You have problem with “NTLDR is missing, Press any key to restart” during boot up?
What is NTLDR? NTLDR (NT Loader) is the boot loader for all releases of Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system up to and including Windows XP.
This message NTLDR is missing indicates that the boot loader is either corrupted or missing due to some reason.
There are two approaches to fix the missing boot loader in windows XP.
If your Windows is installed on FAT32 Partitions:
1. Boot your computer with a Win98 startup floppy.
2. Now, copy the NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM files from the i386 directory on your floppy to your windows installation drive (e.g in “c:\” in case the windows is installed on c:).
If your Windows is installed on NTFS Partitions:
1. Arrange for the bootable Windows XP setup CD.
2. Boot from CD select R=Repair option, by pressing R key during the setup.
3. Select the windows installation.
4. You need to enter in the administrator password when requested, if you had not set any password for the administrator account just press enter without typing.
5. Type the following commands to repair the boot loader, where X is the drive letter for your CD / DVD drive.
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C\:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
6. Eject CD-ROM and type exit to restart.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
NTLDR missing or NTDETECT.COM not found in windows XP
How to increase disk space in case of Low Disk space?
Do you feel that the free space on your hard-disk is too little ? Does it seem that something fishy is going on which is eating your hard-disk space? If your answer is yes, read on till end to uncover the secrets of this type of behavior.
Reasons for consumption of free space
Temp files on C drive
Temporary Internet files
Backup files created during installation
Windows system restore data
Duplicate copies of large files like movies, songs etc.
Deleting Uninstall files for windows updates.
There are some more reasons as well, but these are most common reasons which can be observed. Now the important question, how to fix it ?ok read on for the solution.
Fix:
a. Deleting Temp files:
Temp files are the files which are created for some temporary purpose by many softwares. Go to Start > Run type “%temp” (without quotes) and press enter. This will open a Temp folder, at this folder,select and delete all files at this location. After this empty your windows recycle bin.
Note: You may not be able to delete certain files as they might be in use, but delete as many as you can.
b. Deleting Temporary Internet files and backup files:
There are several ways to do it, but we will tell you the most convenient way. Open My computer, right click on the disk drive , go to properties and click on Disk Cleanup.
Select the temporary Internet files,recycle bin,setup log files, temporary files, office setup files, and any other option which is not very important for you and Click OK. This will start the cleanup process and will delete the un-necessary files thus increasing the disk space.
Note:
Above two methods deals with removal of junk and temporary internet files which can also be removed automatically using a software called CCleaner which can be downloaded from here.
What is CCleaner?
CCleaner removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing it to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more HDD space.
c. Deleting old restoration data:
As a part of system restore utility, windows creates some check-points and saves corresponding data on each disk having restore feature. These files also consume significant space. You can delete all of them except the most recent restore point data if you feel that your computer is running stable for a long time and you may not need very old restore points. To delete it, open disk cleanup window as mentioned in previous step and click on More Options tab
Click on System restore clean up button as i have Placed my Cursor on the above Screenshot. This will give a warning message, click yes to it. This will delete all old restoration points except the most recent one.
d .Delete duplicate copies of large files:
Sometimes we have several copies of same documents, songs and even videos which consume lots of space un-necessarily. Finding them manually and deleting them is a real pain. But this work has been made very easy by double-killer. Its an intelligent utility which scans your drives for duplicate copies of files and gives you and option to delete them. You can download it from here for free.
e. Deleting Uninstall files for windows updates:
You can also delete some folders whose name starts with “$NtUninstall.” in the windows directory (for example C:\Windows ) if C drive is the primary partition.
However, They are referring to prior hot fixes, so they should be safe to delete if your system is stable with the fixes applied after windows update, and you have no intention of uninstalling them.
Configure Squid to control web access
Squid a proxy server and web cache daemon. It has a wide variety of uses, from speeding up a web server by caching repeated requests, to caching web, DNS and other computer network lookups for a group of people sharing network resources, to aiding security by filtering traffic. Squid is primarily used for HTTP and FTP and it includes limited support for several other protocols such as TLS, SSL, Internet Gopher and HTTPS and the development version of Squid includes IPv6 and ICAP support too.
In this article I’m not going to cover the installation process of Squid-cache. My focus will be on the access control based configuration of Squid-cache for various requirements and also I’ll be covering how to fine tune the other applications to work with Squid, such as the firewall. In other words I’m gonna talk about access-controls (ACLs) in squid.conf and some post configurations.
The “/etc/squid/squid.conf” file
The main Squid configuration file is squid.conf, and, like most Linux applications, Squid needs to be restarted for changes to the configuration file can take effect.
Squid will fail to start if you don’t give your server a hostname. You can set this with the visible_hostname parameter. Here, the hostname is set to the real name of the server ‘myhost’.
visible_hostname myhost
You can limit users’ ability to browse the Internet with access control lists (ACLs). Each ACL line defines a particular type of activity, such as an access time or source network, they are then linked to an http_access statement that tells Squid whether or not to deny or allow traffic that matches the ACL.
Squid matches each Web access request it receives by checking the http_access list from top to bottom. If it finds a match, it enforces the allow or deny statement and stops reading further. You have to be careful not to place a deny statement in the list that blocks a similar allow statement below it.
NOTE: The final http_access statement denies everything, so it is best to place new http_access statements above that statement.
Squid has a minimum required set of ACL statements in the ACCESS_CONTROL section of the squid.conf file. It is best to put new customized entries right after this list to improve the readability.
Restricting web access by time
You can create access control lists with time parameters. For example, you can allow only business hour access from the home network, while always restricting access to host 192.168.1.10.
