Creating A Rescue CD in XPP - SP3

[hlewton]

I’ll try to ask this as briefly as I can because I just do not understand all I have read about it. It seems I may have a need to create a Rescue disk that starts and runs from a bootable CD. Since I am using XP it also seems that I need to download and burn an “iso” file to the CD. Not sure exactly what that is but apparently it makes it a bootable CD. There is a small program that takes care of that for me, http://www.freeisoburner.com/ . In reading about burning the “iso” file to the CD they mention finalizing it the CD. As far as I understand if a disk is finalized nothing can be added to it so I am wondering if the rescue program, in this case Kaspersky Rescue Disk, needs to be put on the disk first before downloading the “iso” file. If that is the case how would I put it on the CD leaving whatever space is necessary for the CD to become bootable? Nero 12 is the program I use to create CDs or DVDs but I am not familiar with or understanding this so any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[Argus]

As far as I understand if a disk is finalized nothing can be added to it so I am wondering if the rescue program, in this case Kaspersky Rescue Disk, needs to be put on the disk first before downloading the “iso” file. If that is the case how would I put it on the CD leaving whatever space is necessary for the CD to become bootable?

I do not understand your question, I'm afraid.

You would like to create a "rescue disk", in this case based on the Kaspersky software. According to the documentation it is supposed to be run from a CD/DVD or USB device, then there is no need download and add another ISO file. The Kaspersky Rescue Disk IS an ISO file; and when you have burnt a CD it should be bootable. (When doing similar things I usually pick a rewriteable disk, i.e. CD-RW, if anything goes wrong it easy to erase it.)

Just had a look at, what I think is, the file and it is supposed to be bootable. So, just burn it (create a disk from ISO); there is usually a check box somewhere in the software to finalize the disk.

2013-05-28_A.png

[hlewton]

I think you are correct and I miss read the article missing a very important sentence (Here are three free, self-booting rescue discs to consider:) The paragraph above this sentence is what I was reading and it mentioned about having to download the "iso" file to make a rescue disk bootable but now I believe it was talking about something other than the one I am planning on making. Thanks for pointing that out and sorry about the confusing question.

[hlewton]

Well obviously I am still not doing something correctly. In using Nero Burning Rom to create this rescue disk I have the choices of:
CD-ROM (Boot)
CD-ROM (ISO)
CD-ROM (UDF/ISO)
CD-ROM (SevurDisc)

I choose CD-ROM (ISO) and burned 2 files downloaded from that Kaspersky WEB site that were downloaded to my hard drive first and from there to the CD. I made sure that my BIOS is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive first but still I cannot get this to be a bootable CD following the step I mentioned above.

These seem to be the 2 steps I am having trouble with and they are direct from Kaspersky's WEB site especially the portion I mabe bold:
1. Download Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10

Download the Kaspersky Rescue Disk iso image from the Kaspersky Lab server.

If desired (not mandatory) you can compare MD5 hash of the downloaded file with the actual hash:
http://rescuedisk.kaspersky-labs.com/re ... 10.md5.txt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

2. Record the Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 image to a CD/DVD

InformationIf Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 or Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 is installed on your computer, then you can quickly record Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 via the application interface. Kaspersky Lab 2012 products have a special tool which allows creating and recording Kapersky Rescue Disk.

If you do not have a Kaspersky Lab 2012 product installed on your computer, then record the Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 iso image to a CD/DVD using any record program (for example, Nero Burning ROM, ISO Recorder, DeepBurner, Roxio Creator etc.).

WarningIt is strongly recommended to record the disk with minimum available speed. Otherwise, it can cause record errors.



Any suggestion on what I could be doing wrong?

Thanks.

[viking33]

hlewton,
I gave up on NERO quite some time ago when it became more and more "clunkier" and with options that were as clear as mud. In my mind anyhow.
Nero has fiddled around too much while CD-ROM is burning
I have been using Active ISO Burner with good success. Easy to use.
Just bring up the Active ISO screen, point it to the location of your downloaded ISO file, tell it where the DVD is located, use the default options and click "Burn."
http://www.ntfs.com/iso-burning.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ISO Burner.JPG

[hlewton]

Thanks I will give it a try.

