Be ready for anything: Five portable apps for troubleshooting problems

By Jack Wallen March 24, 2014, 1:49 PM PDT

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Be ready for anything: Five portable apps for troubleshooting problems

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The world of computer administration requires you to be onrnyour toes and prepared for just about anything. Along with that, you need tornhave tools that can get you out of nearly any jam — and that includes a set ofrnportable diagnostic tools to help you when you don’t have the time or thernability to install (or track down) software to solve the problem at hand.

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Here are five portable toolsrneveryone should consider as first options for solving the problems that plaguernyour systems.

Note: This gallery is also available as an article.

SystemRescueCd

SystemRescueCd is a bootable Linux disk (can be run from either CD or thumb drive)rnthat offers a full kit of tools for administering or repairing your systemrnand/or data after a crash. Included tools will help you work with drivernpartitions, files, networks, and much more.

WinDirStat

WinDirStat is an invaluable tool when you need to find out what is taking uprnall that space on a drive. Simply download it, run it, select the drive torntest, and wait for the results. Once the test is run, you will be offered arncolorized map of every file type on the drive.

Console Portable

Console Portable is a console windowrnenhancement that can be run from a portable drive. It also allows you to addrnyour own custom scripts (placed in ConsolePortable\Data\Scripts).rn

By Jack Wallen

Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic, The New Stack, and Linux New Media. He's covered a variety of topics for over twenty years and is an avid promoter of open source. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.

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