#
# Add this to the bottom of the ACL section of squid.conf
#
acl home_network src 192.168.1.0/24
acl business_hours time M T W H F 9:00-17:00
acl RestrictedHost src 192.168.1.10
#
# Add this at the top of the http_access section of squid.conf
#
http_access deny RestrictedHost
http_access allow home_network business_hours
Or, you can allow morning access only:
#
# Add this to the bottom of the ACL section of squid.conf
#
acl morning_hours time 08:00-12:00
#
# Add this at the top of the http_access section of squid.conf
#
http_access allow morning_hours
Restricting access to specific URLs
Squid is also capable of reading files containing lists of web sites and/or domains for use in ACLs. In this example we create to lists in files named /etc/squid/allowed-sites.acl and /etc/squid/restricted-sites.acl
# File: /etc/squid/allowed-sites.acl
www.gnu.org
mysite.com
# File: /etc/squid/restricted-sites.acl
www.restricted.com
illegal.com
These can then be used to always block the restricted sites and permit the allowed sites during working hours. This can be illustrated by expanding our previous example slightly.
#
# Add this to the bottom of the ACL section of squid.conf
#
acl home_network src 192.168.1.0/24
acl business_hours time M T W H F 9:00-17:00
acl GoodSites dstdomain "/etc/allowed-sites.acl"
acl BadSites dstdomain "/etc/restricted-sites.acl"
#
# Add this at the top of the http_access section of squid.conf
#
http_access deny BadSites
http_access allow home_network business_hours GoodSites
Restricting web access by IP address
You can create an access control list that restricts web access to users on certain networks. In this case, it’s an ACL that defines a home network of 192.168.1.0.
#
# Add this to the bottom of the ACL section of squid.conf
#
acl home_network src 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
You also have to add a corresponding http_access statement that allows traffic that matches the ACL:
#
# Add this at the top of the http_access section of squid.conf
#
http_access allow home_network
Password based authentication using NCSA
You can configure Squid to prompt users for a username and password when they are browsing any URLs. Squid comes with a program called ncsa_auth that reads any NCSA-compliant encrypted password file. You can use the htpasswd program that comes installed with Apache to create your passwords. Here is how it’s done:
First you need to create the password file. Here the name of the password file should be /etc/squid/squid_passwd, and you need to make sure that it’s universally readable.
[root]# touch /etc/squid/squid_passwd
[root]# chmod o+r /etc/squid/squid_passwd
Then use the htpasswd program to add users to the password file. You can add users at anytime without having to restart Squid. In this case, you add a username called ‘test_user’:
[root]# htpasswd /etc/squid/squid_passwd test_user
New password:
Re-type new password:
Adding password for user test_user
Now you have to locate the ncsa_auth file.
[root]# locate ncsa_auth
/usr/lib/squid/ncsa_auth
Edit squid.conf; specifically, you need to define the authentication program in squid.conf, which is in this case ncsa_auth. Next, create an ACL named ncsa_users with the REQUIRED keyword that forces Squid to use the NCSA auth_param method you defined previously. Finally, create an http_access entry that allows traffic that matches the ncsa_users ACL entry. Here’s a simple user authentication example; the order of the statements are important:
#
# Add this to the auth_param section of squid.conf
#
auth_param basic program /usr/lib/squid/ncsa_auth /etc/squid/squid_passwd
#
# Add this to the bottom of the ACL section of squid.conf
#
acl ncsa_users proxy_auth REQUIRED
#
# Add this at the top of the http_access section of squid.conf
#
http_access allow ncsa_users
This will enable the password based authentication and allows access only during business hours. Once again, the order of the statements is important:
#
# Add this to the auth_param section of squid.conf
#
auth_param basic program /usr/lib/squid/ncsa_auth /etc/squid/squid_passwd
#
# Add this to the bottom of the ACL section of squid.conf
#
acl ncsa_users proxy_auth REQUIRED
acl business_hours time M T W H F 9:00-17:00
#
# Add this at the top of the http_access section of squid.conf
#
http_access allow ncsa_users business_hours
Remember to restart Squid for the changes to take effect.
Forcing users to use your Squid Server
If you are using access controls on Squid, you may also want to configure your firewall to allow only HTTP Internet access to only the Squid server. This forces your users to browse the Web through the Squid proxy. Also it is possible to limit HTTP Internet access to only the Squid server without having to modify the browser settings on your client PCs. This called a transparent proxy configuration. It is usually achieved by configuring a firewall between the client PCs and the WAN to redirect all HTTP (TCP port 80) traffic to the Squid server on TCP port 3128, which is the Squid server’s default TCP port.
Squid transparent proxy configuration
Your first step will be to modify your squid.conf to create a transparent proxy. The procedure is different depending on your version of Squid. In older versions of Squid ( <>squid.conf would be as follows:
httpd_accel_host virtual
httpd_accel_port 80
httpd_accel_with_proxy on
httpd_accel_uses_host_header on
Newer versions of Squid simply require you to add the word “transparent” to the default “http_port 3128″ statement. In this example, Squid not only listens on TCP port 3128 for proxy connections, but will also do so in transparent mode.
http_port 3128 transparent
Configuring iptables to support the Squid tansparent proxy
In this example, assuming the Squid server and firewall are in the same server, all HTTP traffic from the home network is redirecting to the firewall itself on the Squid port of 3128 and then only the firewall itself has access the Internet on port 80.
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth1 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3128
iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED,RELATED -i eth1 -p tcp --dport 3128
iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -o eth1 -p tcp --sport 80
Note: This example is specific to HTTP traffic. You won’t be able to adapt this example to support HTTPS web browsing on TCP port 443, as that protocol specifically doesn’t allow the insertion of a “man in the middle” server for security purposes. One solution is to add IP masquerading statements for port 443, or any other important traffic, immediately after the code snippet. This will allow non HTTP traffic to access the Internet without being cached by Squid.
