What Live CDs Do You Carry Around?

TPC asks: "I recently acquired a small CD case that fits 12 CDs. I figured that it would be useful to always carry around a few CDs to use when helping others with computer issues, or in case something goes wrong with my own computer. However, I'm having a hard time deciding what CDs to pick, and there are probably many hidden gems out there. I'm sure I'm not the first person with this idea, so I ask you: What 12 live (and otherwise) CDs would you carry around?"

my list

[Anonymous Coward]

minipe is a must for windows installs
knoppix is a must for linux
keep a fedora boot cd (or other common platforms in your line of work)
windows XP install cd (for recovery- or substitute with appropriate windows server version)

You can probably get away with those and the boot cds for any OS you are likely to work on (Solaris install cd, IRIX insttools, whatever)

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

[QuantumG]

mandatory tool to have in your toolkit [eunet.no] if you deal with Windows machines.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

BART PE, others

[davidwr]

For Windows emergency repairs: A CD made with Bart's Prebuild Environment [nu2.nu]

For Mac OS X emergency repairs, a Mac OS X bootable disk

For everything else, a bootable Linux disk with the tools I think I need that day.

For general use, TheOpenCD. This also has a Windows partition so I can show my XP-loving friends the joys of Free-as-in-beer-and-liberty software.

Kill disk

[ipooptoomuch]

Kill disk which simply has very advanced (read:paranoid) data destruction techniques (read:write lots of 0's over and over then replace with 1's) for when you need your entire hard drive wiped in about 10 minutes for when the riaa knocks down your door because you have a 1 TB array of hard drives serving free mp3s to small children.

My CDs

[Matt Perry]

Ultimate Boot CD [ultimatebootcd.com]
Knoppix [knoppix.org]
Damn Small Linux [damnsmalllinux.org]

6 blank CD-Rs and 6 blank DVD-Rs

[SurturZ]

It is certainly different for me nowadays. I used to always carry around boot discs and driver discs of various descriptions. Installation of software is a much less risky process since the advent of Win2K/XP, and with safe mode, the likelihood of not being able to boot a computer is much reduced.

Also, with near-ubiquitous internet access these days, the chances of not having a critical driver is almost zero. And any particularly hard to get drivers I keep on my laptop.

So now I pretty much just keep blank CDs/DVDs with me, and make backups of important data if I'm installing hardware.

Mix of Linux and Windows tools

[greg1104]

Here's what I have in my CD case, in approximate order of how regularly use them...

Memtest86 [memtest86.com]--because the RAM in the cheap PCs I come across sucks. Some of the other tool CDs have this one as well, I like to get the latest one regularly here. Good for stress testing, and even handy for figuring out things like whether the RAM is running correctly in dual-channel mode.

SystemRescueCD [sysresccd.org]--I particularly like the partition editor and imaging utilities. Been weaning myself off Partition Magic/Drive Image even for Windows work with these two.

Ubuntu [ubuntu.com] live CD and DVD. The CD works in more systems, the DVD version is a completely usable system with a lot of stuff in it. What most impresses me about the Ubuntu live disc is that I can download packages over the network and install them, even thing that run as services, from the live environment. I actually got PostgreSQL installed and some database tests completed, all without a single Postgres file on the media.

Knoppix [knopper.net]--Some days, your first choice in Linux live CDs just doesn't work on a random machine; that's why I still carry around this one as a backup.

Bart PE [nu2.nu]--A bit of a pain to build the first time, but very handy for fixing Windows machines.

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor [eunet.no]--this one has been less useful lately, as I've been running into NTFS partitions it really doesn't want to write to. My fallback position is to use this to generate a new SAM file, then copy it over with a BartPE disc.

RedHat [redhat.com] Enterprise 3 and 4 CDs. While not technically live CDs, you can do a lot with booting into this environment, and I deal with enough people running RedHat versions that they're worth carrying around. I still keep one of the older versions around so I have something running the 2.4 kernel to tests against; occasionally I'll run into some old hardware that 2.6 pukes on, while 2.4 still works great.

Depends on what you fix...

[Fallen Kell]

Knoppix is my personal favorite, but I deal with a lot of linux/unix x86 hardware which can be easily fixed using this software.

However if you deal with Windows systems, look to keep "The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows" in you list. http://www.ubcd4win.com/ [ubcd4win.com]

LinuxDefender Live is also another good one to have.

Slayer DOA

[Associate]

Slayer's Decade of Aggression Live two CD set.

Portable Win32 apps

[wrecked]

I keep a CD of Kanotix [kanotix.com] around at all times. It's a Knoppix variant, but I find that Kanotix has a cleaner look and feel. It's also better for a HD install, since it uses only Debian-unstable packages instead of the mix of testing and unstable that Knoppix uses.

However, I'm going to my parents' home for the Xmas holidays, so I'll be using their WinXP machine. I happened to have a USB flash drive lying around, so I packed it with portable FOSS Win32 packages from , including FireFox, Thunderbird, GIMP, OpenOffice etc. These packages install everything, including dlls, into an application folder and are executed directly from the USB drive. The added benefit is that you can copy these packages from machine to machine simply by copying the application folders; there is no need to run an installer every time or alter the Registry. [portableapps.com]

1 disk

[TheBeardIsRed]

For me, there's one disk. It's a beast. It's also of questionable legality. That being said, when shit hits the fan i don't mind if 'legal' and i are on opposite sides of the fence at zero hour. Nobody cares when their servers aren't working. Note, this isn't a link, just a good description (so you can find it yourself... hint: newsgroups)
Hiren's Boot CD [ntlworld.com]

I don't carry it around on a CD

[Utopia]

I have USB stick loaded with WinPE for cleanup or maintenance tasks.

