Gaming USB security software

[zeromac]

Well so far, i think my laptop has BSOD (Blue screen of Death) twice, the second time i had to format it and i lost quite alot of stuff..
So this time i bought a usb just incase it happens and now i need some security stuff to put on it in-case it BSOD again

and i cant access it..
My friend told me to put Linux on it, not sure if that works or not, havnt found a very good guide...
So what stuff should i put on it so when my laptop BSOD so that i can boot through a usb and have something on the usb to remove the virus if possible?

 

[FAST6191]

"i cant access it"

If you can format it you can access it- linux has had NTFS drivers for years and even if it did not you have things like bartpe. In fact the only three things I carry around software wise when playing the "my computer just broke" system recovery are an nlited install of XP, bartpe and puppy linux (pretty much any liveCD will do but that one is built for portability, knoppix is another good one here and favoured often by those in the system rescue side of things http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html ). Coincidentally that is about how easy it is to bypass the standard windows security (few bother to encrypt their drive on top of a "password").
Booting from USB is a computer thing which you can set in the BIOS (even a nicely locked down thing like most laptops) but more likely you will just want to press a button on boot to send it that way- usually f11 of f12 but sometimes f8 as well.

Virus removal- even external we passed the ability of automatic removal years ago so manual file deletion and messing with the registry is usually what is called for, indeed any good AV company will detail manual removal anyway. Bartpe works for this but I am told WINE also allows for the windows registry editor to work. The windows registry is usually split into 4 or so pieces all found in the Windows\System32\Config in XP, not sure where off the top of my head for other windows iterations.

Secure USB: if going truly basic an encrypted 7zip file will do. After this I suggest looking at standard drive encryption in stuff like http://www.truecrypt.org/

 

[Sir-Fritz]

+1 for bartpe

 

[zeromac]

"i cant access it"

If you can format it you can access it- linux has had NTFS drivers for years and even if it did not you have things like bartpe. In fact the only three things I carry around software wise when playing the "my computer just broke" system recovery are an nlited install of XP, bartpe and puppy linux (pretty much any liveCD will do but that one is built for portability, knoppix is another good one here and favoured often by those in the system rescue side of things http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html ). Coincidentally that is about how easy it is to bypass the standard windows security (few bother to encrypt their drive on top of a "password").
Booting from USB is a computer thing which you can set in the BIOS (even a nicely locked down thing like most laptops) but more likely you will just want to press a button on boot to send it that way- usually f11 of f12 but sometimes f8 as well.

Virus removal- even external we passed the ability of automatic removal years ago so manual file deletion and messing with the registry is usually what is called for, indeed any good AV company will detail manual removal anyway. Bartpe works for this but I am told WINE also allows for the windows registry editor to work. The windows registry is usually split into 4 or so pieces all found in the Windows\System32\Config in XP, not sure where off the top of my head for other windows iterations.

Secure USB: if going truly basic an encrypted 7zip file will do. After this I suggest looking at standard drive encryption in stuff like http://www.truecrypt.org/

When i said that i couldn't access it, i meant that when i boot up my laptop, it would BSOD
What i was looking for would be like install a bootable OS from usb and then when im in i could use something like malware bytes to remove the virus :s
Still need something more because thats just what im thinking of

 

[FAST6191]

bartpe is essentially a liveCD version of windows, only real downside is you need an installer disc to make it. It comes with some serious extensions including antivirus ones but as mentioned if you have a virus that bad you are going in manually.

puppy linux is a liveCD based operating system based on linux, it comes with a browser, ftp and a load more network file sharing capabilities and awesome hardware support (in my experience often better than the bigger operating systems) which is pretty much all that is needed to fix most machines or yank everything off there ready for a reinstall.

knoppix is similar to puppy linux.

I should have also mentioned http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

Finally if you were really bored and had another machine you can also use an external drive reader if you have one.

 

[zeromac]

Maybe i should have explained better >_<
What i was really looking for was like installing Linux onto a USB so i could access the laptop than use something like malware bytes to remove the virus..
Something alone those lines would help plus suggestions with those

 

[purplesludge]

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/creat...e-the-easy-way/
That uses a program to install linux to flash drive.

 

[Urza]

Maybe i should have explained better >_<
What i was really looking for was like installing Linux onto a USB so i could access the laptop than use something like malware bytes to remove the virus..
Something alone those lines would help plus suggestions with those

http://www.volatileminds.net/projects/clamav/