Bash Tips and Tricks
When I first started using Linux, the only bash feature I took advantage of was going back through the command history using the up arrow. I soon learned additional features by watching others and asking questions. In this article, I’d like to share some bash tricks I’ve learned over the years.
This article isn’t meant to cover all of the features of the bash shell; that would require a book, and plenty of books are available that cover this topic. Instead, this article is a summary of the bash tricks I use most often and would be lost without.
Brace Expansion
One of my favorite bash tricks is brace expansion. Brace expansion takes a list of strings separated by commas and expands those strings into separate arguments for you. The list is enclosed by braces, the symbols { and }, and there should be no spaces around the commas. For example:
$ echo {one,two,red,blue}
one two red blue
Using brace expansion as illustrated in this simple example doesn’t offer too much to the user. In fact, the above example requires typing two more characters than simply typing:
echo one two red blue
which produces the same result. However, brace expansion becomes quite useful when the brace-enclosed list occurs immediately before, after or inside another string:
$ echo {one,two,red,blue}baloon
onebaloon twobaloon redbaloon bluebaloon
$ echo fish{one,two,red,blue}
fishone fishtwo fishred fishblue
$ echo fi{one,two,red,blue}sh
fionesh fitwosh firedsh fibluesh
Notice that there are no spaces inside the brackets or between the brackets and the adjoining strings. If you include spaces, it breaks things:
$ echo {one, two, red, blue }fi
{one, two, red, blue }fi
$ echo "{one,two,red,blue} fi"
{one,two,red,blue} fi
However, you can use spaces if they’re enclosed in quotes outside the braces or within an item in the comma-separated list:
$ echo {"one ","two ","red ","blue "}fish
one fish two fish red fish blue fish
$ echo {one,two,red,blue}" fish"
one fish two fish red fish blue fish
You also can nest braces, but you must use some caution here too:
$ echo {{1,2,3},1,2,3}
1 2 3 1 2 3
$ echo {{1,2,3}1,2,3}
11 21 31 2 3
Now, after all these examples, you might be thinking to yourself, “Those are great parlor tricks, but why should I care about brace expansion?”
Brace expansion becomes useful when you need to make a backup of a file. This is why it’s my favorite shell trick. I use it almost every day when I need to make a backup of a config file before changing it. For example, if I’m making a change to my Apache configuration, I can do the following and save some typing:
$ cp /etc/apache2/apache2.conf{,.bak}
Notice that there is no character between the opening brace and the first comma. It’s perfectly acceptable to do this and is useful when adding characters to an existing filename or when one argument is a substring of the other. Then, if I need to see what changes I made later in the day, I use the diff command and reverse the order of the strings inside the braces:
$ diff /etc/apache2/apache2.conf{.bak,}
1050a1051
> # I added this comment earlier
Redirecting Standard Error
Have you ever looked for a file using the find command, only to learn the file you were looking for is lost in a sea of permission denied error messages that quickly fill your terminal window?
If you are the administrator of the system, you can become root and execute find again as root. Because root can read any file, you don’t get that error anymore. Unfortunately, not everyone has root access on the system being used. Besides, it’s bad practice to be root unless it’s absolutely necessary. So what can you do?
One thing you can do is redirect your output to a file. Basic output redirection should be nothing new to anyone who has spent a reasonable amount of time using any UNIX or Linux shell, so I won’t go into detail regarding the basics of output redirection. To save the useful output from the find command, you can redirect the output to a file:
$ find / -name foo > output.txt
You still see the error messages on the screen but not the path of the file you’re looking for. Instead, that is placed in the file output.txt. When the find command completes, you can cat the file output.txt to get the location(s) of the file(s) you want.
That’s an acceptable solution, but there’s a better way. Instead of redirecting the standard output to a file, you can redirect the error messages to a file. This can be done by placing a 2 directly in front of the redirection angle bracket. If you are not interested in the error messages, you simply can send them to /dev/null:
$ find / -name foo 2> /dev/null
This shows you the location of file foo, if it exists, without those pesky permission denied error messages. I almost always invoke the find command in this way.
The number 2 represents the standard error output stream. Standard error is where most commands send their error messages. Normal (non-error) output is sent to standard output, which can be represented by the number 1. Because most redirected output is the standard output, output redirection works only on the standard output stream by default. This makes the following two commands equivalent:
$ find / -name foo > output.txt
$ find / -name foo 1> output.txt
Sometimes you might want to save both the error messages and the standard output to file. This often is done with cron jobs, when you want to save all the output to a log file. This also can be done by directing both output streams to the same file:
$ find / -name foo > output.txt 2> output.txt
This works, but again, there’s a better way to do it. You can tie the standard error stream to the standard output stream using an ampersand. Once you do this, the error messages goes to wherever you redirect the standard output:
$ find / -name foo > output.txt 2>&1
One caveat about doing this is that the tying operation goes at the end of the command generating the output. This is important if piping the output to another command. This line works as expected:
find -name test.sh 2>&1 | tee /tmp/output2.txt
but this line doesn’t:
find -name test.sh | tee /tmp/output2.txt 2>&1
and neither does this one:
find -name test.sh 2>&1 > /tmp/output.txt
I started this discussion on output redirection using the find command as an example, and all the examples used the find command. This discussion isn’t limited to the output of find, however. Many other commands can generate enough error messages to obscure the one or two lines of output you need.
Output redirection isn’t limited to bash, either. All UNIX/Linux shells support output redirection using the same syntax.
Using Loops from the Command Line
One last tip I’d like to offer is using loops from the command line. The command line is not the place to write complicated scripts that include multiple loops or branching. For small loops, though, it can be a great time saver. Unfortunately, I don’t see many people taking advantage of this. Instead, I frequently see people use the up arrow key to go back in the command history and modify the previous command for each iteration.
