windows bootable USB drive for the following Windows versions: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Creating a bootable USB drive will allow you to install Windows from the USB drive directly. To be able to install Windows from a USB, you need have one of the following: the ISO image of the Windows version.
Thankfully, Hiren is updated periodically and from version 11 of the CD, the commercial software causing all the trouble was removed meaning it could be freely used without people accusing you of using software you shouldn’t be.
Here at Raymond.cc, we absolutely love Hiren’s Boot CD simply for how versatile it is and the amount of tasks it can perform to help you get things done. It always has been, and really still is the KING of all Boot CD’s.
When you download the tool it is in ISO format, so you’ll need burning software such as Nero, Imgburn or Windows itself that supports burning ISO format. Once you successfully burn the ISO to a CD, pop it in to your CD-ROM and restart your computer. Make sure that you’ve set to boot from CDROM in your BIOS. I personally recommend that you burn it into a CD-RW because you won’t want to waste a CD-R every few months when the CD is updated with newer or better tools.
These days it’s not too difficult to write the ISO image to a USB stick and there is a guide on how to do this. Of course, we have covered a number of tools on the blog such as Sardu that can write the Hiren disc to USB for you with the minimum of fuss.
When you start up the Hiren disc, the program’s initial boot menu will be displayed. There are some hugely valuable and lifesaving tools available on this menu alone, so I’ll go through the most important. Boot From Hard Drive will simply continue booting your operating system (if it’s bootable!).
Mini Windows XP – Perhaps the most valuable feature on Hiren, this will boot up an almost fully functional Windows XP environment from where you can perform a number of tasks such as accessing and transferring files, resetting hard disk controller, virus removal, repairing and recovering data from problem partitions, remote registry editing and a whole lot more. There’s a vast number of Windows based tools available to run and covers almost every aspect of repairing and fixing your system.
Wired networking and Wifi internet access is available meaning you can also go online for downloads, cloud storage or extra information. All the included tools can be quickly accessed via the Hiren program launcher. There is also an added bonus here in that most of these tools can be used on an ordinary Windows system by simply inserting the CD/USB stick. A few of the programs can only run from a normal system such as Malwarebytes Antimalware.
Dos Programs – Although not quite as used as it once was, the Dos programs section has a number of Dos based versions of tools similar to those in the Mini XP. A number of OEM hard drive diagnostic tools and other hardware diagnostics, partitioning and backup tools, BIOS, Master Boot Record (MBR) and filesystem tools are available and can be very useful. Simply navigate through the menus using the keyboard and the number keys.
Linux based rescue environment – This will boot a highly popular Linux disc partitioning and data recovery environment called Parted Magic. The main tool is GParted which is a very well regarded hard drive partitioning and wiping tool which is also recommended by a number manufacturers for erasing SSD drives. Linux is often a valuable alternative to Windows when accessing damaged or corrupted partitions because it doesn’t have so many restrictions when reading the filesystem. There is a host of other partition tools in addition to a number of filesystem recovery and repair utilities.
Memtest86+ – This is the very first tool you should run if you suspect or have been advised that your system may have memory (RAM) issues. Memtest86+ is widely regarded as one of the very best tools for detecting memory errors.
Offline NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 Password Changer – A very useful Dos based tool that can clear or edit the passwords on your Windows install.
Mini Windows Xp-usb Only 37 Mb
Kon-Boot – A little gem of a tool that can bypass a Windows password during logon by simply typing anything into the password box. This allows you to boot into Windows even if you don’t know or forgot the users password and don’t necessarily want to reset or change it.
Seagate DiscWizard – An old version of Acronis TrueImage which still functions perfectly well and does a good job of making a backup image of your system. Originally meant only for Seagate devices, but pressing a few keys while starting the program makes it available for all hard drives. You can use DiscWizard to make a backup image, restore an image back to the drive or partition and also prepare a newly installed hard drive.
Fix “NTLDR is missing” – If you receive the NTLDR missing error while trying to boot Windows XP, using this fix will place a new or overwrite a corrupt NTLDR file making the system bootable again. If you have other NTLDR or BOOTMGR related problems or boot errors, the system can be booted using these files straight off the CD using 2 options further down the menu.
For a complete list of the contents of Hiren’s Boot CD have a look on the website and click on “See CD Contents »” half way down the page. There are literally hundreds of tools included and even without the commercial software which was actually quite useful in itself, this disc is still the best around. If you only ever download 1 bootable repair CD, make sure it’s this one….
Download Hiren’s BootCD
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ReplyI have used Hirens in the past when I couldn’t get my PC to boot into Windows. Using Mini Windows XP I was able to access my files. From there I copied what I didn’t want to lose onto a USB drive. I normally have a Macrium image backup. But sometimes I forget to update it. I am talking about maybe only a couple of weeks after last image made. Documents mostly needing saving. Restore the image and add the docs back.
ReplyMini Windows Xp Usb Solo 37 Mb
Hirens 2018 New Generation, check this >> IT Tools Pack Solution 2018 Rescue
ReplyThe last time Hiren updated his boot CD was back in 2012. The guy has completely disappeared, and his boot CD is severely outdated. Yet he continues to renew his domain, so we know he’s still alive. Someone else needs to continue where he left off, and update all the utilities.
ReplyNobody seems to know why it has never been updated. I suspect Hiren realized the whole thing probably needed an overhaul, Parted Magic became payware and MiniXP was getting long in the tooth and wasn’t working so well with newer systems and UEFI etc.
There have been restored and enhanced edition offshoots but they have all been basically editions by warez groups full of illegal software.
I did think about updating all the free tools in Hiren 15.2 a while back but Parted Magic/MiniXP would probably need updating or replacing too, or at least the MiniXP drivers would need updating. That requires more work and time than we can realistically put into it.
Replynice i like it
ReplyHi, i have been using hiren since ver 8. since the development in this haven’t been update for such time, i been wondering how can i update or integrate new boot live program (such as gparted, live antivirus or mini windows 10 and etc..) it’s best to have useful program in one boot cd/usb right..
ReplyHires boot cd ver 15.2 you can download from there site.
you can google; Gandalf’s Windows 8.1 PE
Gandalf’s made also windows 7 & 10 PE
Thank you
Now will I still have Windows 7
thank u
ReplyNice article & informing
Replythat was very helpful Thank you endeed.
ReplyMy daughter decided she was going to give her daughter her old lap top. It’s a Toshiba Satellite A305D-S6848. Her goal was bring the laptop to factory condition so she used the Recovery and Applications/Drivers disc’s that were provided with the laptop. Following all the prompts on both disc’s, at the end of disc 2 the computer screen went black and in the upper left corner a message that reads BOOTMGR IS MISSING, Press CTRL+ALT+DELto restart. Did that and nothing happens What must be done to bring computer back into operating condition ?
H Zaloga
What OS was on it?
ReplyExcellent article.
Replythank u
ReplyCOOL MAN
Reply