It might or might no be necessary to have a Linux Live Boot CD in with your diagnostic tools, but if you repair computers for a living, you really should have a way to boot into an OS if the hard drive has failed or if you want to troubleshoot a computer with the hard drive out. We are listing some of our favorite flavors of Linux Live Boot CDs and the features some of them contain. These are highly condensed Operating Systems that fit on a single CD and shouldn’t take users long to download and burn to disk.

Linux Live Boot CDs

Devil Linux

Knoppix

Insert

KateOS

Uses for a Bootable CD

One of the best uses for these Linux Live Boot CDs is to simply troubleshoot a failing or non-booting hard drive. These disks contain partition and other tools for the various Windows file-systems. You can also use these disks for virus scanning, browsing the Internet, computer forensics and for hardware firewalls. Some of these can even load from a USB thumbdrive. But the greatest use for Live CDs are the opportunity for Windows users to try Linux. Since Linux is a free Operating System, you can try these fully-functioning versions of Linux to see if it’s for you.

For more questions about Linux Live Boot CDs, be sure to visit our message boards at PCTechBytes.