Hiren's Boot CD PE

Windows PE Rescue Toolkit

Bootable / Windows PE Freeware

What It Does

Hiren's Boot CD PE is a bootable Windows PE environment packed with dozens of diagnostic, recovery, and repair tools. When a machine will not boot into its own operating system, you boot from the Hiren's USB instead and get a full Windows desktop with disk utilities, antivirus scanners, password reset tools, file managers, and partition editors. It is the Swiss Army knife of hardware and OS troubleshooting.

Why You Need It

In field support and IT operations, you will encounter machines that cannot boot — corrupted OS, forgotten passwords, failing drives, malware that blocks normal startup. Hiren's gives you a working environment to diagnose and fix these problems without removing the drive. Referenced in:

SG-31 — Build a Bootable USB Drive (Field Prep)

Every IT technician should have a Hiren's USB in their bag. It is the difference between a 10-minute fix on site and hauling a machine back to the bench.

How to Install It

Download the ISO from hirensbootcd.org/download
Get Rufus (rufus.ie) to write the ISO to a USB drive (8 GB minimum).
Open Rufus, select your USB drive, select the Hiren's ISO, and click Start. Leave partition scheme as MBR for maximum BIOS/UEFI compatibility, or select GPT if you know the target is UEFI-only.
Boot the target machine from the USB. You may need to press F12, F2, Del, or Esc during POST to access the boot menu.
Select Hiren's Boot CD PE from the boot menu. A Windows PE desktop will load with all tools available from the Start menu and desktop shortcuts.

How to Use It

1. Partition management with MiniTool Partition Wizard

Open MiniTool Partition Wizard from the desktop. You can resize, move, merge, and format partitions. This is how you recover space, fix partition table corruption, or clone a drive to a larger disk. You can also check filesystem integrity with Check File System (right-click a partition).

2. Reset a local Windows password (NTPWEdit)

Open NTPWEdit from the Utilities folder. Browse to Windows\System32\config\SAM on the target OS drive. Select the locked-out user account, click Change password, set it to blank or a new value, and click Save changes. Reboot into the normal OS — the password is reset.

3. Run an offline antivirus scan

Launch ESET Online Scanner or Malwarebytes (included or downloadable from within PE if you have network access). Scanning from outside the infected OS catches rootkits and malware that hide from in-OS scanners. Point the scanner at the C:\ drive of the target system.

4. Recover files from a failing drive

Use Everything Search to find files on the target drive, then copy them to an external USB drive using the PE file manager. If the filesystem is damaged, use Recuva or PhotoRec (both included) for deeper recovery.

5. Run hardware diagnostics

Hiren's includes HWiNFO for full hardware inventory, CrystalDiskInfo for SMART drive health, and CPU-Z for processor details. These let you confirm hardware failures before ordering parts.

Common Gotchas

Secure Boot blocks booting: Hiren's Boot CD PE is not signed by Microsoft, so Secure Boot will prevent it from loading. Enter BIOS/UEFI setup and disable Secure Boot temporarily. Re-enable it after you are done.

No network drivers in PE: Windows PE has limited driver support. If you need network access (for online scanners or file transfers), you may need to inject drivers or use a USB Ethernet adapter. Hiren's includes a driver integration tool, but it does not cover every NIC.

BitLocker-encrypted drives are inaccessible: If the target OS drive is BitLocker-encrypted, you need the recovery key to unlock it from PE. Without the key, you cannot access the files or reset passwords. Always have the BitLocker recovery key before attempting offline repairs.

NTPWEdit only works on local accounts: It resets local SAM database passwords. It does not work on Microsoft accounts or Active Directory domain accounts. For domain accounts, the password must be reset on the domain controller.

MBR vs. GPT boot confusion: If Rufus created an MBR USB but the target is UEFI-only (no Legacy/CSM boot option), the USB will not appear in the boot menu. Recreate the USB with GPT partition scheme in Rufus.