But with the advent of the tiny, lightweight, and portable USB key drive, system builders now have a new tool. I believe the USB key drive could alter—even usurp—our old rescue and recovery methodologies forever.
The USB key drive—also known as a flash or thumb drive—is most commonly deployed as a storage or backup utility. But with a few simple conversion steps, you can transform any key drive into a full-blown rescue and recovery tool. In this Recipe, I'll take you through those steps. I'll also outline the advantages, and a few disadvantages, of transforming the key drive into a bootable utility.
While there are a couple of software installations involved, both are freeware and easy to deal with. You'll also need another PC along for the ride when actually performing a full rescue and/or extensive data recovery—but more on that later. Also required are any boot floppy images necessary for the recovery process, which we'll also get into more detail about later. Finally, while the examples I provide were done on a Linux box, everything I discuss in this Recipe will work on Windows systems, too.
Ingredients
Here are the essential components you'll need for converting a USB key drive into a bootable utility:
- USB key drive: Any kind or capability will do. In the tests I performed, an older Memorex TD 2B flash device fulfilled the requirement with 128 MB (119 MB formatted) of storage space.
- Recovery Is Possible Linux: This specialized, minimal Linux distribution—best known as RIP Linux—provides recovery tools for both Windows and Linux installations. It can boot into a workable desktop on many types of hardware. I like RIP for its small size (35 MB) and because it contains applications designed for data recovery. RIP Linux weighs in at 72 MB, leaving 47 MB for additional rescue images (that's more than 30 1.44-MB floppies) and run-time storage.
- SYSLINUX binaries and files: SYSLINUX provides a minimal boot loader environment for launching into other rescue, repair, or recovery images, including pared-down Linux or Windows operating systems. I used SYSLINUX to enable an easy-to-use boot menu for booting into any number of floppy-emulation images contained on the USB key drive. In some cases, SYSLINUX must be obtained separately, as not all Linux distributions may contain its files by default.
- USB-compliant BIOS: This simply means the BIOS can recognize and boot from USB key drives. Many modern BIOS makes and models, including Phoenix Award BIOS, are USB-compliant.
- Desired boot floppy images: You'll need any boot floppy images that are necessary for the recovery process, which will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Some vendors still issue rescue/recovery floppy images or driver installers for add-in cards; these make for great inclusions with this USB key drive solution. These images comprise drivers, utilities, and configuration data. It's all compressed into a single 1.44-MB floppy image used to boot a machine into some state to apply changes, updates, or recover a damaged installation.
- An additional working PC: You'll need another (working) PC to create recovery images and modify the USB key drive contents.
