HARD DRIVE FREEWARE
Boot UltimateBootCDCreate a boot CD with recovery tools. Win NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.Boot EASEUS Todo BackupEASEUS Todo Backup creates its own bootable disk to enable booting into the program and restoring the active primary boot partitions. This is great because it is so easy and quick, and a number of freeware hard disk imaging programs that I’ve seen simply do not support boot partition restoration. Mounts image files: for quick browsing of files/contents. Read only. Offers file-by-file copying (faster) or sector-by-sector. It is also more user-friendly if restoring to a larger hard drive. Backup straight to CD/DVD and will split the image file by appropriately sized chunks. Free for both personal and business use. The help file is excellent and informative. Clone disk: very useful if you are upgrading to a larger hard drive and want to move all the data over. Compresses and/or password encrypts image files: optional. Supported file systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS. Supported partition sizes: minimum 2 gigs, max 1.5 TB. Supported hard drive types: IDE, SATA, SCSI, USB removable disk, and Firewire disks This program inspires confidence if only because it is from the same people that gave us the excellent EASEUS Partition Master (one of my favorite free disk partitioning programs). It manages to combine advanced features with a really simple interface design that both novices and advanced users will appreciate. Size 35.3 mb. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Boot WinToFlashMaking a bootable USB flash drive for Windows Vista and Windows 7 isn't all that tricky, but it's always nice to find an app that simplifies things. Not only does WinToFlash make the process about as easy as it can get, but it can also create Windows XP, Server 2003, and Server 2008 installers. The default options make it easy to roll a silent Windows install, or you can flip the custom switch and specify the exact setup parameters you want to use. The handy app also has one more trick up its sleeve: moving Windows Preinstall environments. PE discs can be extremely handy for troubleshooting and repairs, and being able to painlessly zap them over to a USB flash drive means not having to burn a new copy every time someone's haggard old optical drive decides to chew up your CD. Portable. Win 2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Custom Install nLiteWindows 2000/XP/2003/x86/x64 installation Customizer. .NET 2.0 required.
Custom Install vLiteWindows Vista Installation Customizer. Win Vista/2008/7.
Defrag MyDefragMyDefrag is a disk defragmenter and optimizer (a maintenance utility to make your harddisk faster) for Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 2008, and for X64. It is freeware, no time limit, fully functional, no advertisements. Fast, low overhead, with many optimization strategies, can handle floppies, USB disks, memory sticks, and anything else that looks like a disk to Windows. Included are a set of easy to use scripts for endusers, a scripting engine for demanding users, a screensaver, and a combined Windows plus commandline version that can be scheduled by the Windows task scheduler or for use from administrator scripts. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Defrag DefragglerDefrag entire drives or select individual files and folders to defrag. Portable and very fast. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Defrag Quicksys DiskDefragQuicksys DiskDefrag uses high technology to rearrange the fragments of files on disk, to be continuously and in order, so that the performance and search speed of the disc increases. Besides defragmenting the disk, Quicksys DiskDefrag has a system called QSICA (Quicksys Intelligent Clusters Allocation) for clusters optimization. It supports formatting NTFS, FAT16 and FAT32. Works on any type of removable disk floppy disks, USB (pen-drives), memory cards etc. Defragmentation of files separately. You can choose to defragment a single file. Search for all system files, MFT (Master File Table), bitmaps and list of attributes. Search for reparse points. Search for files and their position in the clusters. Size of block clusters customizable. There is possibility to ignore large files. Cluster-viewer. You can check the fragments of files in each cluster. Simply click the desired cluster. Show detailed information about the partitions. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Defrag page file PageDefragDefrags your event log files, paging files and Registry hives. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP
Defrag Registry Eusing Free Registry DefragEusing Free Registry Defrag is a free registry defragmentation software that optimizes registry by removing gaps, fragments and wasted space in Windows registry files. It can defragment and compact the Windows Registry in less than a minute. It will scan through the registry to remove any slack space, reducing the registry size and ultimately the amount of RAM the registry takes up, and improving your computer performance. The optimization is simply compacting the registry hives to the minimum size possible, nothing else. Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7.
