BartPE

Work as a systems or security administrator long enough and you'll undoubtedly need to access a downed Windows system. Perhaps the system drive crashed or a user altered the system so that it won't boot properly. Maybe an ex-employee changed the passwords or locked you out of the system by some other means.

Several tools can help you access data from otherwise inaccessible systems. I'll step you through the wonderfully easy to use utility called BartPE. With BartPE, you can insert a CD-ROM or DVD into a troubled computer, boot the system to a graphical environment resembling Windows, map a network drive, and copy the system's data to a safe place on your network.

The Preinstalled Environment
BartPE is named for its creator, Bart Lagerweij, and for its function as a preinstalled environment. A preinstalled environment is essentially a bootable CD-ROM that includes a robust OS and a series of recovery utilities. BartPE differs from several available Linux preinstalled environments in that it uses actual Windows programs and libraries to create a Windowsesque interface—right down to the dialog boxes, command prompt, and icons. BartPE even lets you install your own third-party programs, which it calls plug-ins.

After you build your preinstalled environment CD-ROM or DVD, you can insert it into the fallen computer and boot the system. A minute later, you'll have full access to the computer's files through a Windows interface. Think of BartPE as an actual Windows environment that lets you access a system's files and/or the network (although it's not the best tool for resetting an administrator password or hacking and/or accessing a fallen computer's registry).

Creating a Bootable CD-ROM or DVD
Creating the BartPE preinstalled environment CD-ROM or DVD image is easy. The process consists of four basic steps:

Working in the Preinstalled Environment
Windows administrators will feel comfortable with the menus, dialog boxes, and other UI aspects based on standard Windows APIs, as well as BartPE's many original Windows DLLs and supporting files. BartPE includes a file manager, which lets you browse all the FAT32 or NTFS files on your host computer, and a command prompt, which lets you run many Windows commands. Figure 1 shows some BartPE interface elements.

While in BartPE, you can view the NTFS permissions on files and folders on a system, but they won't resolve because your preinstalled environment won't have domain recognition. Even though you're running in a Windows-like environment, this environment contains only a subset of Windows features. For example, although you can access all the files on a host system started with BartPE, you can't add users to file permissions, and you'll receive an error message if you try to do so.

In your preinstalled environment, you have full access to the host system's files as well as administrative rights to anything within the environment. For example, if you enabled network support, you can use the Windows net use command to map a drive to another Windows computer and copy files between the systems. Because BartPE runs under its own workstation credentials, you simply need to specify a domain user to access any network credentials just as though you were using a Windows computer outside the domain or workgroup that you're trying to access.

BartPE also includes the Microsoft diskpart.exe partition-analyzing utility, Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection, and of course all the plug-ins you installed. A graphical environment isn't helpful if you can't see or use it, so BartPE lets you adjust your mouse, keyboard, and even your screen resolution so that it's usable, whether you're viewing an old LCD screen in a server room or a 21" monitor with high-resolution capability.

BartPE's robust Windows environment is an effective tool for troubleshooting or accessing unresponsive or damaged Windows computers on your network. Although several Linux preinstalled environment distributions designed for CD-ROM or DVD boot-up are available, they're mostly for security or other niche purposes. I think Windows administrators will find BartPE provides similar utilities in a form that will make them feel immediately at home.