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#1 2009-12-05 00:21:49

Mardoct
Member
Registered: 2009-08-17
Posts: 208

Best Live Distro for Recovery?

I've been doing some freelance computer repairs for a bit of extra cash recently, and I haven't needed to use a live CD yet to do data retrieval, but I'm sure the day will come.

I was wondering if any of you have any live distros you'd reccommend with basic network analysis, NTFS support and preferabbly one that loads into RAM so I can free up the optical drive. There seem to be quite a few out there that fit those criteria, but I'd rather ask you then try them all out.


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#2 2009-12-05 00:32:05

mikesd
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From: Australia
Registered: 2008-02-01
Posts: 788
Website

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

I used to use Damn Small Linux for this sort of thing. There are boot options you can use to tell it to boot into memory. I also tell it to not start x.

At the moment I use System Rescue CD.

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#3 2009-12-05 02:55:07

Gen2ly
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From: Sevierville, TN
Registered: 2009-03-06
Posts: 1,529
Website

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

I'd recommend BackTrack for network penetration and parted magic for disk recovery.  PM will load to RAM not sure about BackTrack though.


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#4 2009-12-05 05:06:52

sHyLoCk
Member
From: /dev/null
Registered: 2009-06-19
Posts: 1,197

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

I use systemrescueCD. It's based on gentoo.


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ArchBang: Yet another Distro for Allan to break.
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#5 2009-12-05 05:34:29

perbh
Member
From: Republic of Texas
Registered: 2005-03-04
Posts: 765

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

grml, grml and grml ...
Did I mention grml?

But - I would use version 2009.05 rather than 2009.10 as the latter uses grub2 - whenever I need to reinstall grub (and it happens a l-o-t!) I just pop in grml and "bob's your uncle"

grml has _everything_ but the kitchen sink

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#6 2009-12-05 06:45:47

mikesd
Member
From: Australia
Registered: 2008-02-01
Posts: 788
Website

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

perbh wrote:

grml has _everything_ but the kitchen sink

I hadn't heard of this. Certainly looks full featured. Will check it out.

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#7 2009-12-05 07:31:27

tomd123
Developer
Registered: 2008-08-12
Posts: 565

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

Mardoct wrote:

I've been doing some freelance computer repairs for a bit of extra cash recently, and I haven't needed to use a live CD yet to do data retrieval, but I'm sure the day will come.

I was wondering if any of you have any live distros you'd reccommend with basic network analysis, NTFS support and preferabbly one that loads into RAM so I can free up the optical drive. There seem to be quite a few out there that fit those criteria, but I'd rather ask you then try them all out.

I always like having an ubuntu livecd, since it has gparted, ntfs support, network analysis tools can be aptitude install(ed). But it doesn't load into memory, iirc. But then again you could have it stored on a liveusb and that would solve your problem also smile

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#8 2009-12-05 07:54:47

IgnorantGuru
Member
Registered: 2009-11-09
Posts: 640
Website

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

I've used SystemRescueCD for this sort of thing for years.  I've never had it not boot successfuly on any machine, from desktops to netbooks.  Can easily be installed to usb stick (use unetbootin) or even the hard drive.  And you can remove the CD from the drive if you enter at the boot: prompt:

fb1024 docache doeject

It has partimage too - very reliable backup solution.

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#9 2009-12-05 07:59:34

tlaloc
Member
From: Lower Saxony
Registered: 2006-05-12
Posts: 359

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

Someone should mention Knoppix here - kind of Swiss Army knife for recovery, you should always have a CD around. grml will probably do the trick too, I haven't tried that yet. But they are great for funny (though largely untranslatable) version names.

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#10 2009-12-05 09:52:29

Gusar
Member
Registered: 2009-08-25
Posts: 3,605

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

Parted Magic (www.partedmagic.com) is what I always have with me on an USB stick. Small, looks great, has everything you need.

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#11 2009-12-05 09:58:13

shock
Member
Registered: 2009-12-05
Posts: 25

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

Knoppix is known for it's recovery usage. I heard many people are using it as recovery disk. Better try damn small linux on USB.

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#12 2009-12-05 14:56:04

Nezmer
Member
Registered: 2008-10-24
Posts: 559
Website

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

Gusar wrote:

Parted Magic (www.partedmagic.com) is what I always have with me on an USB stick. Small, looks great, has everything you need.

+1
Well, Until I needed to chroot  to x86_64. It turned out all minimal live CDs are i386-i686.

It lacks burning tools too. Including cli-only cdrtools would make it perfect.

I used wolvix long time ago. I don't know If It's still good for recovery tasks and If It's well maintained upstream(support ext4).

I might someday build (l)Arch(x86_64)+xvesa+lxde Live CD.


English is not my native language .

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#13 2009-12-05 15:20:36

Gusar
Member
Registered: 2009-08-25
Posts: 3,605

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

Nezmer wrote:

It lacks burning tools too. Including cli-only cdrtools would make it perfect.

It does have burning tools - xfburn for a GUI app and cdrskin for the cli.

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#14 2009-12-05 15:22:30

hokasch
Member
Registered: 2007-09-23
Posts: 1,461

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

Although no live distro, UltimateBootCd can come in handy if you want to run hardware checks quickly.

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#15 2009-12-05 23:29:17

kjon
Member
From: Temuco, Chile
Registered: 2008-04-16
Posts: 398

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

riplinux over here. Obviously the non_X version. I use it even for the arch installing.


They say that if you play a Win cd backward you hear satanic messages. That's nothing! 'cause if you play it forwards, it installs windows.

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#16 2009-12-05 23:39:48

ozar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2005-02-18
Posts: 1,686

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

another vote for Parted Magic, here


oz

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#17 2009-12-11 08:23:23

sva_h4cky0
Member
From: Surabaya, Indonesia
Registered: 2009-03-25
Posts: 110
Website

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

ozar wrote:

another vote for Parted Magic, here

+1
I always using Parted Magic for partitioning and recovery usage.


"Am I not good enough for you?"

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#18 2009-12-11 08:52:40

makimaki
Member
From: Ireland
Registered: 2009-04-02
Posts: 109

Re: Best Live Distro for Recovery?

Depending on the situation, I use
Super Grub
Ubuntu Rescue Remix
Ultimate Boot CD

They have all helped me out of tricky situations.


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