List of Linux live CDs for hard disk cloning

The easiest way to recover your operating system in case of disaster is by cloning it once a week to an external disk. You will save lots of time tweaking the settings once again if you need to reinstall your operating system.

Main Linux live CD to clone a hard disk

CloneZilla: Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore, Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the hard disk, this increases the clone efficiency. This live CD to mirror your hard disk can be a bit overwhelming for newbies not used to Linux.

Redo Backup and Recovery: The system uses minimal space and resources, and the download size is less than 75MB. Easy point-and-click GUI tool for full system backup and recovery, very user friendly.

SystemRescueCD: This Linux live CD is normally used to recover data, you can use it to backup data from an unbootable Windows computer not able to boot anymore, as long as the hard disk is still working, you will just need to mount the partition.

UltimateBootCD: You can use this Linux live CD for hard disk cloning using some of the tools it has, such as CopyWipe, g4u, HDClone, partimage and others. You can also use this Linux live CD for data wiping as it includes hard disk wiping tools such as  Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) and HDDErase.

PartedMagic: This is mainly a Linux live CD used for partitioning but it also includes CloneZilla from the command line.

GRML: For the advanced Linux user, this Linux live CD based on Debian has been designed for the Linux system administrator comfortable with the command line, GRML provides security and network related software, data recovery and forensic tools and many text tools.

GRML Linux screensplash

 Computer Forensics live CD to clone hard drive

Frenzy: FreeBSD live CD, it contains software for hardware tests, file system check, security check and network setup and analysis.

Caine: Ubuntu based computer forensics live CD, mainly used to acquire data of a suspected criminal computer but also useful as a back up live CD. User friendly graphical interface.

CAINE computer forensics live CD

DEFT Linux: DEFT it’s a new concept of Computer Forensic live system that use LXDE as desktop environment and Thunar file manager and mount manager as tool for device management. It is a very easy to use system that includes an excellent hardware detection as well as open source applications dedicated to incident response and computer forensics.

MasterKey: MasterKey Linux live CD is focused on incident response and computer forensics. No installation is required, the forensics system is started directly from the a CD/DVD-ROM or USB thumbdrive.

BackTrack: BackTrack has been customized down to every package, kernel configuration, script and patch solely for the purpose of the penetration tester. You can install Backtrack to USB with full disk encryption if needed.