While fixing computers isn’t my regular gig these days, I still like to be ready if someone asks me to look at their system. In my bag I keep 4 USB drives. 2 contain portable apps if I find myself needing to use a “Guest” computer (i.e. a friend’s). One has Windows apps, the other has Mac equivalents. The third drive is a 64 Gig drive that I use for temporarily moving files around, and the 4th is a lowly 16 GB. But that 16 GB is what Batman would carry.
The 16 GB drive is my secret computer-fixing weapon. First off, it is loaded with commonly used ISO images that would otherwise be on their own USB drive. Thanks to a great little utility named YUMI, I can load as many ISO images on to that drive as I like (and have space) and have a nice menu pop up to let me select which ISO I want to actually boot.
And what ISOs do I keep on there?
- The Windows 7 ISO image
- A Windows XP ISO image
- The System Rescue CD
- Linux ISOs for the OS’es I might have to support
- BackTrack
- The VMWare Cold Clone ISO (A bit dated, but never know when I’ll need to virtualize a physical machine)
One could also keep speciality ISO images on there if they needed. Batman’s USB drive eliminated my need for carrying a bunch of specially burned CDs and DVDs, and perhaps now you can make your own and clear out space too!
What procedure did you used to put VMware Cold Clone on it and make it bootable?