Just thought I would plug one of my favorite OS'es, and save ass tools:

KNOPPIX

I call it a spare tire for your computer, and it really is.

It's a complete OS that runs from your CD drive. Don't have to install a thing. Reboot and it's gone. You don't even have to have a hard drive in your computer to run it.

It is a Linux OS, but don't let that scare you - it's got all the pretty buttons you want from Windows. Don't worry about typing any commands.

I have often recommended this to people who have severe computer problems. It's great for those waiting for a new hard drive, or recovery disc set form HP or Gateway to come in. You pop this in your computer and instantly have full internet access.

It's a little lacking on games, but it does have an office suit that is compatible with Micro$oft Office.

I actually once ran a computer on this OS for a whole year, before breaking down and repairing windows (that was only because a Windows game came out that I really wanted).

Oh, and one more thing: It's free!

For more info, check here:

Official Knoppix Site
You can download it here

A Wiki Article

I like Knoppix. Given that I'm not really a Linux user, it's nice to toy around with it on my system without having to install it. I just hate that you can't save stuff onto your harddrive if you run the cd/dvd version of it if you HD is formatted in NTFS (only Fat32 for that feature).

It's made me want to install other versions of "dummy free" linux that I've gotten (including Ubuntu), but I just haven't yet.

If anyone wants an alternate to Windows, then I recommend getting this just to play around with linux a little bit.

Yah know, I think the newest version (5.1 as of now) can write to NTFS natively (without having to use special drivers or software). My cousin's XP system got corrupted a few weeks ago, so while he was waiting for the recovery discs from Gateway to come in, I burt him a Knoppix disc so he could at least get on the internet. I discovered that we could also write to his C drive using that disc. I assumed he was using NTSF, since it is rare that a new computer comes with FAT32 nowadays.

They've made it real easy to put a drive into write mode now. No more unmounting drive, bringing up drive properties, hunting down the read write permissions tab, checking the user permissions tab, blah, blah, etc, etc. No, you just right click the drive and set it to read or write. Much easier than before.

I need to double check that NTFS write issue. I'm pretty sure Knoppix can write to NTFS now, but I'm not 100% sure. I'll put up a post about it when I can test it.

Yea, I definitely need to get a newer version of Knoppix then. I think mine was right at 1.0 or so. If they fixed that, I might run knoppix for a bit after I get done with "other activites" online.

Still haven't got around to testing that NTFS issue.
So many things to do!
I did download and burn the DVD version of Knoppix though. First time I've ever tried that. I'm curious about what's on that sucker. I mean, they had already fitted SO MUCH stuff on normal CD version... I can hardly imagine what they dug up to fill up that DVD version...

I downloaded the new cd version at work the other night and decided "I'll reboot to see now it is now". Everything loaded fine....except the damn wifi connection. Not sure how to get it working, so until I do, I'll leave it alone. lol.

Knoppix 5.1 CAN write to NTFS

Ok, I had a 2000 machine break a few days ago.
System registry hive was corrupted.
No registry backup or recovery disks.

Stupid system wouldn't even get past two white bars on the initial load screen. It crashed before you could access the safe mode menu.

A friend of mine had a registry recovery tool, but we were unable to run it on the system that had the problem.

Using Knoppix, we were able to copy the corrupted registry hive from the NTFS partition to a USB flash drive. We were then able to use the registry repair utility my friend had on another computer to repair the corrupted hive. We then were able to use Knoppix on the troubled system to replace the corrupted hive with a fixed hive.

The computer then booted up fine. The user profile was corrupted and was replaced with a temporary profile. That was pretty annoying, but not nearly as annoying as having to reinstall the OS.

So Knoppix will work with NTFS. Woo hoo.

One knote on knoppix though: it won't mount an NTFS system that is unclean. If it detects that chkdsk needs to run on a partition, it won't do anything with that partition. Or at least I couldn't figure out how to get it to do anything.

Still, a very handy tool to have.