Sometimes it doesn't take much to bring your Windows 10 system (with all its data) to its knees: a corrupt boot sector, a virus infection, incorrect formatting or a forgotten password. Panic is a bad counselor. Using a live rescue stick with Hiren's BootCD on it is a better strategy. How do you make such a USB stick and what can you do with it?
Windows does indeed contain a rescue environment (Windows RE or recovery environment), but with some problems, that too falls short or you can't get it to work. In that case, a boot medium with an extensive arsenal of analysis and help tools can still help. Hiren's BootCD is just such a live USB stick. Anyone who has been working with such tools for some time will probably know Hiren's BootCD (HBCD for short) as a Linux environment with a lot of illegal tools. However, the makers changed course a few months ago. All applications are neatly legal and the distribution is no longer based on Linux, but on a stripped-down version of Windows 10 (the Windows Preinstallation Environment). Hence the name HBCD-PE. Windows users will feel right at home.
The boot medium can handle legacy BIOS as well as UEFI systems and accepts 2 GB of internal memory. Connecting to your network or to the internet can be done both wired and via WiFi.
01 Download
Like most boot media, you can also virtualize HBCD-PE, for example with Oracle VM VirtualBox (www.virtualbox.org), but that's of little use if you're actually trying to reanimate a physical system. We therefore show you how to install HBCD-PE on a USB stick.
First, of course, you'll need the HBCD-PE disk image file (www.hirensbootcd.org/download). Note that you have to scroll down and click on the file name itself (HBCD_PE_x64.iso). Take a look at the overview of the supplied software on this web page.
You also need another tool to convert the iso file to a bootable stick. For this we like to use Rufus (http://rufus.ie), especially because Rufus can compose media that are suitable for both bios and uefi systems. You are also welcome to download the portable version.
02 Install
Make sure there is an (empty) USB stick in your PC with preferably at least 4 GB of storage space and start Rufus. In the drop-down menu at Device select the correct USB stick. Bee Boot Selection do you choose Disc or ISO image (select) and via the button Selecting refer to the just downloaded iso file.
Now you have to pay attention: if you want to get started with the USB stick on a uefi system, then choose the option under Partition layout GPT and with Target System select you UEFI (no CSM). However, if it is a (perhaps somewhat older) bios system, then you choose respectively MBR and BIOS (or UEFI-CSM). The options File system and Cluster size dynamically adapt to your choices and therefore best leave you undisturbed.
If you are not sure which target system it is exactly, you can try both in succession if necessary. After all, creating such a stick only takes a minute or so. Or you open the app System Information on the target Windows system, if it still wants to boot. In the section System overview stands next to BIOS mode or Deprecated (if it is a legacy bios) or UEFI.
If you are always the person who offers help in your circle of acquaintances, you can of course always keep two HBCD sticks on hand: one for bios and one for uefi.
multi boat
HBCD is quite flexible, but you might have liked to put other live distributions on the same stick (see also box 'Alternatives'). With the free and portable tool Your Universal Multiboot Installer, YUMI for short (www.tiny.cc/yumiboot) you can compile a bootable stick with various distributions. When starting up, a menu will appear from which you can select the desired distribution. You can then select other distributions afterwards.
However, if you have a uefi system, then you have to get started with YUMI UEFI, but unfortunately that version is not quite right yet.
03 Start up
The stick is now in principle ready for use, but presumably the language and keyboard layout are not yet set correctly. So it's best to sort that out first. In Windows Explorer, go to the root folder of the stick. Here you right click on the file HBCD_PE.ini and select your Open with / Notepad. Track the rule with // English or with // Belgian (Period), depending on whether you live in the Netherlands or Flanders, and remove the two slashes (//) on the next line. Save your changes via Save file.
But of course you also want to actually test some things. Insert the USB stick into the target system and start the device with it. Depending on your system, you may need to hold down a function key shortly after powering up to open a special boot menu. In many cases this is F12, but it can also be F8 or Esc, for example. Normally this menu contains an item that points to your USB stick, such as USB Storage Device.
Select this boot medium and the familiar Windows environment of HBCD-PE should appear shortly after. By the way, who thinks they have found a way to continue to use Windows from a stick for free from now on: it concerns a limited environment (WinPE) that also restarts every 72 hours without further ado.
Network
It can of course be useful to access other PCs in your network from the environment of Hiren's BootCD-PE, and certainly to be able to access the internet, for example to download up-to-date antivirus databases. If you don't have a network connection, right-click on the network icon in the Windows system tray and choose Show Main GU. You will arrive in the settings window of the PE Network Manager tool. Open the tab here Properties and choose the (wired) network connection (preferably wired) from the drop-down menu at the top. Then open the tab IP Settings and click Obtain an IP address automatically. Then hold the mouse pointer over the network icon: here you can now read the IP address, the address of the default gateway and the address of the DNS server. You can also enter it yourself if you wish. In this case, press the button Use static IP address. If certain connections appear to be blocked, please check the tab firewall and press the button here Stop. Confirm your choices with OK.
04 Data Recovery
Suppose you have problems with a system that no longer wants to restart, as a result of which you no longer have access to your data. Then the HBCD-PE stick offers a way out. When you start Explorer from this WinPE environment, you can still access your files and copy them, for example, to the stick itself or to another USB disk.
