Ultimate Recovery Environment for Windows PCs

Today we are looking at Hiren's Boot CD a windows recovery environment that's had a history of controversy but is today one of the best recovery environments for modern versions of Windows. This USB is one that you need to have as part of your arsenal.
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Links From Video
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Rufus: rufus.ie/en/
#Windows #Recovery #Tech

[@roberthunter6927]

I think the original Hiren's came out with an MS-DOS environment, probably 5 or 6. I was sort of a semi-graphical menu-type interface[using key options like A, B, C, etc rather than a mouse to navigate, and was so small it could fit on a 50-MB ["credit-card"] Burnable CD-ROM disk. Pirated or not, it was used by nearly all computer techs that I knew in the field. It was simply superb. It was was usable in that form until windows NT, where some of the utilities did not work with the new kernel. Computer techs, like help desk folks, were entry-level IT professionals before going on to better-paid jobs like system admins and programmers, and because they did not have much money, and their bosses often did not let them buy very expensive forensic/repair program suites, they always had a Hiren's boot CD in their pocket. This is going back at least 30 years now. Other tools were tiny Linux terminal distributions, which would also fit on a 50 Gig CD-ROM. A little further back, and you could put Linux on a single 1.44mb floppy disk.

[@kirikayuumura3256]

Speccy is a program to see the specifications of the hardware and software in your computer. It is pronounced "Spec - See" (spek-see) as a play on words that are the program's function, to "See" the "Specs" of your computer. The program icon is of a computer tower standing within the arms of a pair of old-style 3D Glasses (spectacles), this further plays on the "See the Specs" theme.

[@retroguardian4802]

I use speccy quite a bit but do be aware of video card issues. I play with a lot of video cards as a hobby and speccy pretty often doesn't identify the card properly.

[@SubzeroMKG]

I been using Hirens for over a decade. Now use it along with several other ISOs on a large Ventoy USB.

[@P2000Camaro]

Ventoy is a god send.. I just wish I would've known about it YEARS ago.. Would've saved me so much time.

[@gametroeb]

I also

[@DevilbyMoonlight]

same here, been using it since it came out...

[@jameswagster8329]

I personally use easy2boot.

[@MrTommyGeek]

This is the way!

[@dvdvideo1234]

I am using this HB boot CD for years. Works like a charm. Even the oldest versions for DOS 😀 It is even comoatible with SATA HDDs.

[@j.lietka9406]

Can you use the PE version on Win 7?

[@jcspaziano]

I used Hirens WAY back in the day. Even with the pirated stuff it bailed me out several times. Damn shame the haters killed it. Great Video man!

[@jamestech9109]

I have used hirens for a decade to recover / reset SAM file passwords. Best tool out there.. It's unfortunate to see this software starting to age and no one is updating it. Great video as well. thank you

[@elenaursache9728]

A new version of Hiren's BootCD was released. It is based on Windows 11.

[@tomhargreaves8820]

Great stuff! I used to have a whole folder of CD and floppy (only the 31/2" ones, I threw all the 51/4 inch floppies away) tools that did some of what these do. This is EVER so much more convenient!

[@randyriegel8553]

Medicat is the best! You can use your own ISO's on it because it's based on Ventoy.

[@DragonKingGaav]

I posted something about Medicat a few minutes ago and my post got removed. LOL!

[@imdurc]

History lesson ends at 5:54 (which was welcome - I just want people to know when the tutorial starts!).

[@YoungNino2017]

TY, holy fuck I can't stand these youtubers... I don't even know what the thing is or what it's for and yet I'm hearing it's life story.

[@harshkartiksingh5356]

You helped us a lot..... A big thanks for all of your videos from the deep of my heart❤❤

[@texa5boi]

Latest version has been updated in March. Hiren's BootCD PE x64 v1.0.8 (5 March 2024):

[@gotbordercollies]

I do look forward to Monday so I can enjoy a new CyberCPU video.

[@LIVING_PR00F]

hey Cybercpu, Thank you for bringing this old Classic up to us again, very great.