If you are not familiar with creating for loops or other types of loops, many good books on shell scripting discuss this topic. A discussion on for loops in general is an article in itself.
You can write loops interactively in two ways. The first way, and the method I prefer, is to separate each line with a semicolon. A simple loop to make a backup copy of all the files in a directory would look like this:
$ for file in * ; do cp $file $file.bak; done
Another way to write loops is to press Enter after each line instead of inserting a semicolon. bash recognizes that you are creating a loop from the use of the for keyword, and it prompts you for the next line with a secondary prompt. It knows you are done when you enter the keyword done, signifying that your loop is complete:
$ for file in *
> do cp $file $file.bak
> done
And Now for Something Completely Different
When I originally conceived this article, I was going to name it “Stupid bash Tricks”, and show off some unusual, esoteric bash commands I’ve learned. The tone of the article has changed since then, but there is one stupid bash trick I’d like to share.
About 2 years ago, a Linux system I was responsible for ran out of memory. Even simple commands, such as ls, failed with an insufficient memory error. The obvious solution to this problem was simply to reboot. One of the other system administrators wanted to look at a file that may have held clues to the problem, but he couldn’t remember the exact name of the file. We could switch to different directories, because the cd command is part of bash, but we couldn’t get a list of the files, because even ls would fail. To get around this problem, the other system administrator created a simple loop to show us the files in the directory:
$ for file in *; do echo $file; done
This worked when ls wouldn’t, because echo is a part of the bash shell, so it already is loaded into memory. It’s an interesting solution to an unusual problem. Now, can anyone suggest a way to display the contents of a file using only bash built-ins?
Conclusion
Bash has many great features to make life easier for its users. I hope this summary of bash tricks I like to use has shown you some new ways to take advantage of the power bash has to offer.
Tags : Bash, Bash find, Bash loops, CLI, Command line, Redirecting errors, shell, Tips, Tricks
Categories : HOW TO
13 security practices for SysAdmins
Installing System Patches
It is recommended that based on the requirement, you install every patch recommended for your computer which isn’t
yet installed. Since some patches restore default configurations, it’s important that patches are put in place before any further security precautions are taken.
Before Recording System Defaults
Before starting to record system defaults, a directory should be created to store them. For example;
mkdir /usr/adm/checks
If an unauthorized user does gain access to root privileges on the computer and changes the accounting system, the
administrator will still have an original copy of it for comparison. For safety, the system administrator should check the files against the original about once a month.
Recording SUID and SGID Programs
Before any software is added to the basic operating system release, the system administrator should check for SUID and SGID programs. If unauthorized access occurs, frequently the intruder will leave a program that enables privileged
re-entry. The list of SUID and SGID programs should be stored both on and off the computer. The version on the computer will be used by a daily cron job to check for changes, while the version stored off of the computer will ensure that even if root access is acquired, a record of the system’s original state is available.
The command to list SUID and SGID files is:
find / -type f \( -perm -002000 -o -perm -004000 \)
-type f: looks only at regular files
-perm: checks for permissions
-002000: checks for SGID programs
-004000: checks for SUID programs
Check and Record Permissions on all Device Files
By changing the permissions on device files, an unauthorized user can gain access to devices, using this access to change files, impersonate another user, or listen in on conversations. Record the permissions on the device files on and off the computer using:
ls -al /dev/* | sort > /usr/adm/checks/devices
Passwords and Shells on System Accounts
Check the system password file to ensure that all accounts have passwords. Many vendors ship their computers with no passwords on the system accounts. System accounts such as bin, lp, and sync should have a ‘*’ for the password field. No account should be left without a password.
Also, the system administrator should check to see if the computer comes with any passwords already assigned. Some
vendors give default passwords to system accounts. Since anyone who has the same type of system knows what the default passwords are, passwords should be changed immediately.
Every account needs to have a shell assigned to it. Most administrative accounts should have /bin/nologin as the shell, which
would disallow crackers from gaining shell access using obscure system holes.
Expire Inactive Accounts
Computers with large numbers of users tend to have accounts that become inactive. The beginning of a new fiscal year often
brings changes in who is using the computer, as users’ funding sources change. The system administrator needs to be sensitive to those accounts that become inactive, and disable them by replacing the password field in the /etc/password file with an ‘*’. If the user has left important data on the computer, eventually they will contact the system administrator to make arrangements to retrieve the data. Once this data is retrieved, the account should be removed.
Restrict Root Login to the Console
The ability to login to the root account should be restricted to the console. Anyone not at the console should have to use ’su’ to
become root. Tries to ’su’ are recorded in a file in /usr/adm such as /usr/adm/sulog, for accounting purposes
Check for Duplicate Groups
Replace any duplicated group with a group of its own. This will remove ambiguity and make membership in a group clearer.
Do Not Establish Guest Accounts
Do not establish accounts for guest usage. These accounts, often appearing as an account with login guest and password
account, are common holes exploited by unauthorized users. Every user of the computer should undergo the same security procedures, receive the same security briefing, and be held accountable to the same standards. When users are finished using the computer, their accounts should be removed from the password file.
‘remote’ Commands
Commands preceded by the letter ‘r’, such as ‘rlogin‘ or ‘rsh‘, should be disabled. They are a source of many attacks on sites
across the Internet. If you must use ‘r’ commands, make sure you filter the TCP ports (512,513,514) at the router; it is important to note this will only stop outsiders from abusing the commands.
Double Check the System Before Long Weekends
Double check the computer before long weekends to ensure there are no security problems with it. A backup just
before a long weekend is advisable.
Do a Monthly System Check
Run the cron script against the cron stored on the removable media in case the unauthorized user gained root access and altered the system without being noticed.
System Security Diary
Keep a diary of the security checks done on the computer and what their results are. Also, document what actions are taken if holes are found or problems occur. If there is a problem, others will want to know what the system administrator has been doing to secure the computer.
