The World of Computing and Solutions

What do you do when your computer will not boot, your most recent backup is three months old, you don’t have an emergency CD? What if you’re using a Laptop that doesn’t even have a CD drive? Say goodbye to your data!!! OR just whip out the bootable USB Key (or Thumb Drive) you prepared in advance. The key will boot into a free Windows-based system called BartPE (Bart’s Preinstalled Environment), devised by Bart Lagerweij, from which you can copy files on your hard drive to the key, or in some cases, send them over a network to another computer.

Not all computers can boot from all USB Keys; you’ll need to experiment a little with yours since there’s no way to predict if it’ll work.

The tools you’ll need are a USB 2.0 Compatible drive with 256MB or more of storage space; a Microsoft Windows XP installation CD with Service Pack two, see step one below, if you don’t have a Windows XP CD with SP2 and Barts PE Builder. For faster bootin on some, but not all systems, you can try Flashboot for around $25.00, which automates the process of installing the BartPE Environment to a USB Key.

Before booting from your USB Key, locate your PC’s BIOS settings and explore the menus to find the USB settings, or possibly the boot order settings, to add the key to the list of boot drives (write down any settings you change, in case you have to restore them later). You may need to specify that a USB Key will be read as a hard drive, not a “super-floppy”. One important note: There’s a serious security risk involved in allowing your PC boot from a USB Key - anyone with a bootable key can take advantage of the capability. So be careful.

Step 1: Got SP2?
If your windows XP CD includes Service Pack 2, skip this section, but if not, use Autostreamer to build a burnable CD Image from your original WIN XP CD with a “slipstreamed” SP2 file (download it from www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2 click download and deploy SP2 to multiple computers). The restore CD that comes with mass-market machines won’t work; only an original Win XP install CD will.

Step 2: Start building
PE builder builds a BartPE disk by combining files from a Win XP-with-SP2 CD with its own files. For faster building, copy your CD to a folder on your hard drive. Choose Create ISO image to use your USB Key - of course burn to CD/DVD would create a bootable CD.

Step 3: Select Plugins
PE builder’s plugins dialog box lists files included with the PE Builder and others that require you to add commercial and freeware programs. You can also add network and other drivers following instructions on the PE Builder site; you may need to add drives for network connectivity.

Step 4: Flashboot IT.
The easiest way to get BartPE on a USB Key is with Flashboot. Simply point the program at the ISO file created by PE Builder, select Convert Bart PE Bootable Disk to Bootable Flash Disk and let Flashboot do the work. If the resulting USB Key doesn’t work, a slower booting method may work instead.

Step 5: Start it up.
It looks like the first screen you see when Windows FX starts up, but it’s BartPE booting from a USB Key.