From f5113facde7a0ac4a2765ae9451026e6b4a33879 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Nathaniel Beaver Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2015 15:27:13 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] Explain motivation for livecds. --- README.rst | 9 ++++++++- 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst index 49326e9..8682a07 100644 --- a/README.rst +++ b/README.rst @@ -174,13 +174,20 @@ able to mount and repartition disks, connect to the internet and run a web browser, and (for `persistent live USB flash drives`_) retain settings and data on the next boot-up. +This makes live versions of Linux useful for +recovering files from damaged hard drives, +making bootable backups of an entire drive, +scanning a disk for malware without loading a potentially compromised operating system, +distinguishing hardware problems from softwre problems, +and other tasks requiring a temporary operating system. .. _Live versions: http://www.linux.com/directory/Distributions/livecd .. _persistent live USB flash drives: http://askubuntu.com/questions/295701/what-would-be-the-differences-between-a-persistent-usb-live-session-and-a-instal Some live Linux distributions, such as `Puppy Linux`_, are lightweight enough that they default to `running from a RAM disk`_, -and consequently have much faster disk I/O than an OS that must access a spinning hard drive. +and consequently have much faster disk I/O +than an OS that must access a spinning hard drive. (This comes at the cost of disk space being limited by RAM. There's no reason you can't mount an internal or external drive to store files, though.)