Hope these tips would help you in your day-to-day life.
Adjust these performance options to speed up Windows XP
Performance Options dialog box
The most useful Windows XP performance-tuning options are on the Visual Effects and Advanced tabs of the Performance Options dialog box. You’ll find this box via the System Properties control panel by clicking the Settings button under Performance (Start | Control Panel | System | Performance | Settings). Figure A shows both the Visual Effects and Advanced tabs with the performance options you can easily modify.
Figure A
Performance Options — Visual Effects and Advanced tab
Visual Effects tab
The Visual Effects tab is the easiest place to start when troubleshooting certain performance problems. By default, Windows XP enables visual effects, such as the “scroll” option for the Start menu. These effects consume system resources, though. If you’re troubleshooting a sluggish system, you can potentially improve its performance by choosing the Adjust For Best Performance option, which will disable many of these visual effects settings. Of course, you’ll lose the cool visual effects, but there’s always a trade-off for performance.
Advanced performance settings
For troubleshooting something more than sluggish screen redraws, you’ll need to adjust the performance options on the Advanced tab of the Performance Options dialog box. There are three sections: Processor Scheduling, Memory Usage, and Vvirtual Memory. Each of these sections’ settings have a major impact on how your system operates.
Processor Scheduling
The Processor Scheduling section controls how much processor time Windows XP devotes to a program or process. The processor has a finite amount of resources to divide among the various applications. Choosing the Programs option will devote the most processor time to the program running in the foreground. Choosing Background Services allocates equal processor time to all running services, which can include print jobs and other applications running in the background. If your users complain about slow-running programs, you could try setting the processor scheduling to Programs.
On the flip side, if users complain that print jobs never print or are very slow to print, or if they run a macro in one application while working in another, you may want to assign equal time slices (called quanta) to each process by choosing the Background Services option. If you use the Windows XP machine in question as a server, you’re better off choosing the Background Services option.
Memory Usage
The next section, Memory Usage, details how Windows XP uses system RAM. The first option in the section, Programs, allocates more RAM to running applications. For desktop systems with very little RAM, this selection gives the best performance. In systems with less RAM, you need to devote as much RAM as possible to just running Windows and your applications. For a server or a desktop with a lot of RAM, however, choosing the System Cache setting will yield better performance. When set to System Cache, the system will use most of the available RAM as a disk cache, which can result in major performance improvements on systems that depend on disk I/O.
Virtual Memory
Finally, there are a number of settings in the Virtual Memory section that affect how Windows XP performs. Virtual memory is an area on the disk that Windows uses as if it were RAM. Windows requires this type of system in the event that it runs out of physical RAM. The virtual memory space is used as a swap space where information residing in RAM is written to the virtual memory space (also called the page file or swap file) in order to free RAM up for other processes.
When the system needs the information in the swap file, Windows puts it back into RAM and writes something else out to the disk in its place. Figure B shows the virtual memory settings for my laptop.
Figure B
Virtual Memory
Windows XP has a recommended default page file size of 1.5 times the amount of system RAM. Since I have 1GB of RAM in my laptop, the recommended size is 1.5GB, although I only have 768MB currently allocated for this purpose. I allow the paging file to grow as needed, up to a maximum size of 1.5GB. You can also choose to let Windows completely manage this file or to have no file at all. I highly recommend that you do not remove the paging file because you’ll experience a noticeable degradation of system performance without it.
One way to boost system performance is to place the paging file on a separate physical hard drive from the operating system. The only caveat is if the second drive is slower than the primary drive, you’d want to leave the paging file where it is.
You can also span the paging file across multiple disks to increase performance. To make changes to the virtual memory, click the Change tab on the Advanced tab of the Performance Options dialog box, make your desired changes, and click Set. Any changes you make won’t take effect until you reboot the machine.
Power users tip
If you want to get every last ounce of power out of your machine but you don’t want to sacrifice any unnecessary disk space, you can use the Windows XP performance monitor to see how much of your paging file is taken up during normal usage and adjust its size accordingly. For example, if you have a 1-GB page file, but only 40 percent of it is used during normal operations, you may want to set it to 512MB instead. You can gather this information by watching the % Usage and % Usage Peak counters for the paging file (Figure C).
Figure C
Windows XP Performance Monitor
I recommend these changes only if you have time to tinker. Most of the time, the operating system’s recommendations will work just fine.
Hiren's BootCD 9.7
A new version of Hiren's BootCD is out and it's now version 9.7 with lots of updated stuff.
The link to the LATEST version of Hiren's BootCD: http://hiren.latest-info.com
It's always updated with at least 5-10 download links, so make sure to bookmark it ;)
Hiren's Boot CD is a boot CD containing various diagnostic programs such as partitioning agents, system performance benchmarks, disk cloning and imaging tools, data recovery tools, MBR tools, BIOS tools, and many others for fixing various computer problems. It is a Bootable CD; thus, it can be useful even if the primary operating 
ISO MD5: 0a7f054080c559487129c9165cca5c10
Enjoy =)
What is Hiren's BootCD ? It's a all in one Dos Bootable CD which has all these utilities:
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Partition Tools
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Partition Magic Pro 8.05
Best software to partition hard drive
Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.0.554
Popular disk management functions in a single suite
Paragon Partition Manager 7.0.1274
Universal tool for partitions
Partition Commander 9.01
The safe way to partition your hard drive,with undo feature
Ranish Partition Manager 2.44
a boot manager and hard disk partitioner.
The Partition Resizer 1.3.4
move and resize your partitions in one step and more.
Smart Fdisk 2.05
a simple harddisk partition manager
SPecial Fdisk 2000.03t
SPFDISK a partition tool.
eXtended Fdisk 0.9.3
XFDISK allows easy partition creation and edition
GDisk 1.1.1
Complete replacement for the DOS FDISK utility and more.