Disk Eraser Darik'sBootNukeErase your entire hard drive. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Health SpeedFanMonitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures in computers with hardware monitor chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Health HD SpeedHD Speed measures both sustained and burst data transfer rates of your hard disks, cd/dvd-roms, flash cards/sticks, floppys, etc. Realtime graphical display. Select the drive and hit start. The read/write results show up as a graph and also as real values. An 80KB portable utility. Win NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Health HDTuneTest your hard drives health, temperature, errors, and benchmark performance. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Memory MinimemInitially developed for Firefox only, Minimem now can reduce the memory footprint of any application. It runs in the background and can be set up to optimize as many proceses as you'd like, using a very intuitive graphical interface. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Partition PartitionWizardPartition Wizard Home Edition enables you to configure and manage disk partitions on your hard drive(s). You can easily resize, move, delete or format selected partitions. In case you don`t have enough free disk space to create a new partition, you can reduce the size of an existing partition and use the unallocated disk space to create new or enlarged partitions. All these operations can be performed in a single process and will only require you to reboot once. Other features include options to format partition, wipe the content of a partition and set partition labels. There is also a bootable CD Partition that has the same feature as of Partition Wizard Home/Business Edition. It includes Move/Resize Partition, Copy Partition, Create Partition, Delete Partition, Format Partition, Convert File System, Hide/Unhide Partition, Explore Partition, Partition Recovery, Rebuild MBR and much more. Size 5672 kb. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Partition EASEUS Partition ManagerAs Partition Magic alternative, EASEUS Partition Manager is a comprehensive hard disk partition management software for Windows 2000/2003 Server and Windows 2000/XP/Vista partition to Resize and Move, Create, Delete and Format, Hide and Unhide server and non server partitions and much more. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Partition Partition Find and MountFinds lost or deleted partitions by scanning the storage device and looking for specific signatures that represent the beginning of a partition. It does not rely on the information stored in the Master Boot Record (MBR), thus allowing you to find partitions even in case you repartition your drive. Win 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Shutdown SlawDogCommercial-quality shutdown utility for Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
System Backup ISO Macrium ReflectMacrium Reflect Free Edition enables you to create complete backups of your disk partitions, including operating system, installed programs and all your settings. Using disk images instead of simple file backups allows you to restore your system to the same state in the event of a system crash or hardware failure. The backup disk images can be saved to a local folder, external drives, a network location or burned to a Linux based or BartPE rescue CD/DVD. The program can backup your partition from within Windows by taking advantage of the Volume Shadow Copy service. Other features include mounting and exploring of backup images, optional compression and a built-in scheduler for automated backups. If you've got an image saved somewhere safe (like an external USB hard drive), you can boot your computer with a Macrium recovery CD, restore the image to a new drive, and be running again as though nothing ever happened within minutes! Win XP/Vista/2008/7.
System Backup ISO DriveImageXMLDriveImageXML creates thorough hard disk images, copies them from disk to disk, and offers browsing of backed-up disk images just like regular directories. That means if there are just a few files to grab from a previous image, there's no need for whole-cloth restorations, just a quick point-and-grab operation. Like Macrium Reflect Free, DriveImageXML support Volume Shadow Copy. Easy to use and reliable program for disk imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives. Win 2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
System Backup Buddy BackupUnlimited free online backup to your buddies computers (Easily make secure, off-site backups so you're safe in the event of fire, flood or theft.) Don't pay a penny for data backup! The new version now also backs up to external devices such as a hard drive, for when your buddies aren't online. Completely free backup software. Simple, easy to use interface. Backup to USB drive. Encrypted backup means no one can read your files - not even your buddies. Your files are efficiently backed up the moment they are saved. Never lose a moment's work. Win XP/Vista/7.
System Clone CloneZillaAllows you to do bare metal backup and recovery. Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore. While Clonezilla server edition is for massive deployment, it can clone many computers simultaneously in a very short period of time. Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Virtual Machine VirtualBoxA family of powerful x86 general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware for enterprise as well as home use. The only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software. Win NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Virtual Machine VmWareRun, share and evaluate pre-built applications and beta software in virtual machines. Win NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
Virtual Machine EasyVMXEasy way to create complete virtual machines for VMware Player (use with VMWare.) Win NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7.
News and Information
HowToHaven Setting Up and Installing XP if you have no installation disks, but only Recovery Disks.
PinGuy Setting Up and Installing XP and what to install afterwards.
LifeHacker How to format your hard drive and install Windows XP from scratch.
LifeHacker Partition and Image Your Hard Drive with the System Rescue CD.
LifeHacker Automatically back up your hard drive.
LifeHacker Trim down Windows to the bare essentials.