[@srvuk]

When the original Hirens was about there wee also a group of people that took the concept, allowing you to add so much to things yourself to get the best customised experience, using the software that you chose, rathe then what somebody else did. It was also based on the PE environment too. This version is definitely worth having though, especially as one of the options on Ventoy on a USB stick.

[@JR0458]

Hello Rich, I'm new to your channel. Really enjoy your videos! After viewing this video, I created Hiren's Boot USB. When I booted from it, I noticed that it is now Windows 11. I also noticed that Malwarebytes and Kaspersky are no longer included.. Only McAfee and ESET. And again, thanks for the knowledge. Your now my Goto Guy for PC related Technology.

[@edwarddurkin6635]

My MainPC was extremely slow for no apparent reason. Used Hiren’s to run Malwarebytes. It found a bunch of PUP apps and isolated them. That put my system back in working order.

[@toddwmac]

Nice and tight...thanks. Enjoyed the HBCD backstory. I was a MSFT field SE in the 90s and the early HBCD was a standard part of our "unofficial toolbox'. Fun to reminisce...thx

[@alanvelasquez837]

Thanks for this video! And I like that you are a fan of Better Call Saul 😁

[@crumplezone1]

Hirens is good but most of us use Sergei Strelecall in one iso, man it is awesome !

[@bspus]

I was about to recommend this as well. It really is the best currently. Even allows for 3 different windows PE versions (8.1, 10 and 11) in the same iso to accommodate old PCs. But it might contain a few of those, um... retail programs that were mentioned. Not sure, never really bothered to check whether they are trial versions or not

[@marislakstins1475]

Me as well! Sergei Strelec is awesome!!!

[@BraiNKilleRGR]

Since I started using Sergei Strelec I never looked back 😊

[@BadWolfPlays66]

I personally use Sergei Strelec's version. Lots more utilities. It feels more like the original Hiren's. Great video as always.

[@sumanthnayak6797]

Yes Sergei Strelec has more features than Hiren Boot cd. I have been using Hiren before. But now Sergei is my favourite one.

[@khari83637]

You can have both hiren and Sergei on same ventoy usb?

[@BadWolfPlays66]

@@khari83637 If you use Ventoy, sure.

[@SuperPirata99]

yes @@khari83637

[@Mikesco3]

I was looking for this coment

[@mqcapps]

I created a Hirrens CD on an external drive using WD Green, SP or TG 128 GB M.2 SSD in a external enclosure and it was a lot smoother. A 128 GB SSD is overkill, but sometimes having more room for the thing to play around is a lot better. I found the same thing in Windows to Go stuff. SATA is only going to run so fast anyway, and hopefully this stuff isn't going to be needed every day anyway, and it works pretty good. Ditto on Ventoy.

[@gnexjeff]

A huge shout out to the Better Call Saul ice cream cone wallpaper.

[@JanusDarke]

Hiren dates back to at least the mid 90's, I started using it in 1998, that was version 2 I believe. I probably still have it on an old SCSi/IDE drive in storage. As for Speccy, it's pronounced like Techie as it relates to Specifications & Spectacles.

[@battle-techs]

I was thinking the same thing. I got my A+ Cert in 1999; and I was using Hirens by at least 2002. There used to be a suite of tools called MicroPC on a thumb drive that we used back then. But from '99 to '02, I really had to do all the troubleshooting myself.

[@tonywise198]

Great info, although I still keep multiple Images on a 4TB HDD. It has saved my bacon a number of times! BTW, as @SubzeroMKG says in the comments, put HBDC_PE straight on a Ventoy USB Key with any other of your utilities. Job Done.

[@CyberCPU]

Yep, you can do that too if you want.

[@standtallvets5386]

They made a really cool Hirens XP Boot CD Back in the early 2000s. It had lots of simple basic tools that did the job on windows 7 8 and 10 very well. Its only MBR not EFI bootable.

