Rescue windows with linux

System Rescue Homepage

Description: SystemRescue (formerly known as SystemRescueCd) is a Linux system rescue toolkit available as a bootable medium for administrating or repairing your system and data after a crash. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the hard disk partitions. It comes with a lot of Linux system utilities such as GParted, fsarchiver, filesystem tools and basic tools (editors, midnight commander, network tools). It can be used for both Linux and windows computers, and on desktops as well as servers. This rescue system requires no installation as it can be booted from a CD/DVD drive or USB stick, but it can be installed on the hard disk if you wish. The kernel supports all important file systems (ext4, xfs, btrfs, vfat, ntfs), as well as network filesystems such as Samba and NFS.

System and Networking Guides

In addition to the Quick Start Guide and SystemRescue documentation here are other guides:

Project documentation

This project comes with good documentation. Here are the most important pages:

For the impatient:

Chapters about basic usage:

Chapters about advanced usage:

System tools included

• GNU Parted: creates, resizes, moves, copies partitions, and filesystems (and more).
• GParted: GUI implementation using the GNU Parted library.
• FSArchiver: flexible archiver that can be used as both system and data recovery software
• ddrescue : Attempts to make a copy of a block device that has hardware errors, optionally filling corresponding bad spots in input with user defined pattern in the copy.
• File systems tools (for Linux and Windows filesystems): format, resize, and debug an existing partition of a hard disk
• Ntfs3g: enables read/write access to MS Windows NTFS partitions.
• Test-disk : tool to check and undelete partition, supports reiserfs, ntfs, fat32, ext3/ext4 and many others
• Memtest: to test the memory of your computer (first thing to test when you have a crash or unexpected problems)
• Rsync: very-efficient and reliable program that can be used for remote backups.
• Network tools (Samba, NFS, ping, nslookup, …): to backup your data across the network

Browse the short system tools page for more details about the most important software included.

Browse the detailed package list for a full list of the packages.

It is possible to make custom versions of the system. For example, you can add your own scripts, make an automatic restoration of the system. It is also possible to create custom versions of SystemRescue.

You can use SystemRescue to backup data from an unbootable Windows computer, if you want to backup the data stored on a Windows computer that cannot boot any more.

It is very easy to install SystemRescue on a USB stick. That is very useful in case you cannot boot from the CD/DVD drive. You just have to copy several files to the stick and run syslinux. The install process can be done from Linux or Windows. Follow instructions from the manual for more details.

More information about this project

SystemRescue sources can be found on GitLab and these are licensed under the GPLv3 license.

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Using a Linux Rescue Disk to Repair Windows

Linux rescue disks are widely used to repair Linux systems and to recover data. The availability of many Linux rescue disks points at the popularity of such disks to rescue a Linux system. However, many Linux rescue disks can be used to repair a Windows system or to perform specific administrative or rescue tasks on Windows (like resetting a forgotten Windows password). Windows being more vulnerable to system crashes and virus attacks than Linux, it can benefit more from a rescue disk that is specifically designed for it. Typically a rescue disk for Windows contains tools for partitioning, managing file systems, a virus scanner, a password reset tool, etc.

Although there are Linux rescue disks that have been created to address both Windows and Linux system recovery, the fact is that most of the Linux rescue disks can be used to rescue a Windows system, although not all of them may contain all the tools specifically needed for a Windows system recovery. Let us take a look at few of the Linux rescue disks that are especially helpful in repairing a Windows system.

SystemRescueCD is a Linux Live CD based on Gentoo Linux. It is one of the most popular rescue disk used for repairing both Windows and Linux systems. SystemRescueCD contains a set of basic tools and system utilities like tools to save and restore partition table and Master Boot Record, recover lost partitions and deleted files, a graphical partition editor (GParted), various file system tools for each supported file systems, archiving tools, editors that let you edit system files, CD/DVD burning tools, various network and security tools, antivirus tools, etc.

Trinity Rescue Kit is a Mandriva Linux based live CD specifically targeted to be used as a rescue kit to repair Windows and Linux system or recover data. It is bootable from CD, USB drive, or from the network via PXE. With Trinity Rescue Kit you can perform various system repairing tasks like resetting your windows password, scanning your system with four different virus scanners, recover lost files and partitions, clone an NTFS file system over a network, etc. Its notable features include full NTFS write support, extensive hardware support, proxy server support, rootkit detection utilities etc. It also includes a samba fileserver, ssh server, a disk cloning utility for any file system. Trinity Rescue Kit comes with a good documentation support and so getting started with it wouldn’t be much of a problem for any new user.

Avira AntiVir Rescue System is a rescue disk based on Linux that can be used to access unbootable systems to repair an ailing system, recover data and to scan the system for virus infections. The good thing about this rescue disk is the frequent updates that ensure the availability of the latest security updates.

The popular anti virus tool for Windows, Kaspersky Anti Virus also provides a Linux based rescue disk that is free to download and use and can be used to boot into your system and run a virus scan in case your system is severely infected with virus and won’t let you boot. Although it may lack the sophisticated system utilities that come with SystemRescueCD and Trinity Rescue Kit It is an excellent tool to get rid of viruses and infections that are difficult to remove while Windows is running.