[hlewton]

OK it is becoming more and more obvious I don't know what I am doing. When I downloaded and tried to use Active ISO Burner it tried to burn a file that had no bytes. When I go to Kaspersky's site and download the files which it leads me to I get 2 files downloaded one is "Kav_Rescue_10.ISO" and its size is 0 bytes. The other file I get is "Kav_Rescue_10.ISO.part" and it size seems to depend on how many time I have downloaded it. Using Nero I am able to burn both files to the CD using CD-ROM (ISO) but it does not boot from it. Using Active ISO it only chooses Kav_Rescue_10.ISO (the 0 byte file. I can force it to choose the other file but not sure it would burn either) and when it goes through all its preliminary functions and gets to the point it says it is burning it just sits there and does nothing. I have to use the Task Manager to stop it because it does not seem to time out either. Any thoughts on what am I doing or not doing that is making this not work?

[viking33]

OK it is becoming more and more obvious I don't know what I am doing. When I downloaded and tried to use Active ISO Burner it tried to burn a file that had no bytes. When I go to Kaspersky's site and download the files which it leads me to I get 2 files downloaded one is "Kav_Rescue_10.ISO" and its size is 0 bytes. The other file I get is "Kav_Rescue_10.ISO.part" and it size seems to depend on how many time I have downloaded it. Using Nero I am able to burn both files to the CD using CD-ROM (ISO) but it does not boot from it. Using Active ISO it only chooses Kav_Rescue_10.ISO (the 0 byte file. I can force it to choose the other file but not sure it would burn either) and when it goes through all its preliminary functions and gets to the point it says it is burning it just sits there and does nothing. I have to use the Task Manager to stop it because it does not seem to time out either. Any thoughts on what am I doing or not doing that is making this not work?

A zero byte file is of course useless because it doesn't contain any data.
The PART file type is primarily associated with 'Partial Download'. In general terms, many download managers will store parts of downloads in a file given the file extension .PART and then combine these when the download is complete. A .PART file by itself is generally of little to no use. You need to wait until the download is complete before opening it.
I would delete these two files and try the download again.
Do you use a Download Manager? If so, these seem to have been interrupted during your downloads are sometimes used to "pick up where you left off . I wouldn't trust them at this point and would start anew but this time be patient and make sure the downloads are really finished.

[hlewton]

I don't use a Download Manager that I am aware of. The times (4) I downloaded it this morning I used Firefox as my browser and it always created the files I mentioned in the last post which I know now form your post are more or less corrupt. They did download very fast. There must be something wrong with that Kaspersky's site considering the corrupt downloads and because I am now using IE8 and it is a much bigger download but it is taking forever. I have a very fast Internet connection but this download speed is approximately 92 B/sec and it is showing it will take over an hour to complete the 308 MB file download. I am going to wait it out and hope I get a good download this time. Thanks for the help.

[Argus]

Yes, as Bob said, and as I indicated above, there should only be one file. They are usually quite big since they are disc images; in this case 308 MB as you say. ISO image [at Wikipedia].

They also mention the MD5 hash of the file, at the download page mentioned above, so that one can compare it with the downloaded file to check that the file is free from errors. There is usually no need for this, but if one is going to burn it to a CD it can be a good idea. There is no tool for checking these checksums in Windows XP; I've been using FCIV (File Checksum Integrity Verifier), a small command-prompt utility from Microsoft, but there are many out there.

It's quite some time since I last burnt an ISO, and I have used different tools, among them MagicISO, though I think the free version had some limit in size of the ISO image.

My download took around 2 minutes, still quite slow if compared to my nominal bandwidth, but not unusually slow. It's difficult to say where the fault lies with the interrupted downloads or very slow speed.

[hlewton]

Thanks to both of you for all the help. I finally got it to work but it did take about an hour to download using IE 8 but now it is done. A file that is around 308 MB normally would only take about the same time yours did for me but as you say I really don't know what the problem was. BTW once the entire file downloaded that Active ISO Burner worked perfectly.