[@sjogosPT]

Yeah, EFI its what killed Legacy heirens and SSDs. I used norton ghost for clonning for years but don't work well with SSDs because of alignment. And forgot about nvme too. I still use heirens (legacy) for old computers, anything socket 775 or lower. On newer computers, i use Heirens PE or other newer tools.

[@standtallvets5386]

Norton Ghost was a good program too. Those were the good ole days for sure.

[@theodrummond7583]

Rich, I just love the TEXT on your Tee shirt.

[@CyberCPU]

Thanks, there's a link for it in the description.

[@alonzosmith6189]

I used the Hirens a couple of months ago to reset a lost Windows password.

[@jwhiteker1]

This will work on newer OS?

[@alonzosmith6189]

@@jwhiteker1 I was able to reset a Windows 10 Home and Pro

[@jwhiteker1]

​@@alonzosmith6189Nice! I gotta try that. Never knew there was a workaround.

[@alexb.1320]

Hirens was a convenient bit of kit. Used it a lot back in the day. Funnily enough, I just retired an old tower I had under my workbench at work whose sole purpose was to boot hirens and test ISA hard drives and used to test out monitors. Can't remember what version of hirens I had on it, but it was an early version that did what I wanted how I wanted it done.

[@DiddlyDiPotatoes]

I can't imagine not having HirenBootCD on my Ventoy drive. So useful to have whenever I need it.

[@cjny84]

Can’t get into Hirens “Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem: 1. Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer. 2. Choose your language settings, and then click "Next." 3. Click "Repair your computer." If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance. Status: 0xc0000017 Info: There isn't enough memory available to create a ramdisk device.”

[@sa4555]

I got to know about this amazing software this year, it was a life saver. Honestly I won't give 2 $hits about it having non licensed software. It's a free tool, that these multi billion dollar companies will never make so any one getting their nickers in a twist can sod off.

[@arniespace]

I see Macrium Reflect is included. I purchased the full version and it did a great job cloning my drive for me. I bought a cheap used workstation on EBay and the drive it came with was a strange cheapo drive with small capacity. I cloned that drive to a larger good quality drive. I also cloned a M.2 NVME drive to another larger one. It is licensed to a single computer, but you can de-activate it on one machine and install it on a different one, which is what I did.

[@Mike.Kachar]

@CyberCPU - At timestamp 19:50, you had mentioned that you had to (& later on (at timestamp 20:00) stated that you were going to) do up a video on the SysInternals Suite by itself/explicitly. Just curious if you've gotten some to that [yet], or maybe you're working on it [still]? If you HAVE completed it, maybe you could reply with 😮the link and/or add the link to this video's description...? I look forward to seeing you do a video on the SysInternals Suite - there's a lot of really good tools in there, & I'm sure I'm not even familiar with HALF of them!! Thanks 👍👍

[@fvrrljr]

i still have and use my Hirens CD's gonna see what versions i have. just finished making an old Macbook 10.5 Snowleopard Dual Boot to Win 10 other one i wiped out Snowleopard and it's now Win 7 *Great Content Bro' Thank You*

[@Ambivalentrook5]

Thank you for all the videos. I haven't been on the fixing side of Windows, pc repair, and information technology in a really long time. Your videos are informative, very well put together, and remind me of my professors in Microsoft Network Engineering class. Makes me want to get back into it. This video reminded me of the old Bart PE tool, I still have a copy of with brutus on it.😂😂 I would forget to disable security, it would lock a computer and eat my floppy or whatever media I had it on when i booted into windows. I used it for forgotten passwords on windows and i think had about 4 hd's full of tables, gzzz it's been a long time. I would like to see a partioning tool to use this phone as a bootable media, has a 1 tb drive I'll never use. If I could partion half of it 500 gb as a bootable media on my phone, I could then have hot spot and some mobile networking tools and I could eliminate all the disks I still have, and have a very usable traveling tool, would help with folks out in the rural areas. Who knows, maybe one day. Thanks for the videos and please continue. ✌️

[@geoffreymee7671]

U r really good at explaining and (importantly) us getting results from yr tyes - tahnks a bunch man.

