What do you put in your computer repair toolkit?Most of us "superusers" are regularly asked to fix computers for friends or family. To improve my chances of repairing a PC (or at least recovering important data) on the spot, I would like to assemble a portable kit of hardware and software tools that I can keep in my car.
What would you put in your "computer repair toolkit"?
One tool per answer please, so that the best tools can be voted to the top.
All the Sysinternals tools [1]. They are a must have for Windows troubleshooting...
SpinRite [1].
It's a tool that will scrub your hard disk, bypassing all the built-in mechanisms to repair sectors on the disk. It can fix many a hard disk that would otherwise be toast because of a few bad sectors here and there, and will in most cases help recover files. (I've personally never seen DynaStat working, but I guess that makes me lucky.)
SpinRite can run on any PC compatible system with a 32 or 64-bit Intel or AMD processor and a color screen. The previous SpinRite v5.0 is available to v6.0 owners who need to run SpinRite on older 16-bit 8086/80286 systems and/or monochrome screens.
SpinRite is self-contained, including its own bootable FreeDOS operating system. It can be used on any operating system and any file system. This means it can run on drives formatted with Windows XP's/Vista's/Windows 7's NTFS and all other older FAT formats (in addition to all Linux, Novell, and all other file systems.) It can be used to pre-qualify and certify unformatted hard drives before their first use. Drives on non-PC platforms, such as Apple Macintosh or TiVo, may be temporarily relocated to a PC motherboard for data recovery, maintenance and repair by SpinRite.
SpinRite provides complete interaction with IDE-interface PATA (parallel ATA) and SATA (Serial ATA) drives, and it can also be used with any other type of drive — SCSI, USB, 1394/Firewire — that can be made visible to DOS through the addition of controller BIOS or add-on DOS drivers. To obtain the best performance, IDE drives can be temporarily removed from their external USB or Firewire cases and attached directly to the PC motherboard.
A tiny USB key [1] on my keyring full of portable apps [2].
The portable apps include:
Here is a must have that hasn't been posted yet. A Paper Clip. So many times I've visited a client with a CD/DVD drive that won't open. You can open any dead CD/DVD tray by sticking the end of an unfolded paperclip into the small pin hole at the front of the drive.
Compressed air! Every computer gets full of dust...
A multimeter.
Useful if you ever want to check continuity or voltage levels.
Screwdrivers.
My laptop, if that counts. 80% of the time I'm troubleshooting network issues, so I'd rather use a tool that I'm positive works.
A bootable Ubuntu CD.
Whatever happens to the operating system you're working on, if (for example) you need to access the Internet to download a driver, just pop in the CD and do what you need to.
Along the way you might even convince your family or friends that Linux is quite user-friendly nowadays...
My (physical) weapon of choice is something MacGyver would recommend, the indispensible Swiss Army Knife. Except the one I always keep in laptop bag is an updated 21st century incarnation of tool, Victorinox Swiss Army Cybertool 29 Pocket Tool:
It has saved me on countless occassions, not just computer related.
The cybertool is literally an entire self contained toolbox unto itself.
And the software equivalent of the Swiss Army Knife I carry along always is Damn Small Linux [1]:
CCleaner [1]. Is freeware.
Its primary purpose is to remove unnecessary files: in the recycle bin, memory dumps, file fragments, log files, system caches, application data (like cached files in Opera). And the Registry Cleaner can locate and correct problems in the Windows Registry. It can be used to disable start-up programs.
[1] http://www.ccleaner.com/I always have a bootable USB-stick containing SystemRescueCd [1] in my backpack. It's one of those "Linux Live CDs", but one that is packed full of relevant rescue/recovery tools.
It only needs a 512 MB stick, which everyone probably still has lying around idle in a drawer somewhere (notes for installing to a USB-stick are here [2], and if you have trouble getting it to boot, you might look here [3]).
[1] http://sysresccd.org/Main_PageA SATA/IDE-to-USB adapter. For a great variety of problems, it's a great help to be able to pull the harddisk out of the system to hook it up to your laptop...
The model in my repair kit is this one [1], but there are plenty like it. These things don't require any drivers on any OS I've come across in the last 4 years; they're just plain Mass Storage Devices.
[1] http://conceptronic.nl/site/desktopdefault.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=212&cid=10&gid=1070&pid=CSATAI23UHijackThis™ [1] is a free utility which quickly scans your Windows computer to find settings that may have been changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis creates a report, or log file, with the results of the scan.
[1] http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/Linux USB Boot. Brilliant :D
A smart-phone with 3G Internet access and the ability to share that Internet access over Wi-Fi. Great for googling network/Wi-Fi problems :-)
I use my Nokia N95 [1] + Joikuspot [2] Premium for this.
[1] http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/devices/nokia-n95Hardware:
Repair-related Software: (Kept on a flash drive)
Crimping tool & connectors and spare wire. I've seen too many cases where people break off the locking tabs off of RJ-45 and RJ-11 connectors and the plugs start to fall out.
Get/make yourself a boot CD in conjunction with a USB key of SysInternals Apps [1]/ NirSoft Apps [2]/ PortableApps [3]. I use BartPE [4] (freeware) to get it exactly how I want it. Alternatively, you could use a Linux boot CD or whatever you're most comfortable with.
[1] http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspxSomething to access laptop HDD's on "dead" laptops.
Like http://www.cooldrives.com/saandidehadr1.html, a SATA/IDE-to-USB adapter.
It's invaluable to have as it's a problem that arises more often then you would think.
I don't actually do this. But for hardware troubleshooting purposes, I'd love to have good working hardware. Motherboard, PSU, cabling, memory modules, etc. That would make life so much easier
PCinspector Data Recovery, I'm often asked to magically retrieve files deleted by mistake.
From the product website:
PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x is a data recovery program that supports the FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems.
An .iso file of your whole hard disk BEFORE it crashes ...
An XP account cracker.
Burnt onto a bootable CD, VERY useful for people who forget their administrator account passwords.
Cough COUSIN Cough
If I know I'm going to be fixing a computer I'll try to take some bigger things along:
on my BartCD (a bootable USB stick actually) i have the following:
WinHex - the ultimate in data recovery
Partition Table Doctor & Test Disk/PhotoRec
SIW & CPU-Z
Ghost, DIXML and Drive Snapshot
HDD Regenerator
Unstoppable Copier
Total Commander
InfraRecorder
Sysinternals Suite
... and other more or less useful stuff
i still carry a few CDs with me, such as Knoppix, SysClone, Administrator's Pak/ERD Commander SpinRite, NT Offline password editor.
A bag of known working cables of several types. Network, usb, etc.
for a list of useful software tools to have (usb key/boot cd), look at my answer [1] to a similar question
[1] https://superuser.com/questions/98423/what-are-the-essential-tools-you-always-have-handy-when-attempting-to-fix-someone/98666#98666Well, I just found this... but you might be interested to review my web page on the topic - www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/techtoolkit.asp [1]
(I'll definitely review the items here to see if anything posted is missing...)
[1] http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/techtoolkit.asp
ddrescue(not dd_rescue!) to copy as much as possible to the new HD while skipping problematic sectors 3. useddrescueto fill in the blanks (problematic sectors) as much as possible (this will break your hard drive more) 4. Now do whatever you want with the data on either disk. You can take a gamble and do a writing surface scan likebadblocksor Spinrite. ddrescue how to: forensicswiki.org/wiki/Ddrescue - Henk Poley...bypassing all the built-in mechanisms to repair sectors on the diskI don't understand. The lowest level you can send commands at are the ATA commands. And those are designed to make the bad sector reallocations stay transparent. How does this software bypass those? - user541686