30 Minute Expert: SystemRescueCD
Call for help no more, rescue is at hand!
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Aditya Madanapalle
SystemRescueCD is a small linux system that boots from a CD drive. There are a bunch of system administration tools that can change the partitions on the disk, rescue data, backup entire partitions for later use, or securely delete data amongst other things. SystemRescueCD is basically meant to backup your system or to repair it after it crashes. The .iso file is available for free from www.sysresccd.org and is a 200 MB download. Once the .iso file is downloaded, it has to be burnt on to a CD using any burning software. Once burnt, restart the computer, enter the BIOS setup and change the settings so that the CD drive is booted first. Once this is done, the SystemRescueCD splash screen will appear. At this point, it is possible to specify boot options, but unless you are an advanced Linux user, press [Enter] to boot the system with the default settings. Press [Enter] again when the keymap screen appears. A command prompt will appear, and the system is ready. To start up the GUI, type wizard and then press [Enter]. There are two GUIs available, XORG and XVESA. Select XORG, and then the GUI will appear.
GParted
GParted stands for the Gnome Partition Editor. Like many other tools in SystemRescueCD, it is independently available. GParted is a powerful partition organisation tool, and can be used for a variety of purposes. When started, GParted first scans all devices. To perform any operations on a disk, you have to select it first either in the GParted menu or from the top right corner of the window. Once a drive is selected, you can delete the partitions, shrink or expand the partitions, create a partition table (which will erase all the data), change the label, change the file system format of the partition, or check and repair errors. The view window offers basic information about a device, like the model, size and path. Another useful feature in GParted is the ability to copy an entire partition and paste it into another partition or removable media.
Testdisk
If your computer crashes because of a virus, or some files are deleted by mistake, testdisk is a very powerful tool to recover your data and get your system up and running again. Testdisk looks deceptively simple when started up. Navigation through the program is done by using the arrow keys and the enter key. At any point, to go to a previous screen, press the [Q] key. Choose no log in the start screen, then choose the file system, which is usually Intel. The Analyse option can look for lost or missing partitions, in case of a system crash. It can also restore these partitions. Under Advanced, Testdisk can recover files from corrupted sectors of a hard disk. First select Quick Search, and a summary of available partitions will appear, then select Deeper Search to recognise missing partitions. Locate the missing partition and press [P] to list the files in the partition. If all the missing files are recognised, select Write to recover the data. You can also save the image of an entire partition. It is possible to change the partition type from here. The Delete option lets you delete all the data in a partition table.
Partimage
Partimage helps you save an entire partition of a disk as an image. Scroll down on the main screen to choose a partition, press [Tab] and enter the name of the partition. Then press [F5] to go to the next screen. If you are saving a very large partition, you can split the image file into smaller parts for better portability. Press [F5] to continue again, uncheck the simulation option, and then continue again. The partition can be stored in a CD/DVD or a USB storage device. In case of a system crash, you can restore the entire partition, along with system files with this tool. Make sure that the partition and the image are of the same size, which is very important for partimage to work properly.
Midnight Commander
Midnight commander is a powerful file manager. Some of the better features include batch-renaming files, copying a bunch of files into another directory and renaming them at the same time, and comparing two directories, and it can open compressed files as directories.
Other tools
The Lshw viewer is an advanced hardware information viewer which gives an overview of all the hardware installed on your machine with details about the bus info, version, vendor, clock, capabilities etc. There are two text editors, GVim editor and Leafpad. There are two Web browsers—firefox and dillo . You will have to configure the Internet settings to get online though. There is also a PDF viewer, epdview, bundled. There are also CD/DVD burning tools, network tools and the clam anti-virus. n
aditya.madanapalle@thinkdigit.com