[@RainWalking]

I also use Sergei Strelec's WinPE

[@chrisumali9841]

Thanks for the demo and info, have a great day

[@shaun6023]

I have Speccy on my system and it shows you all the info of your system , condition of all your drives and temperatures of all your hardware , it shows you all the specs of everything in your PC .

[@dronesnorthland]

informative video thank you, I was following along today 7/2/24 and the version is now Windows 11, or at least the wallpaper says so, some of the tools have changed maybe worth a follow up video, cheers

[@cdbluex]

The Password unlocker you opened in the video works really well... with Windows 10 and older. It will even revert a MS Account to a Local Account and unlock it. However, it doesn't appear to work with Windows 11 the last time I tried it. Also the info program you couldn't pronounce I believe it's pronounced Spec-y.... ie. specs of the PC.

[@tomhagan9469]

It's pronounced Specky after spectacles (Eye Glasses)

[@BuzzKent]

Best ever step-by-step instructions on Rufus: however at 8:49, you have already booted into Hiren's. Would have appreciated instructions on how you booted to Hirens.

[@CyberCPU]

Sorry, all computers are different. The way I do it on my system is from the BIOS. However, if you have an HP then you push escape during boot and then choose f9 for the menu that comes up, on a Dell system you push f12 during boot. Those are the most common. You can also Google your system to find out how to boot from a USB drive if none of those work.

[@BuzzKent]

@@CyberCPU Oh man - I was furiously pressing F12 but crap I don't have a Dell PC, I have an HP. Sorry about that.

[@bokexd3173]

I was like "Nice ice cream background" and than I figured out where it is taken from

[@duanentreena]

I have a Dell XPS Desktop 8940. The USB boot was recognized only AFTER changing the RUFUS settings to GPT w/ UEFI AND FAT32. I also had to turn off secure boot enabled in the BIOS.

[@ChevyUSMC]

Active Disk is good too

[@mrk4510]

Thanks for this, this really might help me out.

[@blueeyedbaer]

I would recommend to use Ventoy instead of Rufus. Why? Because once you've created a Ventoy USB drive you will never ever need to flash iso files again. You just copy them directly onto a USB drive and it just boots into whatever system there is on those iso files. You can also use multiple iso files at once, so you can create a USB drive with HBCD, Windows installation and Linux installation on the same USB drive.

[@CyberCPU]

I did a video on Ventoy a while back. You could do that too if you want. I just wanted to show people how to create a dedicated USB just for this.

[@imnotcool1203]

Downside: stuff don't save

[@chepantah]

@@CyberCPU I have a dual boot windows 10 pro with xp pro on a separate partition which won't boot now due to missing or corrupt ntoskrnl.exe ( & or bootloader file[s]) which I tried to repair using Hirons to reset the admin password the Windows XP OS installation & repair CD was asking for & no matter what I did the dos cmd would not accept any admin password I put in or even if I bypassed when there was no password 🤔 have you seen this or have a workaround ? Thanks in advance

[@stephanc9466]

Been using hiren for years. Great review

[@javiantuna6436]

It worked like a charm. 🍀

[@montecorbit8280]

I used Bart's PE, back in the day....at least I think that was it.

[@blahorgaslisk7763]

I have fond memories of Barts when it was floppy based. They packed an impressive amount of software into a single floppy disk. Used it a lot to configure and establish network connections to use disk imaging software. I remember trying to figure out just how the Bart floppy worked, and the batch scripts used were incredibly complex. Often recursive and I have a feeling there were some self modifying batch files. I remember getting very surprised in what they manage to create using BAT files.

[@montecorbit8280]

@@blahorgaslisk7763 I only used them in the CD days....

[@ronnyb5890]

hey Rich thanx for the explanation of hirens, question, isnt medicat better? cheers m8

[@tomo9126]

Did I go through a worm hole? Didn't this video come out a few weeks ago? Awesome video Deja vu or not.

[@internetsurfer777]

Great review! Thanks.

