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?"

Knoppix

[richardoz]

For me my number 1 disc is Knoppix [wikipedia.org] or Wikipedia Article [knoppix.org]

After that's its a disc with common hardware drivers, Java 1.5, Eclipse, Apache, MySql and PHP

Re:Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

[Who235]

I'll second that one. Every once in awhile when the CEO loses his post-it note with his new password on it, it pays to be able to reset it quickly and painlessly. I have been using that disc for a couple of years and I love it.

I usually keep a copy of the UBCD [ultimatebootcd.com] around to test out SMART failures, flaky memory, etc. and fix boot problems and other miscellaneous junk.

Apart from those, I also have to give the nod to Knoppix or the STD Knoppix for other types of recovery.

Re:What's a CD?

[Technician]

I carry a bootable 1gb USB drive

I do not carry diagnostics on a USB flash drive. In an instant they can be silently corrupted without you knowing. They don't have a write protect. That alone makes them unusable to carry from client to client. You need idiot proof diagnostic media so an accidental reboot does not permit the worm on a system from hitching a ride with you to your next client. I only permit write protected media for all my diagnostics. A floppy with the write tab punched out or glued open, a single closed session CDR, or DVD is OK, but a writable USB drive is not OK to use by service people at my site.

grml

[black_rob]

I have a couple lying around, but the one I always pull out is grml [grml.org]. It's focused on text tools --"linux for sysadmins" I think is the phrase they use. It's booted on everything I ever tried it on and has good support for wireless cards. Plus they can fit a lot more on a cd by skipping KDE, and it boots so much faster than knoppix.

DBAN

[PavementPizza]

DBAN is crucial. [sourceforge.net] I carry one everywhere to make sure that retired machines and hard drives don't tell their secrets to the world..

Re:Knoppix

[kv9]

I just carry around disc#1 of the current Slackware set, which I use to boot from.

SLAX [slax.org]

Re:Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, Damnsmalllinux, UBCD

[From A Far Away Land]

AC, if that were true, wouldn't Microsoft then be the one handing out free Ubuntu CDs?