I’ve customised my version to include all the tools I use. I keep Hiren’s 13 on my flash drives, bootable, only because it was the last Hiren’s that included the XP and Windows Vista/7 Bootloader, which I can use to force a boot when the Windows 7 Grub partition gets scrubbed. In Vista, Grub was Visible, they’ve hidden it in Win 7. It’s that 100 MB partition.
A good tool that works great, is Partition Wizard, but you need version 7. Version 7 can rebuild the MBT of Windows 7, but with Windows 7 you also have to insert an Install DVD and run “startup repair” - It’s worked for me like this 100% of the time.
Sometimes Windows 7 will just get corrupted, and not boot. So Hiren’s 13 allows you to boot it.
With XP. it’s when I’ve installed a SATA drive on a SATA card, you have to use those floppy disk drivers to make the hard drive visible to the installer. It’s a pain, cos you have to put a floppy into the box. USB floppy drives do not work for Windows XP SP2 installs - SP 3 has those SATA card drivers built in.