[@jayzee9164]

Thanks for this. I’m using it since 2009

[@DavidNationSr]

kool...i will give this a try

[@EmirKATIRCI]

Ventoy+HirensbootCD+Linux distro of your chosing)=Profit!

[@patvickers8189]

Wonder why he didn't use Ventoy?

[@vijjreddy]

can anyone tell me why magic-0.9.3.0-WindowsX64 does not work in windows 11, whereas it works fine in windows 10, and this is lot better to edit epub files compared to sigil..as it shows text without all that code...

[@HienNguyen-dp3yv]

Thank you so much for sharing. Does Hiren Boot CD work on any Windows 10 PC? BTW, you had just gotten a new subscriber.

[@DannyB-cs9vx]

In Windows 10, I was doing disk image backups using the win 7 recover software that win 10 has. When the time came when I needed to use the image, I got error messages saying the operating system was incompatible. Apparently the win 7 software uses a mbr and win 10 uses UDEMI. I don't know why windows would give us a backup system that can't be used. Am I missing something?

[@DavidNationSr]

it works fine...thanks

[@dozerd42]

Love your content! For 19:31, I assume it is pronounced speck-y, like the short form of "specifications" or "specs" with a "y". English is weird. Also, "speccy" is a weird name. :D

[@gergemall]

Happy New Year

[@petterlerdahl1193]

I found the Hirens after someone suggested it to me for fix a problem back when i worked at IT department. Later i did not following up and thought it was gone. before i saw this today. going to check it out later Hope for some tool to read older Norton ghost files for recovery of files.

[@overryde113]

So it’s downloaded to the usb drive but idk what to do to get into Hirens

[@johnsparozich6839]

I have used Hiren boot CD v 9.3 and 15.2 did not use this one but plan to download it

[@kablammy7]

i see that GTO toy on your shelf - did / do you have one ? back in 1977 - i had a 1969 pontiac blue ' 69 GTO with a ' 68 gran prix 428 cu in engine - had the high performance holley 4 barrel carb - hurst shifter - and thrush mufflers - solid lifters etc . 4 - 11 rear differential

[@pcinsomnia]

Life Saver, thank you.

[@stevenf7683]

Medicat is my go to Recovery Environment. I think it is better than 99% of the tools out there.

[@KR1804]

When creating Hirens's boot disk from ISO using windows and rufus, Windows Defender considers ProduKey inside Hirens as threat. Is there any risk ignoring this warning?

[@TheForce_Productions]

Hey Rich, one question. Since yesterday i'm having problems instaling the last Windows 10 home 22H2 acumulative update, it shows the error 0x8007000d every time. I already tried SFC, DISM, WU troubleshoot, cleaning installation cache but nothing seems to work, it happened only with this last update; any idea? Thank you!

[@CyberCPU]

I did a video a couple of months ago on Windows update errors. Try that out.

[@TheForce_Productions]

@@CyberCPU I'll will search for it, thank you!

[@jasimmh1]

thsnks bro

[@JohnDlugosz]

What I'd like to know is how to add my own (paid for) utilities to the image. I'm assuming it's using a RAM disk with a compressed image or something like that (you showed that X: is different from the USB drive itself), so how do you _install_ something and have it persist between boots?

[@playtech7165]

Hirens 9.3 is the best one, because of the software that include. ;) ;)

[@raymondgradzewicz]

I use sergei strelec instead, which uses Windows PE as well. It comes with better selection of software in my opinion.

[@drbhealth5719]

I used Hiren's ultimate boot CD off and on till windows 8.1 was replaced with windows 10. Really interesting to know about its history. While there are perhaps many other such environments available, why does Hiren's remain (arguably) the most mentioned and popular (or notorious)? Off late, the Medicat USB seems to be getting mentioned a lot. Is one really better than the other? Or does it matter whether you use one or the other? Especially among laypersons and non-IT repair professionals? P.S. the name Hiren is not pronounced as "High-Ren". The correct pronounciation is closer to "He-Rain". It is an Indian name meaning Lord of the Diamonds

[@rockdem0n]

Why Hiren's over newer tools like Medicat?

