Rescue CD

A rescue CD (or disk) is a wonderful tool. It allows you to boot your computer from a CD instead of your hard drive.

You see, when a computer first starts up, it checks various devices in the order that they've been set for an operating system or "OS". In modern computers, this usually is: CD drive, hard drive, and maybe other devices.

This means that if you have a CD in the drive, the computer will check there first for an OS. If it finds one, it will boot up from the CD. If not, it will look at the next device in the list--probably the hard drive. Since Windows is installed on the hard drive, and it didn't find an OS on the CD, it boots from the hard drive.

There are whole operating systems, such as various flavors of the Linux OS, that can reside on a single CD. In fact, that's what a boot CD is--an OS on a CD.

Even if your computer won't start at all because you have a really nasty infection that prevents it, you can always boot from a "boot CD" because the hard drive has little to do with it. Since the hard drive is where the infection is, the infection is not involved.

Once you've booted from an OS on a CD, you can view the files on your hard drive, run malware scans, and other tasks directly from the CD. I've compiled a list of places that you can download and burn one of these CDs below. You need to do this right away and keep it in a safe place. It can really save your system's life some day.

Oh, and you can also do it on a flash drive (USB stick) but it can be a little harder to do. I'd stick with a CD for most folks.

SystemRescueCD.   For the not-faint-of-heart, the rescue CD on this page comes with a bunch of tools for partitioning disks, managing volumes, network tools, etc. If you're a novice, don't bother; there are easier ones to work with below.

Avira AntiVir Rescue System.   These guys have a nice one. You can boot up your computer and scan for viruses from the CD. You can also rescue data from the infected system.

AVG Rescue CD.   Another simple-to-use rescue CD. This one is easy to load on a USB stick too.

BitDefender Rescue CD.   I've provided the link to the "How To.." page for this one because they have the download, a video, and a bit of detail on using it here.

Kaspersky Rescue Disk   Click on the download link