Best Bootable/MultiBoot Repair Disc

[LABFE]

Not seeing a good forum that is visible to me to post this question in so I'm posting it here. I've been researching for a couple days which is the best current bootable/multiboot repair disc. I've looked at just about everything I believe (Ultimate Boot CD, YUMI, Trinity, FalconFour, Hiren's, SARDU, etc). Many seem like they may be outdated with many having the last update in 2013. I am currently leaning towards SARDU because of it's ability to have up to 10 malware scanners on one USB and the fact that it's latest release was July of this year, 2015. Was hoping to get input from others. What are you currently using? Which do you recommend? I don't plan on supporting Windows XP and just recommending upgrade for it so I don't need anything to support it. Only for something more current to support 7, 8.1, and 10 if possible yet and hardware diagnostics. Thanks!

 

[AtlCPU]

I mainly use Ultimate Boot CD it's not totally up to date but gets me by a lot of barriers.

 

[DunhamComputers]

I mainly use Ultimate Boot CD as well. Never checked out SARDU. I think I'll give it a try.

 

[LABFE]

Come on fellows; surely you use one of these. Which is the best?

 

[Porthos]

Come on fellows; surely you use one of these. Which is the best?

Your not getting answers because all the info you are looking for will be available in other sections of the forum and you will have access when you have been here a little while longer.

 

[LABFE]

Okay, I'll post to a different section of the forum once possible, but still hoping for some more responses here in the meantime.

 

[Markverhyden]

To be honest I have never seen a single silver bullet. I have several of them and what I use is based upon the tasks at hand.

 

[glricht]

And some of us use Zalman's which satisfy the multi-boot for most of the PCs I work on and are much easier to manage and keep up-to-date.

 

[Mainstay]

Zalman 300 with folders for hdd testing, data recovery, os installs, linux flavors, etc.

Each scenario calls for a different blend of approaches.

No magic ISO exists. I keep my eyes open for the solutions offered by forum members as there are gold nuggets to be found by reading along.

 

[altrenda]

Each scenario calls for a different blend of approaches.

No magic ISO exists. I keep my eyes open for the solutions offered by forum members as there are gold nuggets to be found by reading along.

I was using things like Hirens before I started doing this as a job, just throwing everything at a problem hoping something would work. As I got more experienced I realized I was only using a handful of programs and didn't need 6 programs to fix mbr issues. Then I found that many of them were unlicensed copies or older versions and went looking for a more efficient way of working.

So as I developed my own procedures, and from things I've learned here, I now have a select group of tools I use. Some of them are free but many of them are paid for. If they save me time and do a better job, it's worth the investment.

I looked back at how I was doing things 4 years ago when I found TN. I see that my Hirens is on the same dusty spindle with my copy of Spinrite and several other things I don't use anymore.

 

[Altster]

Not seeing a good forum that is visible to me to post this question in so I'm posting it here. I've been researching for a couple days which is the best current bootable/multiboot repair disc. I've looked at just about everything I believe (Ultimate Boot CD, YUMI, Trinity, FalconFour, Hiren's, SARDU, etc). Many seem like they may be outdated with many having the last update in 2013. I am currently leaning towards SARDU because of it's ability to have up to 10 malware scanners on one USB and the fact that it's latest release was July of this year, 2015. Was hoping to get input from others. What are you currently using? Which do you recommend? I don't plan on supporting Windows XP and just recommending upgrade for it so I don't need anything to support it. Only for something more current to support 7, 8.1, and 10 if possible yet and hardware diagnostics. Thanks!

Check out "gegeek.com" - good info there and you might find more tools to play / experiment with.

 

[Krynn72]

We've got Zalman VE300s with isos on it, Hiren's BCD 15.2 disks, and USBs made with Easy2Boot. I've also made multiboot usbs with SARDU and YUMI but Easy2Boot is by far the most feature rich and compatible I've used, but the most confusing to set up as well.

 

[HFultzjr]

A Zalman VE300 and as many "tools", .iso or what ever.

There is no all in one, two, three, four, etc., etc.

Constantly changing, updates, etc.

 

[sebastien2b]

Ultimate Boot CD and Zalman

 

[Altster]

We've got Zalman VE300s with isos on it, Hiren's BCD 15.2 disks, and USBs made with Easy2Boot. I've also made multiboot usbs with SARDU and YUMI but Easy2Boot is by far the most feature rich and compatible I've used, but the most confusing to set up as well.

Have you ever taken a look at "Rufus" @ https://rufus.akeo.ie/ I prefer this program over any other USB creation program for single iso sub sticks. YUMI is by far the best multi-titled utility (most of the time.)

 

[Krynn72]

Have you ever taken a look at "Rufus" @ https://rufus.akeo.ie/ I prefer this program over any other USB creation program for single iso sub sticks. YUMI is by far the best multi-titled utility (most of the time.)

I'm sure I have used Rufus for one-off things that I needed, as I recognize the name. But have you looked into Easy2Boot? I like it more than Yumi because I can have multiple Windows installers on it, its UEFI bootable, and can customize the menu and background completely. It takes awhile to figure it all out, but once you've got it sorted the way you like, you just backup the whole folder on your computer and can just copy/paste the files into any other flash drive you want to make bootable the same way.

 

[LABFE]

I was using things like Hirens before I started doing this as a job, just throwing everything at a problem hoping something would work. As I got more experienced I realized I was only using a handful of programs and didn't need 6 programs to fix mbr issues. Then I found that many of them were unlicensed copies or older versions and went looking for a more efficient way of working.

So as I developed my own procedures, and from things I've learned here, I now have a select group of tools I use. Some of them are free but many of them are paid for. If they save me time and do a better job, it's worth the investment.

I looked back at how I was doing things 4 years ago when I found TN. I see that my Hirens is on the same dusty spindle with my copy of Spinrite and several other things I don't use anymore.

I like what you had to say here; I'm now leaning towards using the Zalman VE300 so I can put together my own selection of tools.

And thanks fellows! I looked up the Zalman and love the idea of it. Now I'm just trying to figure out which hard drive to pair with it if you have any suggestions? And what storage capacity to go with..

 

[Markverhyden]

Thanks fellows! I looked up the Zalman and love the idea of it. Now I'm just trying to figure out which hard drive to pair with it if you have any suggestions? For that matter, along the lines of Zalman has anyone heard of ISOStick?

I used an SSD with mine. But, since it is my first one, I can't say if there is any improvement over a regular spindle drive.

 

[LABFE]

I'm leaning towards an SSD. I'm trying to decide on storage capacity. I plan on putting all Windows ISO's and various diagnostic and troubleshooting tools on it. Any storage capacity suggestions? I'm liking this Crucial SSD, but not sure if I need to bump up to 128GB.
Crucial m4 64GB 2.5-Inch (9.5mm) SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive CT064M4SSD2

 

[ZenTree]

Anyone know a good source for Zalmans? Had two die in the space of a month (after many years happy usage) and struggling to find somewhere that sells them.