OSX USB Flash Drive toolkit, what do you recommend?

oddmon · 12-02-2005, 09:16 AM

[background]
My day job involves being an admin for a WinPC based lab. Recently I came up with the idea of putting together a "toolkit" of small programs that would run from a 128Mb flash drive for use when I am on machines where my favorite tools aren't installed. My current collection includes applications from dsSoft, systeminternals, Foundstone, M$, as well as tightVNC, some custom batch files and Winamp 2.95. They're mainly CLI tools, so folder size is around 12Mb with a 7Mb rar'd backup, < 20Mb all together.
[/background]

I thought since I support Macs in another building that it might be cool to have a similar kit for Macs, but haven't found much that fits the bill of being really useful and small (system utilities like TechTools weigh in @ > 40Mb).

Would anyone have any suggestions on what to include, or where to look?

tlarkin · 12-02-2005, 11:13 AM

diskwarrior is the best utility for rebuilding corrupted file systems on hard disks.

Personally I use BartsPE winxp build, and DSL (damn small linux) kernel on my thumb drive. Can boot off both of them, and DSL has everything from network support to web browsing. I didn't both checking if there was PPC support for it, but by next year when macs go all x86 that probably won't matter.

What I am doing now, but have not looked into it as of recent, is I am putting GRUB on my thumb drive and using it to load various images. So, for example I run things like PC Check, Novell, Windows, Mac OS X, Memtestx86, various bootable images to image the OS, some stress tests, etc.

So, what I am trying to build right now is a grub menu that will boot up off my thumb drive and then load whatever image I want it to. Since GRUB is OS independant (meaning it does not need any OS to run) and its just a simple boot loader, I could feasibly run all my utilities and such from a grub menu. I have do to full context logins to connect to our novell servers, so I also need a network boot disk for that. Unfortunately I have just recently been playing around with it and do not have anything solid yet. I will be using my thumb drive to boot up and run all the images, and if I need to image a system it will load the image software off my thumb drive and pull the image either via network or via external fw/usb2.0 HD. I have been talking to a guy over in the UK who uses grub to load images in a way similiar to what I want to accomplish.

This may be way out there for you, but I also work in the IT field and find this solution to be a possible good one when running in a multiple OS/hardware enviroment.

here are some apps to look for

diskwarrior
cocktail
batchmod

also check out the thread hayne started called apps not to be missed, or something similiar

also check out This Website for more cool apps

12-02-2005, 11:13 AM	#2
tlarkin League Commissioner Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kansas City Posts: 9,628	diskwarrior is the best utility for rebuilding corrupted file systems on hard disks. Personally I use BartsPE winxp build, and DSL (damn small linux) kernel on my thumb drive. Can boot off both of them, and DSL has everything from network support to web browsing. I didn't both checking if there was PPC support for it, but by next year when macs go all x86 that probably won't matter. What I am doing now, but have not looked into it as of recent, is I am putting GRUB on my thumb drive and using it to load various images. So, for example I run things like PC Check, Novell, Windows, Mac OS X, Memtestx86, various bootable images to image the OS, some stress tests, etc. So, what I am trying to build right now is a grub menu that will boot up off my thumb drive and then load whatever image I want it to. Since GRUB is OS independant (meaning it does not need any OS to run) and its just a simple boot loader, I could feasibly run all my utilities and such from a grub menu. I have do to full context logins to connect to our novell servers, so I also need a network boot disk for that. Unfortunately I have just recently been playing around with it and do not have anything solid yet. I will be using my thumb drive to boot up and run all the images, and if I need to image a system it will load the image software off my thumb drive and pull the image either via network or via external fw/usb2.0 HD. I have been talking to a guy over in the UK who uses grub to load images in a way similiar to what I want to accomplish. This may be way out there for you, but I also work in the IT field and find this solution to be a possible good one when running in a multiple OS/hardware enviroment. here are some apps to look for diskwarrior cocktail batchmod also check out the thread hayne started called apps not to be missed, or something similiar also check out This Website for more cool apps __________________ http://www.tlarkin.com (it is under construction) Last edited by tlarkin; 12-02-2005 at 11:16 AM.

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12-02-2005, 09:16 AM	#1
oddmon Prospect Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 4	[background] My day job involves being an admin for a WinPC based lab. Recently I came up with the idea of putting together a "toolkit" of small programs that would run from a 128Mb flash drive for use when I am on machines where my favorite tools aren't installed. My current collection includes applications from dsSoft, systeminternals, Foundstone, M$, as well as tightVNC, some custom batch files and Winamp 2.95. They're mainly CLI tools, so folder size is around 12Mb with a 7Mb rar'd backup, < 20Mb all together. [/background] I thought since I support Macs in another building that it might be cool to have a similar kit for Macs, but haven't found much that fits the bill of being really useful and small (system utilities like TechTools weigh in @ > 40Mb). Would anyone have any suggestions on what to include, or where to look?