Super Fdisk 1.0
Create, delete, format partitions drives without destroying data
Partition Table Editor 8.0
Partition Table and Boot Record Editor
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Disk Clone Tools
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ImageCenter 5.6 (Drive Image 2002)
Best software to clone hard drive
Norton Ghost 11.5
Similar to Drive Image (with usb/scsi support)
Acronis True Image 8.1.945
Create an exact disk image for complete system backup and disk cloning.
Partition Saving 3.60
A tool to backup/restore partitions. (SavePart.exe)
COPYR.DMA Build013
A Tool for making copies of hard disks with bad sectors
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Antivirus Tools
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McAfee Antivirus 4.4.50 (3012)
a virus scanner (with ntfs support and easy to use menu)
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Recovery Tools
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Active Partition Recovery 3.0
To Recover a Deleted partition.
Active Uneraser 3.0
To recover deleted files and folders on FAT and NTFS systems.
Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro 6.10
To Recover data that has been deleted/virus attack
Winternals Disk Commander 1.1
more than just a standard deleted-file recovery utility
TestDisk 6.10
Tool to check and undelete partition.
Lost & Found 1.06
a good old data recovery software.
DiyDataRecovery Diskpatch 2.1.100
An excellent data recovery software.
Prosoft Media Tools 5.0 1.1.2.64
Another excellent data recovery software with many other options.
PhotoRec 6.10
File and pictures recovery Tool.
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Testing Tools
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System Speed Test 4.78
it tests CPU, harddrive, ect.
PC-Check 6.5
Easy to use hardware tests
Ontrack Data Advisor 5.0
Powerful diagnostic tool for assessing the condition of your computer
The Troubleshooter 7.02
all kind of hardware testing tool
PC Doctor 2004
a benchmarking and information tool
CPU/Video/Disk Performance Test 5.7
a tool to test cpu, video, and disk
Test Hard Disk Drive 1.0
a tool to test Hard Disk Drive
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RAM (Memory) Testing Tools
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GoldMemory 5.07
RAM Test utility
Memtest86+ 2.11
PC Memory Test
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Hard Disk Tools
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Hard Disk Diagnostic Utilities
Seagate Seatools Desktop Edition 3.02
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools
Western Digital Diagnostics (DLGDIAG) 5.04f
Maxtor PowerMax 4.23
Maxtor amset utility 4.0
Maxtor(or any Hdd) Low Level Formatter 1.1
Fujitsu HDD Diagnostic Tool 7.00
Fujitsu IDE Low Level Format 1.0
Samsung HDD Utility(HUTIL) 2.10
Samsung Disk Diagnose (SHDIAG) 1.28
IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test 4.11
IBM/Hitachi Feature Tool 2.11
Gateway GwScan 5.12
ExcelStor's ESTest 4.50
MHDD 4.6
WDClear 1.30
Toshiba Hard Disk Diagnostic 2.00b
SeaTools for Dos 1.10
HDD Regenerator 1.51
to recover a bad hard drive
Ontrack Disk Manager 9.57
Disk Test/Format/Maintenance tool.
Norton Disk Doctor 2002
a tool to repair a damaged disk, or to diagnose your hard drive.
Norton Disk Editor 2002
a powerful disk editing, manual data recovery tool.
Hard Disk Sentinel 0.02
Hard Disk health, performance and temperature monitoring tool.
Active Kill Disk 4.1
Securely overwrites and destroys all data on physical drive.
HDAT2 4.53
main function is testing and repair (regenerates) bad sectors for detected devices
SmartUDM 2.00
Hard Disk Drive S.M.A.R.T. Viewer.
Victoria 3.33e and 3.52rus
a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics
HDD Erase 4.0
Secure erase using a special feature built into most newer hard drives
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System Information Tools
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Aida16 2.14
a system information tool, extracts details of all components of the PC
PCI and AGP info Tool (3012)
The PCI System information & Exploration tool.
System Analyser 5.3u
View extensive information about your hardware
Navratil Software System Information 0.60.32
High-end professional system information tool
Astra 5.41
Advanced System info Tool and Reporting Assistant
HWiNFO 5.2.5
a powerful system information utility
PC-Config 9.33
Complete hardware detection of your computer
SysChk 2.46
Find out exactly what is under the hood of your PC
CPU Identification utility 1.15
Detailed information on CPU (CHKCPU.EXE)
CTIA CPU Information 2.7
another CPU information tool
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MBR (Master Boot Record) Tools
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MBRWork 1.07b
a utility to perform some common and uncommon MBR functions
MBR Tool 2.2.100
backup, verify, restore, edit, refresh, remove, display, re-write...
DiskMan4
all in one tool for cmos, bios, bootrecord and more
BootFix Utility
Run this utility if you get 'Invalid system disk'
MBR SAVE / RESTORE 2.1
BootSave and BootRest tools to save / restore MBR
Boot Partition 2.60
add Partition in the Windows
Partition Table Doctor 3.5
a tool to repair/modify mbr, bootsector, partition table
Smart Boot Manager 3.7.1
a multi boot manager
Bootmagic 8.0
This tool is for multi boot operating systems
MBRWizard 2.0b
Directly update and modify the MBR (Master Boot Record)
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BIOS / CMOS Tools
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CMOS 0.93
CMOS Save / Restore Tool
BIOS Cracker 4.8
BIOS password remover (cmospwd)
BIOS Cracker 1.4
BIOS password remover (cmospwc)
BIOS Utility 1.35.0
BIOS Informations, password, beep codes and more.
!BIOS 3.20
a powerfull utility for bios and cmos
DISKMAN4
a powerful all in one utility
UniFlash 1.40
bios flash utility
Kill CMOS
a tiny utility to wipe cmos
Award DMI Configuration Utility 2.43
DMI Configuration utility for modifying/viewing the MIDF contents.