Re:LiveCd?!?

[Kangburra]

LiveCD is what... buzzword for bootable?

No, it is bootable but the live bit is because you can run a live OS directly from the CD. Not just boot the machine into DOS but have everything from web browsers to office suites.

Re:Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

[Who235]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot Darik's Boot and Nuke [sourceforge.net] to wipe the hell out of hard drives.

Re:LiveCd?!?

[The MAZZTer]

Pretty much. It's also sometimes more specifically used to describe Linux distros you can download and burn to a CD and then boot off of... sort of a try before you install to the HD dealie. Not that you HAVE to install to the HD. In this case, LiveCDs can be useful for computer recovery.

I have to use a Knoppix LiveCD every time I have to reinstall Windows, which will erase grub, for instance. From there I can reinstall grub and regain my triple-boot-ability.

Re:my list

[UncleTogie]

At our shop, we use:

Knoppix CD & DVD

the Insert distro

BartPE {tweaked to include Symantec Ghost and XP keygrabbers}

MemTest x86

the Win95C, 98, 98SE, 2000, XP Home/Pro/OEM/SP2 Cds, with DOS on floppy...

{yes, we STILL get the occasional 286....}

Re:Knoppix

[X0563511]

Knoppix is nice, but it's a bit big for me. Personally, I prefer the System Rescue CD [sysresccd.org]

It's got the important bits without the extra. Also can load to RAM, which is very nice for working with backups on systems that only have one optical drive. I'm not sure, but I believe it only requires 128mb or RAM or so.

A multitude of discs for a multitude of purposes..

[ThelpDealio]

I currently carry around with me:
Kororaa XGL live CD v0.3 and 0.2 [kororaa.org]
There is nothing better than to show off the power of Linux to your friends and the non believers. 0.3 is only ATI cards at the moment, while 0.2 supports both. People are usually impressed by this.

Backtrack 1.0 [remote-exploit.org]
The best in security analysis live cd's.

Damn Small Linux [damnsmalllinux.org]
Good for older machines :)

Offline NT Password and Registry Editor [eunet.no]
Always good to have when people forget their admin password or something on a windows machine...

Auditor Security collection from the backtrack people. I still have this around because it supports a bit more hardware than backtrack did

Knoppix [knoppix.org]
Good when you are at public terminals and are kinda paranoid...

I also carry around various install cd's for recent versions of linux.

Finnix

[fo0bar]

I carry Finnix [finnix.org]. It's a 100MB livecd with no X, but a command-line interface and a lot of tools for the sysadmin in mind. LVM autodetection, very quick boot (remember, no X), niche network utilities like vconfig/mii-diag/iptraf/etc. Memtest86+ via the boot menu of course. It even has a freedos boot profile for when you need to flash a BIOS.

Oh, and I'm kinda required to carry Finnix, since I'm the author. Oops :)

Re:Knoppix

[Mooga]

DSL (Damn Small Linux) is also a good thing to have if you ever have to mess with a very old computer.
It's not as "newbie friendly" as Knoppix (which is great, of course), bet it can also get the job done and you can probably get it running on any computer made within at least the last 10 years if not 15 or more...

Re:Knoppix

[SausageOfDoom]

I too carry a Knoppix cd. I also carry net installs of Debian and Ubuntu.

One other thing I have found useful is a copy of hard drive manufacturers' hd test utils - not only do they load up quick and show me what the problem is, but when I get called out to a friend-of-a-friend, it also helps me prove to them that they need to fork out some cash ;)

For reference, the hd tools I carry are Seatools (Seagate), PowerMax (Maxtor), Drive Fitness Test (IBM/Hitachi). I also carry Memtest86+.

One thing I would also recommend is writing the software version and date of burn onto the face of your CDs - helps avoid confusion in the future, and also lets you know when it's time to make a new version.

Virus-cleaners need to be on Read-Only

[billstewart]

I agree with you about not using writeable media on dangerously untrustable systems, so your virus-cleaners and similar tools need to be read-only. There *are* some write-protectable flash drives these days - I think I've mainly seen them as Compact Flash, so you'd need a USB CF-card reader, but those are trivially cheap. However, CDROM media is basically free, and the person whose machine needed cleaning probably needs to have you leave them a copy :-)

Good List.

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Spinrite Disk Recovery http://grc.com/ [grc.com] (hard drive recovery - used more often than all the others combined)
2) Rescue-CD (sometimes LVM2 has problems)
3) NT Password Overwrite, DOD-level Disk Wiper, other boot options (about 7 different useful tools)
4) USB flash drive with all the other utilities but mostly setup as a TruCrypt file
5) Perhaps a TruCrypt encrypted DVD with all my personal data (web passwords, scanned docs: Last Will, Birth Certificates, Marriage license, etc...)

Most days, just the flash drive comes with my current project backups. Visio, Word, Excel, boring. Not a Live CD tho.

I haven't been a sysadmin in over 10 years, but when I go to Mom's house, I revert for some reason. I don't "do" PC support for family other than Mom.