Basics
It’s always a good habit to have a live distribution you know best in your pocket, like a “Swiss army knife”. With that you can use the installed GUI tools or the command line tools. An example could be a Debian live CD or USB stick (32 bit + XFCE).
You can also personalize your preferred distribution in creating a live media from your installed OS on the HDD.
Another method, I like, is to create a multi boot USB stick, with several live OS on it.
System management specific
GNOME Partition Editor for creating, reorganizing, and deleting disk partitions. GParted Live is a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution for x86 based computers. GParted Live can be installed on CD, USB, PXE server and Hard Disk.
Super GRUB2 Disk helps you to boot into most any Operating System (OS) even if you cannot boot into it by normal means. It’s not able to fix neither GRUB1 (version 0.9X) or GRUB2 (version 1.XX or 2.XX). However you can use it to boot into GRUB1 and GRUB2 based systems.
Rescatux is a Debian based live cd that lets you fix your GRUB1 and GRUB2 installations (as per Super Grub2 Disk lacks) but does also much more. Here the are some of its features :
– Check and fix filesystems
– Blank Windows passwords
– Change Gnu/Linux password
– Regenerate sudoers file
System management multi use
SystemRescueCd is a Linux system rescue disk available as a bootable CD-ROM or USB stick for administrating or repairing your system and data after a crash. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the hard disk partitions.
It comes with a lot of software such as disk management tools (parted, partimage, fsarchiver, filesystem tools, etc), network administration programs and simple text editors . It can be used for both Linux and windows computers, on desktops as well as servers.
Linux / free DOS based.
A menu version with tools for : BIOS, CPU, boot management, HDD data recovery, HDD management, HDD diagnostics, HDD cloning, HDD wiping, HDD partitioning, memory, etc.
Linux – Debian based.
Grml includes a collection of GNU/Linux software especially for system administrators. Grml is especially well suited for tasks like installation, deployment and system rescue.
Grml is a command line version with tools for filesystems, partitioning, forensic, bios updating…
Linux – Debian based.
Knoppix is a bootable Live system on CD, DVD or USB flash drives, consisting of a representative collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. Knoppix can be used as a productive Linux system for the desktop, rescue system, etc.
Knoppix is a GUI version with tools for data rescue, system repair, network analysis…
Security / Privacy
anti virus
Bitdefender Rescue CD is a free tool that scans and cleans your computer whenever you suspect a malware threat is affecting its operation. Bitdefender Rescue CD works without loading the operating system and can be set up either on a CD/DVD or on a USB flash drive.
AVG rescue CD
anti virus
The AVG Rescue CD is provided in two versions: an ISO image that can be easily burned to an optical disk (CD) or a compressed version that can be installed to a bootable flash drive (USB). Once this is done, you can simply boot from the drive of choice directly to the AVG menu, where you can scan for viruses, edit files, test your drive, or even edit the registry. You can also access a number of common Linux tools to make changes to your system.
pen testing
Kali Linux is the new generation of the industry-leading BackTrack Linux. Kali Linux is a complete re-build of BackTrack from the ground up, adhering completely to Debian development standards. Basically, it is designed for penetration testing and security auditing.
privacy surfing
Tails is a live operating system that you can start on almost any computer from a USB stick or a DVD.
It aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity and helps you to:
– use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship, all connections to the Internet are forced to go through the Tor network
– leave no trace on the computer you are using unless you ask it explicitly
– use state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your files, emails and instant messaging
Outdated
Tools: partitioning agents, system performance benchmarks, disk cloning and imaging, data recovery, MBR tools, BIOS and many others.
Check this out : https://github.com/HBCD/Hiren-s-Boot-CD-reborn
Trinity Rescue Kit or TRK is a free live Linux distribution that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines, but is equally usable for Linux recovery issues. Since version 3.4, it has an easy to use scrollable text menu that allows anyone who masters a keyboard and some English to perform maintenance and repair on a computer, ranging from password resetting over disk cleanup to virus scanning
– get post updates by subscribing to our e-mail list
– share on social media :