I wanted to build this website for two simple reasons.To learn web technology, through building a powerful database driven website, while providing users with the information that they need, to build their customized version of a bootable rescue media (Floppy, CD, DVD).
I will be concentrating on the creation of bootable CDs rather than other media since CD's are widely available and can hold a lot more (and hence do more) than a floppy. In as far as bootable CDs are concerned, not many tools are there to provide a Win32 environment. This is where BartPE comes in.
WinPE and BartPE:
WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Environment) is a stripped down version of WinXP or Win2003 that can be booted from the CD. It provides a win32 environment and can acccess both FAT and NTFS volumes. But it is only available for microsoft OEM customers. As a replacement with enhanced functionality, Bart Lagerweij has created PEBuilder which can build a similar environment using WinXP or Win 2003 installation CD. This created environment is called BartPE.
BartPE can do everything WinPE can do and more. It supports plugins(search BartPE Plugins),so that you can add your custom applications that run in a Win32 environment such as EasyRecovery 6, antivirus such as Mcaffee, Nod32, and other applications such as Drive Image 2002, Symantec Ghost 8 and more into the CD. This allows us to create a complete disaster recovery solution in one CD. This is the reason that this site has more content of BartPE than any other solution. The current status of the BartPE plugin database is always displayed on the left of this page.
MultiBoot CD: A multiboot CD is simply one which upon booting, presents a selection of bootable options such as BartPE, WinPE, 911CD, R.I.P. Linux, DOS bootfloppy images, and more. The user can then select the appropriate option to continue booting. This allows us to create one CD or DVD which can hold a number of seperately bootable components such as BartPE, or one of the Acronis bootable Media or more. I have written a basic tutorial which describes the process of creating one such multi-bootable CDs using one of the best tools available - Bootable CD Wizard by reanimatolog.
Everything else: Apart from these, there are other recovery solutions such as ERD Commander 2003 and several Linux distributions that can boot and run from the CD. These solutions are also present at this site to varying degrees. I have personally found ERD Commander 2003 to be a very good useful utility. I have, and will add extra content to the site periodically. If you know of a good bootable solution (commercial or otherwise), that is not mentioned in this site, please let me know. I cannot list all the content of the site on this page, so take a look around the site and mail me if you face any trouble. Please use the menu for navigating around this site, because all the pages are invariably added there.
If you want more content, ar have any specific doubts or problems, or just want to comment on the site don't hesitate to mail me. I take your ideas very seriously and will always respond. Please don't forget that this site is very much incomplete without you!
{October 21, 2008}
Did some maitenance work. All pages should be accessible in the BartPE plugin section. Disabled new user registration, login and commenting features until some major work is done to support them. Also guestbook has been removed because of a security issue that happened earlier.
{February 20, 2005}
[Repository Update] Added a few more plugins. Plugin count comes to 524! Also updated the Add your plugin (Demo) form - approaching final release state! Link
{February 17, 2005}
[Site Update] Updated Browser Tips, and added a bootcd.us Site FAQ to it. BartPE Plugin database update: Database currently holds 506 plugins! Link
{February 15, 2005} BartPE Plugin Repository Update: Added Plugin listing by Author. Now when you click the author name on any plugin list, the plugins built by only that particular author is displayed in a new Window! Also a few other small changes. View
{February 12, 2005} Google Search added seamlessly to Site search Engine: Now when you enter a search at the search box, Google results for the same search term are also displayed along with the original results. These google results only show Bootcd.us relevant content. Note: This was developed using the Google api and php soap client (nusoap) and allows the display of results as a part of Bootcd.us itself! View
{February 11, 2005}
[RSS Feeds available] Added RSS Feeds to Bootcd.us. Now you will know whenever the site is updated! Use the link to subscribe to the RSS feed. Subscribe
