Bootable flash drive with hardware data and keyboard tester

sommetchatnoir · 30 Jun 2021

Hello,

I'm Daniel, and Im not a programmer but a copy/paste programmer.

I volunteer for a Non-profit Organization.

We receive people and institutions' donations in the form of laptops and desktops along with other technology related things.

We would like to know if there is a program that
1)can run right after BIOS(Bootable like memtest), and can get all the hardware info on the machine like running "system information>system summary" Or just the BIOS hardware info since the operating system hasnt run yet..
2)Send that information over ethernet or save it to the flash drive.
and
3) display some sort of keyboard tester, interactive would be best, where we can just test the physical keyboard. Im thinking a sort of window with all keys drawn, and once yo press them, the keys show and stay a certain color, indicating they work.

The reason for this is because when we receive donations, its hard to catalogue, specially laptops, what system was received, all the specs needed. Even send the date time in BIOS to check if the cmos battery is still good.
When large amounts of computers are needed for a specific project, we can just go to the inventory and see what we have in the specs needed from us.

If not, is there at least a way to boot to msdiag32.exe and save that info in the flash drive?

cns00 · 01 Jul 2021

see 10 Best Free System Information Tools (June 2021)

Kyhi · 01 Jul 2021

Win10XPE - Build Your Own Rescue Media

There is a small learning curve to the program - but you could easily setup with needed applications

sommetchatnoir · 01 Jul 2021

cns00 said:

see 10 Best Free System Information Tools (June 2021)

Thanks CNS, but from what I read in each of those, these are post boot programs, some needing installation.
What I am looking to create or download is a bootable light program that loads right after POST and get the information that BIOS usually has and record in on a flash drive.
without having to wait for the OS to load. Most computers we receive donated, come without a hard drive.

- - - Updated - - -

Kyhi said:

Win10XPE - Build Your Own Rescue Media

There is a small learning curve to the program - but you could easily setup with needed applications

Ill look into this!,

Thanks.

SIW2 · 01 Jul 2021

a bootable light program that loads right after POST and get the information that BIOS usually has and record in on a flash drive.

There would need to be a bootable operating system of some kind for the program to run in.

The obvious way to do this would be to have a usb with a small bootable os ( e.g. winpe or linux) which boots off the usb - no hard drive required.

Inside that small os would a way of gathering the system info, which I assume you would like to auto output the info to a text file on the root of the same usb.

sommetchatnoir · 01 Jul 2021

SIW2 said:

Not clear what you are asking.

There would need to be a bootable operating system of some kind for the program to run in.

I am talking something like MEMTEST86 which doesnt require a an OS or even a hard disk drive on the computer itself.. Its basically running a script on a DOS like environment (The bootable OS), and copies itself and run a RAM test without any need of a hard drive.

We are looking for something like that. Something that can fit in a flash drive, and access the hardware SPECS which the BIOS already does at POST. If possible, to copy that data into the flash drive, just like MEMTEST86 gives you a choice to save the results.

Another example would be Dell Diagnostics tools, which doesnt need to go into the OS or wait to login to Windows, ...it goes straight from POST to the diagnostic tools.

I hope this explains the issue better.

SIW2 · 01 Jul 2021

I dont know of any, which is why I suggested a small bootable winpe/linux.

I just did a little test. winpe boots from the usb and automatically runs syspec.exe (which is on the root of the usb stick) which outputs details.txt to the usb stick.

Pretty quick and easy.

Just a question of finding a program that gives out the details that fit your requirements and preferably comes in both bit versions. Unless you build a winpe that supports both bit versions, in which case a 32 bit executable such as syspec.exe will do.

zbook · 02 Jul 2021

Dell, HP and Lenovo each have diagnostic tools that can be launched from a bootable USB.

I've not seen them for: Toshiba, Acer, Sony, etc.

If the end user had installed diagnostics then Asus has software / firmware diagnostics.

SIW2 · 02 Jul 2021

in bootable wim windows\system32 folder

winpeshl.ini

Code:

[LaunchApps]
startnet.cmd
X:\sources\recovery\recenv.exe

startnet.cmd

Code:

@echo off
echo.
echo running wpeinit
Start /wait wpeinit.exe
echo.
If defined ProgramFiles(x86) (
set hostarch=x64
 ) else ( set hostarch=x86 )
echo Host Architecture %hostarch%
echo.
FOR %%A IN (%Date:/=%) DO SET Today=%%A
echo Today is %today%
echo.
for %%d in (c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z) do (
    if exist "%%d:\SysSpec.exe" (
    echo running %%d:\SysSpec.exe /auto %%d:\%today%details.txt
        %%d:\SysSpec.exe /auto %%d:\%today%details.txt
        echo.
        echo all done
    ) 
) 
echo.
echo press any  key to shutdown
pause >nul
wpeutil shutdown

Plonk sysspec.exe on the root of the usb stick. Or find a different free system info tool that accepts commands.
https://files02.tchspt.com/storage2/temp/SysSpec.exe

syspec.exe is a 32 bit executable so the bootable wim needs to support running 32 bit programs. There are probably 64 bit executables that will do similar.

can have a look at the outputted text file before shutdown by adding the line in green

for %%d in (c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z) do (
if exist "%%d:\SysSpec.exe" (
echo running %%d:\SysSpec.exe /auto %%d:\%today%details.txt
%%d:\SysSpec.exe /auto %%d:\%today%details.txt
If exist %%d:\%today%details.txt notepad %%d:\%today%details.txt
echo.
echo all done
)
)

sommetchatnoir · 02 Jul 2021

Wow,

thank you all so mu much for all the choices now.

I will need to test them one by one.

I was just in the middle to try astra32 which seems also to fit the theme.

Ill try the winpe/linux because it seems the most likely option. Also I will try adding different ISO's with "Ventoy" if I figure how to use it as well.

I will come back maybe in a couple of days and report.

Thank you all so much.