[viking33]

Thanks to both of you for all the help. I finally got it to work but it did take about an hour to download using IE 8 but now it is done. A file that is around 308 MB normally would only take about the same time yours did for me but as you say I really don't know what the problem was. BTW once the entire file downloaded that Active ISO Burner worked perfectly.

Glad you got it all sorted out now and the ISO Burner worked OK for you.

[hlewton]

Glad you got it all sorted out now and the ISO Burner worked OK for you.

Me too. I'll list a couple side notes because I always like to try to see why things happen even though I know there is probably nothing I can do about it under the same circumstances now or in the future. Anyway I ran one of those "Internet Speed Tests" to see if I was still getting what I am paying for from my ISP and it appears I am. The download speed was over 23 Mbps which is what it has usually been every time I run that test. So I went back to that download site of Kaspersky's and downloaded that 308 MB file again. It was a lot faster today but still very slow since it took over 6 minutes this time which is a far cry from the 1 hour plus last night. Still not sure where the problem lies but am fairly confident it isn't my ISP.

Also experimented with making an ISO CD-ROM using Nero and it sure was a lot more confusing than using that Active ISO Burner mentioned above. I believe I did finally get a workable CD though I am not going to fully test it and here is why. Using the one created by Active ISO Burner I encountered a couple problems. The entire time it was in the CD drive after booting to it, it somehow was affecting my monitor by making if flash as if it had lost power and was trying to get it back. I was able to boot to it and run the rescue program. However, upon finishing that and rebooting to the Windows OS I could not eject the CD no matter how I tried. So I ended up shutting the computer down, using that tiny hole in the CD drive with a straightened paper clip and finally was able to eject the CD.

OK now I have a question that has been puzzling me since I ran this program. As you know I booted to that CD but once that program was up and running I had to update the malware database before I ran it. It only took a couple clicks and a few seconds to download over 5 MB of updates but where were they stored since I know it was not on the CD? Could it have been stored in the RAM and erased when booting up to the OS? I tried googling for this answer but apparently I am not asking the question properly. Big surprise, huh? LOL

[viking33]

Well. I'm not very sure I understand your question either.
You are talking about download speeds of 5MB vs. 308MB. Almost 62 times difference? I don't think you can do a valid comparison here because DL times can vary so much, depending on the load on the server, how many users are accessing it at a particular time, Time of day, routing of each particular packet of data, condition or quality of the electrical path of data, etc etc. I don't think it was stored in RAM but the reboot might have cleared out a bunch of odd junk that might have been slowing things down.
I have no idea how your monitor could be affected by having a disc in the drive, or why the disc stuck in the drawer of the drive? Maybe your disc drive is having it's own set of problems. Can't help there unless you can give more details that would point in the right direction.

[Argus]

Most of the time there is not much we can do about slow download speeds, as you say. In some cases there is a cap in place; other times a heavy load on the server, or just plain slow connections. The file "should" have arrived in around 30 s for me, but as mentioned it took around 4 times longer (though it went down from 1:50 to 1:13 on second try). Still very good speed if compared to one hour! Most of the time we accept this, or if possible select a mirror for the download.

It is possible that definition updates to the rescue CD, and AV software, is stored on another server than the rescue software; but as Bob said there are many variables in the equation.

I agree with you both, though I have limited experience with recent versions of for example Nero and Roxio, that some software make it unnecessary complicated.

It's difficult to say anything about the experience with the monitor and CD tray; could be unrelated hardware problems or just about anything. As for the restart experience, perhaps Windows and/or your AV software (or some other software on the PC) found the CD in the drive very interesting and were busy examining it when you tried to eject the CD.

In some cases I think the definitions are stored in the RAM (or a RAM drive). I did some quick tests in a virtual machine; in this case it seems to create a folder on the system drive, C; "Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10.0". Do you find such a folder on the PC?

