Windows and Linux only: Free bootable image creator UNetbootin automates the downloading, imaging, and installing of Linux distributions onto USB thumb drives, creating a persistent, boot-anywhere desktop. We've previously featured rather involved guides to putting Linux on a flash drive, but UNetbootin does it all for you, from downloading the right ISO to setting up a USB stick as a bootable Linux drive. It can also convert almost any bootable ISO, so if you've got an old, smaller thumb drive not seeing much use these days, you can use UNetbootin to install a partition editor, a file-recovering live CD, or the Windows password-cracking Ophcrack. UNetbootin is a free download for Windows XP and higher and Linux systems.

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Linux.com writes up a helpful guide to creating your own custom system recovery boot disc using an Ubuntu 8.04 CD image, a little command line work, and a few recommended emergency tools, including the partition format/restore tool GParted, e2undel, a file recovery tool, and anything else you might need if your hard drive, RAM, or anything else on your system suddenly decides it doesn't want to work. The guide requires a good bit of command line work, but it also lets you add whatever programs you'd like to have when you come back from the brink, and helps you strip out programs you don't to boot faster. For a similar (but pre-compiled) hard drive-fixing tool, check out Gina's guide to using the System Rescue CD.

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The release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 is coming up, and APC magazine has published a guide on how to create a bootable XP SP3 CD. The tutorial uses Bart's Boot Image Extractor and Nero Burning Rom, but emphasises that you should wait for the official release of SP3 - as the beta's product activation code is bugged and won't accept any key you type in. Oh, and - it'll be a while - SP3 has no official release date yet, but is expected in the first half of 2008. Anyone out there using the beta of SP3? Let us know how you're finding it in comments.

HOW TO: create a bootable XP SP3 CD [APC]