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BootDev

Продолжение темы сброса пароля учетной записи Windows. Теперь все действия будут проводится не через WinPE, как это делалось ранее, а через Linux окружение. В качестве дистрибутива будет использоваться SystemRescueCD.

System Rescue CD

Данный livecd предназначен для восстановления работоспособности операционных систем Linux и Windows. Скачать iso-образ данного можно по ссылке http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/Download/.

Сброс Пароля

Как и прежде, сброс пароля будет проводится на операционной системе Windows 10. Приступим.

Загружаем SystemRescueCD.

Выведем информацию о диска системы, чтобы определить целевой, с установленной операционной системой Windows.

Из вывода, видно, что целевой диск /dev/sda, а необходимый раздел, с ОС Windows, /dev/sda2.
Смонтируем раздел /dev/sda2 для выполнения дальнейших манипуляций над ним.

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows

Перейдем в папку /Windows/System32/config.

cd /mnt/windows/Windows/System32/config

Проверяем наличие файла SAM.

Создаем резервную копию файла SAM. На всякий случай.

Выполняем вывод учетных записей файла SAM, чтобы определить необходимую.

Узнав данные необходимой учетной записи (имя или RID), переходим к ее редактированию.

chntpw -u BootDevRU SAM

Откроется интерактивный режим. Перед нами будет меню из шести пунктов. Сброс пароля расположен под номером 1. Вводим данную цифру и нажимаем ENTER .

Программа выдаст сообщение что пароль успешно сброшен. Выполняем выход из интерактивного режима введя букву q. Соглашаемся с внесением изменений введя y.

Выполняем перезагрузку командой reboot , и загружаемся с жесткого диска компьютера.

Пароль успешно сброшен. Как и прежде, можно вернуть сброшенный пароль, восстановив бэкап файла SAM.

Итог

Итак. Мы выполнили сброс пароля учетной записи Windows через операционную систему Linux. Все что потребовалось, это скормить chntpw SAM файл целевой ОС.

Возможно также восстановить сброшенный пароль, так как была создана резервная копия файла SAM. Подробно данный процесс описан тут.

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Use this bootable USB drive on Linux to rescue Windows users

WoeUSB makes Windows boot disks from Linux and help your friends unlock their out-of-commission machines.

People regularly ask me to help them rescue Windows computers that have become locked or damaged. Sometimes, I can use a Linux USB boot drive to mount Windows partitions and then transfer and back up files from the damaged systems.

Other times, clients lose their passwords or otherwise lock their login account credentials. One way to unlock an account is to create a Windows boot disk to repair the computer. Microsoft allows you to download copies of Windows from its website and offers tools to create a USB boot device. But to use them, you need a Windows computer, which means, as a Linux user, I need another way to create a boot DVD or USB drive. I have found it difficult to create Windows USBs on Linux. My reliable tools, like Etcher.io, Popsicle (for Pop!_OS), and UNetbootin, or using dd from the command line to create bootable media, have not been very successful.

That is until I discovered WoeUSB-ng, a GPL 3.0 Linux tool that creates a bootable USB drive for Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10. The open source software has two programs: a command-line utility and a graphical user interface (GUI) version.

Install WoeUSB-ng

The GitHub repository contains instructions for installing WoeUSB-ng on Arch, Ubuntu, Fedora, or with pip3.

If you’re on a supported Linux operating system, you can install WoeUSB-ng using your package manager. Alternatively, you can use Python’s package manager, pip, to install the application. This is universal across any Linux distribution. There’s no functional difference between these methods, so use whichever’s familiar to you.

I’m running Pop!_OS, which is an Ubuntu derivative, but being comfortable with Python, I chose the pip3 install:

$ sudo pip3 install WoeUSB-ng

Create a boot disk

You can use WoeUSB-ng from the command line or the GUI version.

To create a boot disk from the command line, the syntax requires the command, a path to your Windows ISO file ( /dev/sdX in this example; use the lsblk command to determine your drive), and a device:

$ sudo woeusb --device Windows.iso /dev/sdX

You can also launch the program for an easy-to-use interface. In the WoeUSB-ng application window, find the Windows.iso file and select it. Choose your USB target device—the drive you want to make into a Windows boot drive. This will ERASE all information on this drive, so choose carefully—and then double-check (and triple-check) your choice!

Once you’re sure you have the right destination drive selected, click the Install button.

Creating media takes five to 10 minutes, depending on your Linux computer’s processor, memory, USB port speed, etc. Be patient.

Once the process is finished and verified, you have a functional Windows USB boot device to help someone repair their Windows computer.

Help others

Open source is all about helping other people. Very often, you can help Windows users by using the Linux-based System Rescue CD. But sometimes, the only way to help is directly from Windows, and WoeUSB-ng is a great open source tool to make that possible.

Convert your Windows install into a VM on Linux

Here’s how I configured a VirtualBox VM to use a physical Windows drive on my Linux workstation.

Give an old MacBook new life with Linux

Elementary OS’s latest release, Hera, is an impressive platform for resurrecting an outdated MacBook.

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