ESET NOD32 Rescue CD on WinXP?

Is it possible to use this facility on WinXP? Because it says I have to install Windows AIK and I've seen on Microsoft's site that it requires Vista/7/Server 2008.

 

There's AIK for Windows XP as well, I have it installed on my XP.

 

1. You can download Windows AIK (WAIK) for Windows XP from the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6d-15f3-4284-9123-679830d629f2&displaylang=en

2. If you need KB926044 to be installed first, you can find it here. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926044/

3. Unfortunately, you will be required to validate your installation first and the WAIK download itself is close to 1GB, so you may wish to schedule a download overnight.

4. Once you have the large .img file, you will have to burn it as an image to a DVD from which you will then be able to install the WAIK itself. ESET will then finally allow you to create your NOD32 Rescue CD.

Not exactly an easy or convenient process

 

There doesn't seem to be anything for Windows XP SP3. Maybe that's because the article is dated before SP3?

Also, the link at MS has a download for Vista, but does not seem to have the downloads for the other versions. I actually downloaded the Vista version previously and know that it is only for Vista. The knowledge base article has information about a hotfix in case there are problems using a Windows Server 2003 or an XP system to modify the registry hive of a Vista system. Other than that, I could see nothing about a download for XP. Also, if you have a system that does not have a DVD burner, I think you are out of luck.

 

I believe the link above is a version that can be installed on Windows XP SP2 and SP3, as per the specifications given by Microsoft (like you said, the article was probably released before SP3).

With regards to needing the DVD burner, you should be able to actually mount the .img file as a virtual DVD on your computer using some software, without ever having to burn a physical DVD. Some software that can do this are:

Ultimately, you will probably still need a computer with a CD burner to produce your Rescue CD, although that computer need not be the same one that creates the Rescue CD image. Meaning you should be able to use Computer 1 (without a CD/DVD burner) to make your rescue_disc.iso, copy it via a flash drive to Computer 2 (with a CD burner) to burn your CD.

EDIT: You can create a ESET bootable USB flash drive as well simply using a flash drive and the ESET software with WAIK. You don't have to burn any CD/DVD if you don't have a CD/DVD burner- see SOLN2103.

 

Why doesn't ESET offer to registered users to download an ISO bootable with SysRescue ? It would be so easy for the end user. Instead of this, we have to download a huge thing from micro$oft. I really hate this "do it yourself" method

 

Microsoft licensing probably.

 

I found an interesting review on Sysrescue http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives...-v4-includes-free-sysrescue-recovery-live-cd/
Edit
I use sysrescue 4.0.437 and hope it is as good as the new 4.2.x version.
However I have totally removed this .NET Framework (unwanted plugin in firefox) and unfortunately, WAIK needs it

 

Just adding to this. I have not yet tried creating a virtual DVD in order to install the WAIK. I did check the hotfix information, that is, the file dates for the kernel files, and see that the files I have all are 5.1.2600.3093, so they are a later version and the dates are 5/7/2008. I suspect that the hotfix has been superseded by the later service pack. In any case, overwriting with an earlier version probably would be bad, even if it were allowed.

With an older computer which does not have BIOS support for booting from a USB drive, only the CDROM or a floppy can be used. I did a BIOS flash on this computer, but that did not add support for USB booting, but on two other DELL systems, I did a BIOS flash that did add USB booting. So, for those who have older systems, there is the possibility of adding support for bootable USB drives. It depends on the system vendor and the model/motherboard version.

Adding more to this, I did find that the MS tool did not recognize .img, but the Daemon tool does. I was able to mount the .img and install build 6000 of the WAIK, which is what was shown in the link provided. Then I ran Eset and Eset complained that build 6000 is too old and that Eset requires build 6001. So, back to MS and I find that build 6001 is for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008. However, Windows XP SP2 is listed, so maybe this can be installed on my system.

Well I downloaded the newer build 6001 for WAIK. I then found out that I had to uninstall the previous version, so I did that. With the newer 6001 build of WAIK, I was able to run Eset's utility to create the rescue CD. However, I found out that Eset wanted IMAPI 2.0, which I apparently don't have. The version I found at Microsoft was not as new as my version of Windows XP, and it would not install for that reason. So, I let Eset create and .iso of the rescue disc. Then I used my own burning software to create the CD. The CD does load (though it seems to take as long as loading Ubuntu as a Live CD, maybe even longer). Eset complained that antivirus protection failed to load, but the options seem to be available. I think when using a rescue disc, you really don't expect to have the AV running, but maybe someone from Eset can comment on that.

What I learned from this is that if you have XP SP3, you don't need the patch that is for XP SP2. You do need the latest WAIK (build 6001) for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008.

If you can't burn a CD using the option in Eset, you can write out an image (.iso). That will allow you to write it later with your own burning software or maybe even take it to another computer with a CDRW or DVD drive that works better and burn it there. I feel almost as satisfied with this as with getting my laser printer working right again. ;-)

 

1 GB Download ? I think is better to use Tools like PE Builder, PEtoUSB, or WinSetupFromUSB 1.0.

 

Of course nobody but me has a vendor-supplied XP recovery disc that is XP from before SP1, right? Nobody has a computer that they picked up used that doesn't have a recovery disc, right? Nobody has a computer that doesn't support booting from USB, right?

It might be better for most people to use those tools (especially if you don't have Eset, because the tools are free and Eset is not), but if your vendor recovery disc (Windows XP) is pre-SP1, then a tool like BartPE (which I had tried some time ago) will not work. If you can't find your original XP disc (or your system is a refurb with no disc included), then the use of WAIK and Eset's sysrescue to create a CD will still work. Acronis True Image also would probably work to image the hard drive, thereby allowing recovery, but that's another thing and you have to download that software either from Acronis or from a disk drive vendor.

If you are on a slow connection or, perish the thought, on dialup, then a 1GB download for the WAIK could be a show stopper, but many now have 6 Mb/s connections, and even 3Mb/s connections are good enough. What else do you have to do overnight, anyway?

 

By patch, do you mean the kb926044 download?

 

Yes, I believe that is the one. It's a patch that listed XP SP2 in the supported versions of Windows, but if you have XP SP3, you don't need that patch. I know that for certain. The thing is that if you have a recovery disc from your PC vendor that contains XP SP1 or later, you can use PE builder or other similar software to create a recovery disc that will include all your current patches to Windows. That could be faster than jumping through all the hoops to make the Eset SysRescue work for you.

Another alternative is to get something like Acronis True Image and use that to create an image of your hard drive on an external device. That would allow you to restore both Windows and all your software and data, though a regular backup program would probably be better for the data. I know that some of the hard drive vendors have versions of Acronis that are available for download. I think those versions are limited, but for emergency use, they might be okay. You can do a search for Acronis and check out reviews. It's kind of OT to go further here.

 

For me the conclusions are the ESET rescue CD is not worth of all the efforts and risks resulting from with AIK & Co.
Additionally to that the indirect dependency to .NET.
No, ESET rescue CD gets disqualified.
Keep in mind please, most regular user have to install AIK only for the creation of this CD. They normally do not need AIK & Co. for other purposes, therefore normally AIK not present on their's machine.