If your system still wants to reboot, but you only have one partition and you accidentally deleted files there, then it is not a good idea to install a data recovery tool on that partition. After all, it could just overwrite the searched files.
Fortunately, HBCD-PE has some data recovery tools on board. You can find it via All Programs / Hard Disk Tools / Data Recovery.
One of the better ones is without a doubt Recuva. Start it up, make it clear to the wizard which file types you are interested in (you can also All files select) and which drive the tool should search for. Initially you leave the check mark Enable Advanced Scanning away and immediately press the button Start. If this does not work, you can still activate this time-consuming scanning procedure afterwards. After a while, a list of files that may be recoverable will appear. The column Status indicates the probability of recovery success, from irreparable until Excellent. Place a checkmark next to the searched files, click on Retrieve and select another external medium for this.
05 Password recovery
It's not that smart, but it can happen to anyone: you have forgotten the (administrator) password of your Windows installation. HBCD-PE knows how to handle that too.
Go to All Programs / Security / Passwords and click NT Password Edit. Bee Path to SAM file, you can refer to the folder via the button with the three dots (…) \Windows\System32\Config on the disc with the intended Windows installation and open it there SAM-file. Bee User list then the names of the corresponding Windows accounts will appear. Select the desired account, click Change password, let both New Password if verify empty and confirm with OK and with Save changes. Press exit, exit WinPE and start your regular Windows installation.
You should now be able to log in without a password using the previously selected account.
Alternatives
HBCD isn't the only live distribution focused on troubleshooting and data recovery, of course. For example, there is also Bob.Omb's Modified Win10PEx64 (www.tiny.cc/bombs), which is also based on WinPE and has a lot of useful software on board. It is a bit more difficult to install and, moreover, it is no longer under development.
Almost all other distributions are Linux based. Most do offer in a graphical desktop. This is the case, for example, with the popular SystemRescueCD (www.system-rescue-cd.org), where you can use the command startx reached the desktop environment. SystemRescueCD contains many useful system tools, including some file browsers that allow you to recover data files, as well as a partition manager (GParted) and restorer (TestDisk).
Furthermore, there are also several live distributions available that are specifically intended to detect and remove viruses and malware. A recent overview can be found at www.tiny.cc/bestrescue.
06 System Restore
You have been able to secure all data, but you are still left with a failing Windows installation and it would of course be nice to get it up and running again. There is a good chance that you will succeed with Lazesoft Windows Recovery, which you can find via All Programs / Windows Recovery.
Immediately after the start, indicate the problematic Windows installation or, if necessary, the Windows disk, and confirm with OK. A window with several tabs will now appear, each tab containing multiple recovery tools. Admittedly, it's not that easy to figure out which tool is best to try in your situation. We recommend that you read the descriptions carefully and possibly also google for additional information. If possible, make a complete backup of the relevant disk (partition) first. You can find the tools for this at All Programs / Hard Disk Tools / Imaging.
It is nice that the most drastic tools of Lazesoft Windows Recovery are about a Undobutton that you can use to reverse things. This also applies, for example, to One Click Fix, which should be able to solve all kinds of startup problems after a simple push of a button, for example when you saw little more than a black screen with a flickering cursor.
07 Malware Detection
You probably have an up-to-date antivirus tool running on your system, but malware can still slip through the cracks. If you indeed suspect a malware infection, it is best to start your system in a clean environment, i.e. with HBCD-PE.
Open All Programs / Security / AntiVirus. You will find two different antivirus tools here: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and ESET Online Scanner.
We'll start with the first. Immediately after startup, click Database Version on Update. You open further Settings / General Settings and set the desired language, such as Dutch. Bee Malware exclusions you can optionally specify locations that Malwarebytes should ignore during scanning.
On to the part Scan. if you here Custom scan select, you can use the button Set scan specify exactly where the tool should look for malware. In any case, select the disk (or disks) on which Windows and your programs are installed. Confirm your choices with Scan now.
The other antivirus, ESET Online, works in a similar way. It definitely doesn't hurt to run both one after the other. After all, what one person overlooks, another may detect. This is the case, for example, for the (otherwise completely harmless) EICAR test virus, which you can download from www.tiny.cc/eicar. After all, ESET recognizes it as malware, while Malwarebytes happily ignores it.
08 Own tools
Hiren's BootCD offers a nice range of utilities. Still, we can imagine that you want to use other recovery programs that are not included in HBCD-PE by default. In the box 'Multiboot' we tell you how to get multiple live environments on the same USB stick, but it is also possible to start all kinds of portable tools on the USB stick from the HBCD-PE environment. Integrating these tools in the desktop environment as shortcuts is also possible, but that is of little use since they disappear again after a restart.
When it comes to portable tools, you can find inspiration at //portableapps.com/apps, a hefty collection of approximately 400 apps.
Suppose you have your eye on the file browser Q-Dir Portable. Then download the corresponding .paf.exe file on any PC and run it with a double click. Confirm with Next one and with Agree and refer with To leaf through to the root directory of your HBCD-PE stick. This will automatically create the \Q-DirPortable created. Confirm with to install and with Complete. When you start another system with this USB stick, you only have to start Explorer here and the exe file in the folder \Q-DirPortable to be carried out. A little later, the four windows of Q-Dir will appear on your screen.