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MultiMedia Tools
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Picture Viewer 1.94
Picture viewer for dos, supports more then 40 filetypes.
QuickView Pro 2.58
movie viewer for dos, supports many format including divx.
MpxPlay 1.56
a small Music Player for dos
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Password Tools
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Active Password Changer 3.0.420
To Reset User Password on windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista (FAT/NTFS)
Offline NT/2K/XP Password Changer
utility to reset windows nt/2000/xp administrator/user password.
Registry Viewer 4.2
Registry Viewer/Editor for Win9x/Me/NT/2K/XP
Registry Reanimator 1.02
check and restore structure of the damaged registry files of NT/2K/XP
NTPWD
utility to reset windows nt/2000/xp administrator/user password.
ATAPWD 1.2
Hard Disk Password Utility
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NTFS Ext2FS, Ext3FS (FileSystems) Tools
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NTFS Dos Pro 5.0
To access ntfs partitions from Dos
NTFS 4 Dos 1.9
To access ntfs partitions from Dos
Paragon Mount Everything 3.0
To access NTFS, Ext2FS, Ext3FS partitions from dos
NTFS Dos 3.02
To access ntfs partitions from Dos
EditBINI 1.01
to Edit boot.ini on NTFS Partition
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Dos File Managers
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Volkov Commander 4.99
Dos File Manager with LongFileName/ntfs support
(Similar to Norton Commander)
Dos Command Center 5.1
Classic dos-based file manager.
File Wizard 1.35
a file manager - colored files, drag and drop copy, move, delete etc.
File Maven 3.5
an advanced Dos file manager with high speed PC-to-PC file
transfers via serial or parallel cable
FastLynx 2.0
Dos file manager with Pc to Pc file transfer capability
LapLink 5.0
the smart way to transfer files and directories between PCs.
Dos Navigator 6.4.0
Dos File Manager, Norton Commander clone but has much more features
Mini Windows 98
Can run from Ram Drive, with ntfs support,
Added 7-Zip which supports .7z .zip .cab .rar .arj .gzip,
.bzip2 .z .tar .cpio .rpm and .deb
Disk Defragmenter, Notepad / RichText Editor,
Image Viewer, .avi .mpg .divx .xvid Movie Player, etc...
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Other Tools
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Ghost Walker 11.5
utility that changes the security ID (SID) for Windows NT, 2000 and XP
DosCDroast beta 2
Dos CD Burning Tools
Universal TCP/IP Network 6.2
MSDOS Network Client to connect via TCP/IP to a Microsoft based
network. The network can either be a peer-to-peer or a server based
network, it contains 91 different network card drivers
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Dos Tools
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USB CD-Rom Driver 1
Standard usb_cd.sys driver for cd drive
Universal USB Driver 2
Panasonic v2.20 ASPI Manager for USB mass storage
SCSI Support
SCSI Drivers for Dos
SATA Support
SATA Driver (gcdrom.sys) and JMicron JMB361 (xcdrom.sys) for Dos
1394 Firewire Support
1394 Firewire Drivers for Dos
Interlnk support at COM1
To access another computer from COM port
Interlnk support at LPT1
To access another computer from LPT port
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and too many great dos tools
very good collection of dos utilities
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extract.exe pkzip.exe pkunzip.exe unrar.exe rar.exe
ace.exe lha.exe gzip.exe uharcd.exe mouse.com
attrib.com deltree.exe xcopy.exe diskcopy.com imgExtrc.exe
undelete.com edit.com fdisk.exe fdisk2.exe fdisk3.exe
lf.exe delpart.exe wipe.com zap.com format.com
move.exe more.com find.exe hex.exe debug.exe
split.exe mem.exe mi.com sys.com smartdrv.exe
xmsdsk.exe killer.exe share.exe scandisk.exe scanreg.exe
guest.exe doskey.exe duse.exe biosdtct.exe setver.exe
intersvr.exe interlnk.exe loadlin.exe lfndos.exe doslfn.com
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Windows Tools
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SpaceMonger 1.4
keeping track of the free space on your computer
WinDirStat 1.1.2.80
a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Windows.
Drive Temperature 1.0
Hard Disk Drive temperature meter
Disk Speed 1.0
Hard Disk Drive Speed Testing Tool
MemTest 1.0
a Memory Testing Tool
S&M Stress Test 1.9.1
cpu/hdd/memory benchmarking and information tool, including temperatures/fan speeds/voltages
PageDfrg 2.32
System file Defragmenter For NT/2k/XP
WhitSoft File Splitter 4.5a
a Small File Split-Join Tool
7-Zip 4.62
File Manager/Archiver Supports 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, MSI, WIM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS formats<
Off By One Browser 3.5d
an independent web browser that runs completely self- contained
Ghost Image Explorer 11.5
to add/remove/extract files from Ghost image file
DriveImage Explorer 5.0
to add/remove/extract files from Drive image file
Drive SnapShot 1.39
creates an exact Disk Image of your system into a file while windows is running.
Active Undelete 5.5
a tool to recover deleted files
Restoration 3.2.13
a tool to recover deleted files
GetDataBack for FAT 2.31
Data recovery software for FAT file systems
GetDataBack for NTFS 2.31
Data recovery software for NTFS file systems
Recuva 1.22.384
Restore deleted files from Hard Drive, Digital Camera Memory Card, usb mp3 player...
Partition Find and Mount 2.3.1
Partition Find and Mount software is designed to find lost or deleted partitions
Unstoppable Copier 3.56
Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors,
scratches or that just give errors when reading data.
HDD Scan 3.1
This is a Low-level HDD diagnostic tool, it scans surface find bad sectors etc.
HDTune 2.55
Hard disk benchmarking and information tool.
