Linux Live USB install for Windows admin

ps3ud0 · 19 Aug 2012 at 16:22

Hi guys,

Quite an easy question, but thought best to ask in here. Im just after a nice and easy Linux Live install that works via a USB stick that I could use to backup a windows PC. Obviously Id need NTFS access, so Im wondering if theres not a perfect linux distro/setup that people use to do this. Any other useful tools it comes with might be handy (the windows install is just so slow that backup is a pain before I wipe and reinstall it)

Been a fair while since I used Linux, so assume Im a noob, especially anything cmd line!!!

TIA

ps3ud0 :cool:

HyperSonic · 20 Aug 2012 at 10:49

see here

http://protectedpenguin.com/blog/2011/01/how-to-back-up-windows-using-a-live-usb/

seems to be exactly what you want

HyperSonic · 20 Aug 2012 at 10:57

ah i see you don't want to be fiddling with the cmd line

a live ubuntu cd/usb will probably have everything you need

masterluke · 20 Aug 2012 at 11:15

Are you looking to backup just certain files or an entire partition? ie - are you looking to be able to image a disk or just put some files somewhere to be safe.

Also - where will you be putting this data? USB disk? NAS? Other networked location?

ps3ud0 · 20 Aug 2012 at 11:46

Thanks for the suggestions - just trying to backup a friends files on his windows partition, as Im not 100% what he wants to keep I thought best to save everything onto an external USB HDD (formatted as FAT32).

I dont need a disk image just the files, but as windows is so so slow (especially on a Celeron M laptop) Id rather do it via linux to speed up the process. The only thing I could think of that I wasnt sure if a live linux install would have as standard was NTFS drivers

Quite happy to use Ubuntu Live USB stick and just copy all and paste it onto the external HDD. Tried using something called System Rescue CD but it doesnt seem to make a bootable USB sticks when I tried it...

ps3ud0 :cool:

masterluke · 20 Aug 2012 at 12:41

Best use Ubuntu livecd and either copy using the gui or if you want something a bit better try grsync. Its a nice easy rsync GIU. Its in the software centre.

One thing to watch is the file size on FAT32 where youre limited to about 4gb so imaging to FAT32 is out anyway. Probably better to reformat the USB disk to NTFS. Linux can format\read\write NTFS fine out of the box