[NTLK] Making a rescue/diagnostics card

Mark Crutch mark.crutch at gmail.com
Mon Dec 17 13:10:16 EST 2012


I recently had to reboot a MP2100 which hadn't been rebooted in years - and
got stuck with the endless recurring alarm problem. I found the 2010
Diagnostics package, and had fun getting it onto the MP2100...

1) I installed it onto an eMate, which had the network drivers on so that I
could connect to my old Mac
2) The eMate wouldn't write to the spare 2MB or 4MB cards I've got
3) I beamed the package to a backup MP2000
4) Finally I could get the package on the 2MB card
5) Booted the MP2100 with the 2MB card in, and managed to run the program,
fixing my problem

Now it struck me that I could have cut out at least one step if the 2MB or
4MB cards had been set up as rescue/recovery/diagnostics cards. Something
similar to the loaner cards with the network packages already present. But
how to set such a card up for future use? What packages should go on there,
and are there any "gotchas" in how to get some of them onto the card (e.g.
system patches or other things that want to install internally). As well as
patches and drivers, what diagnostic packages are there, or packages for
recovering data (I seem to recall one that was designed to launch the dock
automatically on machines with a broken screen).

So really there are two parts to my question:

1) What packages would you recommend to go onto a recovery/diagnostics card?
2) Has anyone already documented how best to create one? (for those
packages which may require tricks to get onto the card)


Mark

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