DLC Boot

About this release

DLC Boot is the disc that comes out when a machine will not reach its own desktop. It is a bootable environment with a repair toolkit already inside it, so instead of hunting for a partition tool, then a password tool, then a recovery tool, and finding that none of them will run because the system is broken, you boot the stick and everything is already there and already running.

The collection covers the categories that actually come up. Partition management for resizing, moving, converting and rebuilding tables. Imaging and cloning for taking a copy of a failing drive before touching anything else. File recovery for partitions that have been deleted or formatted. Boot repair for the loader entries and boot records that break after a bad update or a careless install. Password tools for accounts that nobody can get into. Diagnostics for memory, drive health and temperature, so you know whether the problem is software at all.

The launcher is a menu rather than a folder of executables, grouped by what you are trying to do, which matters when you are standing over somebody else's machine and have not touched the tool in months. Everything runs from the boot media, so the drive being repaired is never being written to by the environment doing the repair, which is exactly what you want when the data on it still matters.

The media boots on both firmware types, so old and new hardware are both covered from a single stick. Two environments are provided, a full graphical one for a machine with enough memory and a minimal one for older hardware, and there is a file manager, an editor, a browser and network support so a driver or a note can be fetched mid job.

What it does

Boots when the system will not

A complete working environment from the stick, independent of whatever is wrong with the installed system.

Partition and imaging tools

Resize, move, convert, clone and image drives before anything irreversible is attempted.

File and partition recovery

Recover deleted or formatted volumes and pull data off a drive that is on its way out.

Boot repair

Rebuild loader entries and boot records after a failed update or a careless second install.

Hardware diagnostics

Memory tests, drive health and temperature readouts to separate hardware faults from software ones.

Grouped launcher

Tools are organised by task rather than dumped in a folder, which matters when you use it twice a year.

Changed in this version

• Tool collection refreshed to current versions across every category.
• Improved network driver coverage for recent adapters.
• Minimal environment trimmed further for machines with very little memory.
• Launcher menu reorganised with clearer task groups.
• Fixed boot failure on certain machines with mixed drive controllers.

System requirements

Install order

1. Write the image to a USB stick with a tool that handles bootable media.
2. Set the machine to boot from the stick in firmware settings.
3. Choose the full environment on capable hardware or the minimal one on older machines.
4. Take an image of the drive before running anything that writes to it.

Worth knowing before you start

File details