[hlewton]

Well. I'm not very sure I understand your question either.
You are talking about download speeds of 5MB vs. 308MB. Almost 62 times difference? I don't think you can do a valid comparison here because DL times can vary so much, depending on the load on the server, how many users are accessing it at a particular time, Time of day, routing of each particular packet of data, condition or quality of the electrical path of data, etc etc. I don't think it was stored in RAM but the reboot might have cleared out a bunch of odd junk that might have been slowing things down.
I have no idea how your monitor could be affected by having a disc in the drive, or why the disc stuck in the drawer of the drive? Maybe your disc drive is having it's own set of problems. Can't help there unless you can give more details that would point in the right direction.

Sorry about the confusion. I was only using that 5 and 308 as an example not a direct comparison of speeds. The speed I was comparing to, at least I thought I was, was the 23 Mb/sec that I got when I ran that Internet speed test I mentioned. There are sites where you can check your Internet connection speed for both download and upload speeds. What I was trying to say was that I went to one of them again and tested the speed and it came out the same as it has in the past when I have previously tested it. As far as a more direct comparison goes it would be more fair to compare the 6 minutes to the over an hour it took to download the same file (308 MB) even though it never reached the 23 Mb/sec it was still a lot faster than the first time I downloaded it.

I too have no idea why the disk in the drive caused the problem. All I know is with it out of the drive or with any other disk in that drive I have no problems at all with my screen so to me the logical conclusion is something about the disk had caused the problem. Also once the rescue process was over and the computer rebooted there seemed to be continual activity in that drive which may have cause it not to be able to eject the disk. I was only able to eject it by shutting the computer down and using that straightened paper clip as I mentioned above. Possible I caused the problem by trying to eject the disk when the scan was over instead of allowing the program to eject it on its own. Even at that point it would not eject whether I tried manually or eventually had the program try to eject it as part of its procedure. All I know is no matter what I did I could not eject it while the computer was up and running.

[hlewton]

In some cases I think the definitions are stored in the RAM (or a RAM drive). I did some quick tests in a virtual machine; in this case it seems to create a folder on the system drive, C; "Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10.0". Do you find such a folder on the PC?

I did and was going to say I think I found the answer to my question but am glad I read your response before posting that reply. After I posted that question I went back to erase the additional download I did when experimenting with the site to see if it was faster for me. As I was about to delete that extra file I had I discovered that folder you also found. There are a lot of sub-folders beneath it so I figured that must be where the updates were stored.

[Argus]

By the way, funny I forgot to mention that ... The rescue CD is as you know a "live CD", as we have seen so many in recent years, and thus it comes with more than just the AV software. It's an OS running, with file manager etc. As often is the case it is based on a Linux flavour, in this case Gentoo with KDE.

Perhaps there is some problem getting your hardware working with that Linux flavoured live CD. A search for: Linux "live cd" monitor flickering, or similar, yields quite many results. Perhaps looking at the resolution, cables, monitors, if more than one, might solve it.

[hlewton]

By the way, funny I forgot to mention that ... The rescue CD is as you know a "live CD", as we have seen so many in recent years, and thus it comes with more than just the AV software. It's an OS running, with file manager etc. As often is the case it is based on a Linux flavour, in this case Gentoo with KDE.

Perhaps there is some problem getting your hardware working with that Linux flavoured live CD. A search for: Linux "live cd" monitor flickering, or similar, yields quite many results. Perhaps looking at the resolution, cables, monitors, if more than one, might solve it.

I do recall seeing that it was based on Linux but never gave it a thought that could be the cause. I'll bet you have hit on the answer but since it will be rarely used, and possibly never again on this computer, it would probably be best if I now left well enough alone but thanks for the reply. BTW I see a lot of the results from your search. I really never thought to do that either but it is interesting to know I am not the only one who encounters these odd problems. I'm now going to search for not being able to eject the CD and see if I get any results on that search. Thanks again.

[hlewton]

WOW that was quick. I see that others have had the same type of ejecting problem that I did using Linux. One of the solutions was to use the paper clip as I did but for at least one person it worked while the computer was still running. It did not for me so I had to shut it down. Also some found that rebooting took care of the problem but that too did not work for me. I'm sure if I kept looking I'd find someone who had an identical problem that I encountered but I am convinced that I do not have a hardware problem and feel better about that.