-----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Dave Wade Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2013 11:05 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: software to view system properties On 07/07/2013 16:30, Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus wrote: wireless. I don't believe there is anything "off the shelf". I am inclined to say use the "Hwinfo" tool on the Ultimate Boot CD but I don't know if it will write to a USB stick... http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ Thank you, Dave! I also thought about using something like Spiceworks www.spiceworks.com and hooking several laptops up to a hub and a host laptop. Supposedly Spiceworks installs nothing to the machines being scanned, will gather the info and store in MySQL, print reports, export to spreadsheet, and lots of other things. The part I am unsure of, is if there is no OS on the machines to be scanned, will it work? Would there be any advantage to making bootable USB sticks for the laptops, so there is some sort of OS? Not all of the units will have optical drives, and most won't have a floppy, but they should all have a USB port of some sort.

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Worse that that. Even if there is an OS it requires some kind of credentials to access the machine. Tools like spiceworks assume the machines are on a Windows domain or have some common authentication path. There is a Wiki here on converting Ultimate BootCD (UBCD) to USBbut I have never tried it.... http://wiki.ultimatebootcd.com/?title=Tutorials:USB_Installation

Would there be any advantage to making bootable USB sticks for the laptops, so there is some sort of OS? Not all of the units will have optical drives, and most won't have a floppy, but they should all have a USB port of some sort.

from broken links (such as "HP USB disk format")

I find the HP utility quite useful for creating bootable USB sticks--it seems to do things that other utilities don't. At any rate, you can find it here: > http://www.mediafire.com/download/jazgadphzdy111u/BOOTABLE+FLASH+DRIVE.zip

What is the easiest and simplest way to make a bootable XP flash drive. Not Linux, although that does have a valid place of its own. Not several dozen steps that require downloading half a dozen programs from broken links (such as "HP USB disk format")

from any supported install set (XP, Vista?, 2003 server). It has most of

On 07/07/2013 08:02 PM, Fred Cisin wrote: Intended for just this sort of thing. http://technet.microsoft.com/**en-us/library/cc766093%28v=WS.**10%29.aspx&l… http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-**us/library/ms940812%28v=** WinEmbedded.5%29.aspx<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms940812%2… -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- ICQ# 905818 --- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech - http://certification.comptia.**org/<http://certification.comptia.org/> --- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst - http://www.ThinkHDI.com/ Registered Linux user number 464583 "Computers have lots of memory but no imagination." "The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back." - from some guy on the internet.

From: "Dave Wade" <dave.g4ugm at gmail.com> To: General at pallando.ncf.ca, "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Sunday, July 7, 2013 12:04:53 PM Subject: Re: software to view system properties On 07/07/2013 16:30, Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus wrote: I don't believe there is anything "off the shelf". I am inclined to say use the "Hwinfo" tool on the Ultimate Boot CD but I don't know if it will write to a USB stick... http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ -- Dave Wade G4UGM Illegitimi Non Carborundum

In my utilities arsenal, I have a CD, "Winternals ER Commander 2005". It boots into a WindowsPE environment. Maybe that would be enough of a Win system for the other utilities to work? ISTR, there are other version of this as well, version numbering I believe is by year. And there may be a way to make it USB bootable. For laptops without CD drives, almost all recent laptops can boot from a USB connected external CD drive as well.

On 07/07/2013 05:21 PM, Mike Kenzie wrote:

FWIW we use WinUBCD and yes it has a tool built in to create itself as a bootable USB device which makes it exponentially quicker than a DVD or DVD-RW (slowest). I'm not sure if hwinfo has all the info you'd like but it's on there. If anything this would get you a nice bootable windows environment that's writable and you can add your own tools if they can run in a portable fashion pretty easily. On the bright side it's all free to check out. I haven't really done what you're looking for specifically though.

On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 8:15 AM, Dave Woyciesjes <woyciesjes at sbcglobal.net>wrote: > On 07/08/2013 09:07 AM, Dave Woyciesjes wrote: > >> In my utilities arsenal, I have a CD, "Winternals ER Commander >> 2005". It boots into a WindowsPE environment. Maybe that would be enough >> of a Win system for the other utilities to work? >> ISTR, there are other version of this as well, version numbering I >> believe is by year. And there may be a way to make it USB bootable. >> For laptops without CD drives, almost all recent laptops can boot >> from a USB connected external CD drive as well. >> > > That's right, MS took over the Winternals stuff, renamed to > SysInternals: > http://social.technet.**microsoft.com/Forums/** > windowsserver/en-US/8c541c2b-**c76b-4b05-a231-e67475f4c0ef/**erd-commander&… > > "...ERD Commander is a tool that was originally developed by Winternals > (Windows Sysinternals). Microsoft acquired Winternals and its assets on > July 18, 2006. Microsoft included this tool, firstly, in its Microsoft > Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) and changed its name to Microsoft > Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT). This tool has been developed > further and its latest version is 7.0. Please consider that each version > works only with some operating systems. For example, DaRT 5.0 only works > with Windpws XP and Windows Server 2003, 6.0 works with Windows Vista and > Windows Server 2008...." > > > > > On 07/07/2013 05:21 PM, Mike Kenzie wrote: >> >>> hwinfo can write almost anywhere, we used it from Ubuntu to track the >>> systems we refurb. >>> It can also output to different formats, (html, xml...) >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> >>>> From: "Dave Wade" <dave.g4ugm at gmail.com> >>>> To: General at pallando.ncf.ca, "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" >>>> <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >>>> Sent: Sunday, July 7, 2013 12:04:53 PM >>>> Subject: Re: software to view system properties >>>> >>>> On 07/07/2013 16:30, Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus wrote: >>>> >>>>> We are going to be receiving 16 pallets of laptops shortly, and I >>>>> am looking >>>>> for software that does not have to be installed, does not require >>>>> an OS >>>>> (there is no hard drive in the laptops), and will export to >>>>> something that I >>>>> can import into an Excel spreadsheet. Has anyone ever used this >>>>> program, or >>>>> can you suggest an alternative? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> http://www.gtopala.com/siw-**tools/siw-viewer.html<http://www.gtopala.co… >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> We need to run a basic BIOS boot test, check the screen to make >>>>> sure it is >>>>> not cracked or gouged, etc. >>>>> >>>>> I also want to collect system info such as Manufacturer of the >>>>> laptop, the >>>>> model number, the serial number, Processor type and speed, >>>>> installed memory, >>>>> and if it has any goodies installed like webcam or wireless. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Preferably the program can be run from a USB stick, and will write >>>>> the >>>>> system info back to the same stick. Then I can import the system >>>>> info into >>>>> a spreadsheet. >>>>> >>>> I don't believe there is anything "off the shelf". I am inclined to >>>> say >>>> use the "Hwinfo" tool on the Ultimate Boot CD but I don't know if it >>>> will write to a USB stick... >>>> >>>> http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ >>>> >>>> >>>>> >>>>> Many thanks in advance, >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Cindy Croxton >>>>> >>>>