[@CyberCPU]

Hiren's is new too. It's in active development.

[@ghost-retro3733]

It is windows 11 now!

[@Exspiravit4699]

Hey Man I'm stuck for installing a new install of Window's 11. Some cheap skate hacker has a keylogger on my laptop and and has been using my iLok accounts and Plugin Boutique's to access my plugins an thought he would install some of his own, problem is he has disabled Windows TMP 2.0 and Secure Boot and I can't see the UEFI settings when go into the BIOS and the beginning! Can you help out, it's been 4 month's he's been on my system. I was doing a music course now it's time to tackle this nerd! I forgot to mention he disabled my Windows update as well ,nut you probably knew that eh?

[@sagramore1]

I booted and chose USB from the blus screen but did not worked!?

[@brucegordon5765]

Thanks!

[@FreerideStgrt]

The Windows Login Unlocker Saved my ass Today. I could not activate the Administrator User via the CMD command, because someone played arround with the msconfig file and changed the boot process to Userdefined Systemstart. I was completly locked out of the computer and could not log into any users. The Passwordchange feature NT Password Edit did not work and was Blocked by the Settings too. The only Programm wich let me enable the Administratoruser was Windows Login User booted over an USB via HirensBoot CD.

[@4777512]

my Hiren´s must be faulty or my pc too cooked that i cant even use it to make a simple Back up, i am very worried.....

[@crazy4dariver]

Ive used it since 98SE. There is so much it can do, it can get confusing BUT everything you try will help not hurt.

[@raulgalets]

hey, I did it. MBR surely is more compatible, but my laptop is uefi only and it did not recognized it as a boot device. or maybe it is cause it is NTFS instead of FAT32. can you make MBR partitions on FAT32?

[@sjogosPT]

My laptop is only UEFI too, it sucks.

[@raulgalets]

@@sjogosPT yeah

[@photog3377]

will not connect to my wifi says -1 line and error

[@phillengel8400]

I feel like you skipped an important step. I got the status to ready, but don't know how to launch it.

[@fdracnc]

came here bc I need it for the SSD cloning

[@khari83637]

Where can I find your memory diagnostic video?

[@martinelmanor7687]

Thx for this vidéo 🙏please i have a question....does it work on computers with ARM64 processor ??

[@CyberCPU]

I don't believe so.

[@janesmith56]

I created the boot cd. I booted from it and it wants a Microsoft key. Now whar do I do?

[@icandivideos5743]

My windows 10 pro crashed only thing left is Edge all files gone and Start does nothing, can I use this to recover windows 10?

[@fdracnc]

welp I accidentally started the rufus thing all over again, what do I do when that finishes and how do I boo into Hirens?

[@alderwood87]

can someone help me. i have followed step by step to make the usb drive. but i cant boot from the usb? what am i doing wrong.. it keeps booting up normally

[@lifelife9533]

I have been trying to backup/sysimage/lazesoft clone for about a week now and keep getting errors. Could we get a video to fix a "vss error 0x80042318" type error? I've tried a few of your other "boot fixes" and couldn't get them to work. I think somewhere I lost or got some vss files corrupted. I did a "vss admin list" and it showed 3 timeout errors. Hoping to see a video soon about this kind of fix.

[@carroll6]

I want to format a drive and install windows with withe a eternal drive box. A desktop ready drive. I am searching for how to do this. I want to use the extranl dual drive USB 3.0 box, to prepare drives with Windows installed, then install into computers I am preparing.

[@technicallyme]

Did you try “net use” command from command prompt to map the drive ?

[@trp225]

12:38 please consider checking them out

[@Eddie-mn8wi]

I downloaded everything and I open Rufus and when I hit select I open downloads and the file for hbcd pe file doesn't show up but when I go straight to mypc downloads it's there why is Rufus not seeing it please help I need to upgrade my hard drive my C drive is extremely low on space