Here are tools the ideal recovery disk (most likely a BartCD) should have :
- Move/copy/delete files from any location (HD, floppy, CD/DVD, USB thumbdrive)
- FAT
- NTFS
- Ext2/3 ?? Explore2FS
- Edit files from any location
- Paritition mechanics: add/remove/resize
- Edit registry
- Password recovery and/or change
- Deleted file recovery
- F6 for other drivers (but most/all disk and RAID drivers builtin)
- Malware find/fix
- Web browser
- Drive imager/restore from image. DriveImageXML or SelfImage or DriveSnapshot
- Hard drive diagnostics. HDTune
- Boot files fix. cimihai's links
- Secure drive eraser CopyWipe
plugin listing here.