Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) includes lots of cool troubleshooting tools. You can load WinRE from the Windows Vista DVD by following these steps.

Some hardware manufacturers will include a special partition that you can use to start WinRE without using the Windows Vista DVD. If your computer manufacturer doesn’t do this, you can add it yourself. Follow these instructions (straight from the WinRE team at Microsoft!) to install WinRE on a computer that has already been setup. If you’re in an IT department and you’re preparing to deploy Windows Images using WAIK/BDD, follow these steps to add WinRE to your Vista clients.