Rescue, Linux style

BACK IN JUNE, I wrote a column about the problems inherent with the ubiquitous Windows rescue CDs that seem to come with most name-brand PCs these days (See ” Painful rescue ,”) This week, I thought it would be useful to discuss some tools that can rescue a Linux system.

Before dealing with the tools, let’s consider the reasons for rescuing a Linux system. You don’t normally “reload” Linux software. Why? There is no reason to do so. As with the BSDs, Linux does not tend to corrupt itself. Nor does installing software corrupt the system, thanks to package managers, such as RPM and dpkg, which keep new software from damaging existing programs. No, you generally rescue a Linux system when a piece of hardware, such as a disk drive, has failed.

In a typical Windows rescue, the offending hardware is replaced, the hard drive is wiped clean, and the software reinstalled. The result is a perfectly usable system — but one devoid of the data and documents that matter to you.

With Linux, you can easily do the same if you really want to. But what about your crucial data? What if you want to recover the document you were working on when the hardware died? What if there was important work on that PC that had not been backed up?

That’s where Linux rescue disks come in. Three of my favorites are the Linuxcare Bootable Toolbox, LNX Bootable Business Card, and Tom’s Root and Boot floppy.

The Linuxcare Bootable Toolbox ( https://lbt.linuxcare.com ) and the LNX-BBC ( https://lnxbbc.org ) are bootable business cards (often called BBCs). They are designed to fit on the small, wallet-card-size CD blanks that are usable in standard CD drives. Both create stand-alone Linux environments including the X Window environment and networking capabilities that an experienced Linux user can use to retrieve key data.

Likewise, Tom’s Root and Boot ( https://www.toms.net/rb ) delivers what it claims: “the most GNU/Linux on one floppy disk.” It is a tool for recovering data from systems that have no bootable CD drive. Although it does not contain as much software as the BBCs, it does produce a non-graphical Linux environment that can move files across a network. Quite impressive for a single floppy disk.

Would you want your grandma to use these tools? No. But you might use them for her if she really needed that cake recipe bad enough.

Businesses certainly will want to use these tools to rescue important files and documents that have not been backed up since the last edit.

Oh, and for folks with damaged Windows systems, these same tools can be used to recover information from many non-Linux PCs as well. They take some knowledge of Linux, but a few minutes of effort could recover hours or days of important work.

Every PC support person should carry one of these.