I've always been partial to Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/). It has over 100 tools for diagnostics and repair.
Brad -----Original Message----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 7:30 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Favorite Tools On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 9:34 AM, Matt Plahtinsky<[email protected]> wrote: > Here is a list of some of my most used tools. Many of those are on my list, too. :-) > GParted Live - Resize partitions > http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php I use SystemRescueCD (http://www.sysresccd.org/) which includes parted, gparted, and a bunch more. > HDClone Pro - Hard Drive cloning tool > http://www.hdclone.com/ PartImage and ntfsclone, two partition imaging/cloning tools, are also included on SysRescueCD. > JKDefrag-3.36/MyDefrag-4.0 - Hard Drive Defrag program > http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/ New website: <http://www.mydefrag.com/> > Sysinternals - An sysadmin's best friend > http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx Indeed. In particular, Process Explorer. Stop guessing why someone is complaining "my computer is slow" and actually *know*. > Lua BugLight - For finding out where a program hangs with it run under > restricted mode. > http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/archive/2006/08/07/LuaBuglight.aspx Newer release: <http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/archive/2008/11/06/lua-buglight-2-0-second-preview.aspx> > Belarc Advisor - Audits installed software, list keys, hardware, Microsoft > patches, ect and generates a report. *** this tool is for home use only > according to their website **** Using Belarc Advisor for business purposes is a violation of their license agreement. I presume you like to be paid for the work you do, and get mad when clients stiff you on payment. Perhaps you should extend the same thoughts to your suppliers. > DBAN - Securely wipes hard drives to DOD standards > http://www.dban.org/ FYI, current DoD standards do not permit software-based destruction methods. But DBAN is still a useful tool for wiping "business data". > If you have some tools that you use a lot please share. All "free" tools: UnxUtils Common Unix commands and utilities, ported to Win32 <http://unxutils.sf.net/> Notepad++ Lightweight but full-featured Windows-style text editor <http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/> 7-Zip All purpose archiver/compression tool Handles most archive formats (PKZip, RAR, MSFT CAB, many SFX EXEs, tar, gzip, etc.) <http://www.7-zip.org/> WinDirStat Very good disk space usage visualization tool <http://windirstat.info/> FileZilla Client GUI FTP/SFTP/SCP client <http://filezilla-project.org/> CDBurnerXP Lightweight and user-friendly CD/DVD authoring/burning Now available as an MSI Get rid of that Roxio/Nero bloatware <http://cdburnerxp.se/> ORCA MSI/MST editor Not much good for on-the-spot fix-it jobs, but great for deployment engineering Unfortunately, you have to download the whole damn Windows SDK to get it <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370557(VS.85).aspx> WinDbg Windows debugger Can sometimes tell you what driver causes a STOP bluescreen <http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx> Not really sysadmin things, but worth mentioning: GIMP Bitmap/raster graphics editor Useful for manipulating screen captures Also for dealing with photos users want something done with Also pranks Not as slick as Adobe Photoshop, but a lot cheaper <http://www.gimp.org/> Inkscape Vector graphics editor Useful for network/equipment diagrams and such Not as slick as Visio, but a lot cheaper <http://www.inkscape.org/> Firefox Combined with various extensions, best web browser out there <http://www.mozilla.com/> -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ Kern Health Systems Confidentiality Statement: This email and any attachments are legally privileged and can contain business proprietary and/or confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose. This information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. The authorized recipient of this information is prohibited from disclosing this information to any other party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or action taken in reliance on the contents of these documents is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately and arrange for the return or destruction of these documents. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
