Debian Geek Toolkit Question

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>]

Sarge NetInstall is great for installing Sarge, but it
appears not to be usable as a live CD for booting onto
a system that has a broken installation. In the past
I have used Woody install CDs for this purpose, and
before Woody I used Knoppix. More recently, I've noticed
that the latest versions of Knoppix don't play well with
the latest versions of cast off hardware that I work with.

So, what do people recommend as a tool kit item for 
starting or debugging broken computers? This is not
the same as an easy install for a newbie, but related.
Here one has a pretty good idea of all the questions
that one should be able to answer, but no way of getting
the answers until basic functionality can be established.

Recommendations? Reasons?

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net