This free tool lets you create a bootable emergency disc customized
for your PC. Short for Bart's Preinstalled Environment, BartPE
copies the Windows files from your hard drive or Windows
Installation CD and creates a bootable CD or DVD that you can then
use to boot into Windows if your installation of Windows gets
trashed. It installs a number of basic drivers, so your mouse,
keyboard and many network adapters will work. With a little
technical knowledge, you can add other drivers to the bootable CD.
BartPE also comes with a number of useful plugin programs for
tasks such as virus scanning and CD burning. The latter feature
lets you boot into Windows and copy files to a CD.
When I tried it on a test system, it worked perfectly, enabling
me to boot into Windows from a CD, access my network and copy
files. However, it won't help if you haven't built the boot disc
before your system fails because the program that builds the
bootable CD runs in Windows. The best advice is to run it now
before your PC fails and store the disc it builds in a safe
place.
Your download is about to begin. Once it starts, you can continue to browse other features at PCWorld. If the download doesn't begin automatically within a few seconds,
click here.
