Linux Rescue CD's can also repair Windows

Repairing Windows PCs the Linux way

Do you want to know the basics of repairing Windows systems with Knoppix Linux?

You should. It's incredibly useful information to have, since with Knoppix, or other live CD-based Linuxes, you can do life-saving surgery on near-dead Windows systems.

I've done it several times myself and I've meant to get around to writing an introductory how-to on the subject. So much for that idea! Scott Granneman has beaten me to it with his excellent story, Fixing Windows with Knoppix, in our sister publication, Extreme Tech.

In this tale, Granneman goes over some of the repairs you're most likely to want to do on a Windows system with the Debian-based Knoppix Linux. These include: working on the Windows machine's hard drive partitions; repairing broken boot.ini files; editing the system registry file; and recovering data from dead systems to USB drives, writeable CD or DVD, network drives, or even an email account. [...]

Or how about SystemRescueCD, designed specifically as a rescue CD:

The best Linux system repair distribution gets better

[...] The new 0.4 version of SystemRescueCd was released on Oct. 4. This new edition focuses on disk partitioning, Vista support, and data rescue tasks. In the past, we've found SystemRescueCD to be the best of the best when it comes to repairing troubled systems. We see every reason to believe that this version will be even better.

[...]

If you're a Windows user, don't let the fact that this is a Linux-based repair tool keep you away. SystemRescueCD has long excelled at repairing Windows systems. With new support for the Vista “Offline NT Password & Registry Editor” and improved support for NTFS drives, SystemRescueCD is better than ever for what ails your Windows PCs. [...]

These can be downloaded for free. And if nothing else, a live Linux CD can easily help you rescue your data from an otherwise inaccessible hard drive. Every computer user should have a Linux live CD handy.