Making a USB Bootable System Rescue CD

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Making System Rescue CD bootable from a USB thumb drive is a convenient way to carry the Linux distribution.  The benefit of the USB drive is that it won’t get scratched, the downside is that not all systems can boot from a USB device, I problem I ran into recently.

There are several utilities to create bootable USB drives, but there is a utility specifically for System Rescue CD that makes the process simple and quick.  First download the System Rescue CD ISO image and the System Rescue CD USB installer for Windows from the System Rescue CD web site.  Then connect a USB drive, a minimum 512MB drive is needed, to your system. Continue reading →

Recovering Data from a Windows NTFS Drive Using Linux

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Recovering data from a failing hard drive or a corrupted Windows XP/Vista/7 desktop can be difficult using Windows based tools or systems.  One option is to remove the hard drive and either adding it as a second drive to an existing system or an external enclosure as a USB external drive.  If the system is infected with viruses or root kits, this could compromise the recovery system.

Fortunately using a bootable Linux distribution from DVD/CD or USB stick is a safe alternative.  There are several bootable Linux distributions, but specialized distributions like Knoppix or System Rescue CD are quicker and easier to navigate for recovery. Continue reading →

Securely Wiping a Hard Drive

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When repurposing or recycling an older system, it is good practice to securely erase data on the hard drive so that it is not recoverable.  There are dedicated bootable software and devices that can be used to destroy the data, but I prefer a general use bootable Linux, like Knoppix, or a specialized Linux distribution such a System Rescue CD.  Below are two examples of destroying the data on a hard drive using System Rescue CD.

Prerquisites: A bootable CD or USB drive with System Rescue CD already installed. Continue reading →