Express Burn 4.16
CD/DVD Burner Program to create and record CDs/DVDs, also create/burn .iso and .nrg images
Data Shredder 1.0
A tool to Erase disk and files (also wipe free space) securely
Startup Control Panel 2.8
a tool to edit startup programs
NT Registry Optimizer 1.1j
Registry Optimization for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista
Registry Editor PE 0.9c
Easy editing of remote registry hives and user profiles
DefragNT 1.9
This tool presents the user with many options for disk defragmenting
JkDefrag 3.36
Free disk defragment and optimize utility for Windows
Startup Monitor 1.02
it notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup
IB Process Manager 1.04
a little process manager for 9x/2k, shows dll info etc.
Process Explorer 11.31
shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded
Pocket KillBox 2.0.0.978
can be used to get rid of files that stubbornly refuse to allow you to delete them
Unlocker 1.8.7
This tool can delete file/folder when you get this message - Cannot delete file:
Access is denied, The file is in use by another program etc.
HijackThis 2.0.2
a general homepage hijackers detector and remover and more
RootkitRevealer 1.7.1
Rootkit Revealer is an advanced patent-pending root kit detection utility.
Silent Runners Revision 59
A free script that helps detect spyware, malware and adware in the startup process
Autoruns 9.37
Displays All the entries from startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys,
Explorer shell extensions,toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications,
auto-start services, Scheduled Tasks, Winsock, LSA Providers, Remove Drivers
and much more which helps to remove nasty spyware/adware and viruses.
Dial a Fix 0.60.0.24
Fix errors and problems with COM/ActiveX object errors and missing registry entries,
Automatic Updates, SSL, HTTPS, and Cryptography service (signing/verification)
issues, Reinstall internet
CurrPorts 1.55
displays the list of all currently opened TCP and UDP ports on your computer
Unknown Devices 1.2 (3012)
helps you find what those unknown devices in Device Manager really are
PCI 32 Sniffer 1.1 (3012)
device information tool (similar to unknown devices)
NewSID 4.10
utility that changes the security ID (SID) for Windows NT, 2000 and XP
Smart Driver Backup 2.12
Easy backup of your Windows device drivers (also works from PE)
Double Driver 1.0
Driver Backup and Restore tool
DriverBackup! 1.0.3
Another handy tool to backup drivers
CPU-Z 1.49
It gathers information on some of the main devices of your system
CWShredder 2.19
Popular CoolWebSearch Trojan Remover tool
SmitFraudFix 2.387
This removes Some of the popular Desktop Hijack malware
Winsock 2 Fix for 9x
to fix corrupted Winsock2 information by poorly written Internet programs
XP TCP/IP Repair 1.0
Repair your Windows
CCleaner 2.15.815
Crap Cleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool
EzPcFix 1.0.0.16
Helpful tool when trying to remove viruses, spyware, and malware
Content Advisor Password Remover 1.0
It Removes Content Advisor Password from Internet Explorer
Password Renew 1.1
Utility to (re)set windows passwords
WindowsGate 1.1
Enables/Disables Windows logon password validation
WinKeyFinder 1.73
Allows you to View and Change Windows XP/2003 Product Keys, backup and restore
activation related files, backup Microsoft Office
ProduKey 1.35
Recovers lost the product key of your Windows/Office
Wireless Key View 1.20
Recovers all Windows (WEP/WPA) stored in your computer by WZC
Monitor Tester 1.0
Allows you to test CRT/LCD/TFT screens for dead pixels and diffective screens
Shell Extensions Manager (ShellExView) 1.35
An excellent tool to View and Manage all installed Context-menu/Shell extensions
Ultimate Windows Tweaker 1.0
A TweakUI Utility for tweaking and optimizing Windows
TweakUI 2.10
This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows Xp
Xp-AntiSpy 3.97
it tweaks some Windows XP functions, and disables some unneeded Windows services quickly
PC Wizard 2008.1.871
Powerful system information/benchmark utility designed especially for detection of hardware.
SIW 2008-12-16
Gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings.
Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6 (3012)
Application to scan for spyware, adware, hijackers and other malicious
SpywareBlaster 4.1 (3012)
Prevent the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software.
Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06 (3012)
find and remove spyware, adware, dialers etc. (a must have tool)
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Changes from Hiren's BootCD 9.6 > 9.7
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+Mini Windows Xp
+Password Renew 1.1
+WindowsGate 1.1
+Registry Editor PE 0.9c
+Smart Driver Backup 2.12
+Ultimate Windows Tweaker 1.0
+Off By One Browser 3.5
-DocMem
Ghost 11.5.0.2141
Ghost Walker 11.5.0.2141
Ghost Image Explorer 11.5.0.2141
IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test 4.11
Memtest86+ 2.11
ExcelStor's ESTest 4.50
Astra 5.41
HWiNFO 5.2.5
CPU Identification utility 1.15
7-Zip 4.62
Recuva 1.22.384
Partition Find and Mount 2.31
Express Burn 4.16
Process Explorer 11.31
RootkitRevealer 1.71
Silent Runners Revision 59
Autoruns 9.37
CurrPorts 1.55
CPU-Z 1.49
SmitFraudFix 2.387
CCleaner 2.15.815
ProduKey 1.35
Wireless Key View 1.20
ShellExView 1.35
Xp-AntiSpy 3.97
PC Wizard 2008.1.871
SIW 2008-12-16
Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6 (3012)
SpywareBlaster 4.1(3012)
PCI 32 Sniffer 1.4 (3012)
McAfee Antivirus 4.4.50 (3012)
Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06 (3012)
PCI and AGP info Tool (3012)
Unknown Devices 1.2 (3012)
Download : Hiren's BootCD 9.7 Part 1 | Part 2
Download : Mirror (Rapidshare Link)
