Occassionally Windows computers crash badly so it cannot even do a safe boot.
If you do not have access to the Windows install media (preinstalled PC), which boot image would you recommend to start a shell on the Windows hard disk volume (NTFS)?
A DOS or UNIX type shell would be ok.
I will prefer a solution which have a data transfer mechanism via WiFi, net or CD/DVD so user data can be salvaged.
The easiest one for that would most likely be Knoppix: http://www.knoppix.net/ - it's a bootable Linux distribution that runs completely off the CD, doesn't touch the physical disk.
Other other option, is Windows PE: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/. It's like Knoppix for Windows (gives you a bootable Windows shell, without touching the hdd). You need to have physical Windows disks avaliable to make the bootable disk, but if you keep it handy and you're on-site without windows media, it's a life saver. Especially if you create your PE image with lots of nice software, like Norton Ghost, etc. It even supports a lot of network cards.
WinPE. See http://www.ratsauce.co.uk/notablog/WinPECD.asp
Looks and works much like Server 2008 Core.
JR
I've used a Ubuntu live boot CD to duplicate an NTFS drive using dd on a sector copy basis. But I was also able to mount the drive and copy files and had net access.
