Okay, I have a "What distro" question. I work as tech-support for and I need a liveCD for diagnosing a computer, making back-ups and such tasks and I thought I'd get that with some nice liveCD but I haven't any experience about them so I ask here.

What liveCD distro offers:
-Great hardware detection: I don't have time to configure it for all the hardware by hand.
-Diagnostic tools: I need to test and check the system for errors.
-Back-up tools: I need to copy important data to more secure place.
-Has instant support for NTFS-filesystem: I need to access windows partitions.
-Easy to use: I'm not that good linux user yet


I know I get most of these with ultimate bootdisk but I need also the internet support to check things with google in case of missing manuals and fething drivers as all my clients use Windows on their computer. I could use windows boot diskette but that is just too akward to use and doesn't work sometimes.

So, any disto in mind? Only one I've heard is Knoppix but as I said, I don't know if there's a better option available. So put you recommendations here.

I use a combination depending on the problem I encounter. Knoppix is a good one that I use a lot (although I usually have to carry around a hard copy of how to rescue things from knoppix -- there was a good guide online somewhere... Google "windows rescue knoppix" or "windows first aid knoppix"). I also sometimes use "System Rescue CD" and "Ultimate Boot Disc".

In a pinch, I've also found BartPE to be very useful. It's actually a Windows-based Live CD. Although to get internet working, you have to download a driver for whichever NIC prior to building the CD (which is a problem if there's a bunch of different NIC's). Needless to say, CD-RW's are good for BartPE because you'll have to build it a few times before you get it the way you want it...

FIRE Linux, made just for what I think you're doing.

Is the Knoppix 5.0 available as a CD as I doubt all my clients have a DVD-drive. I think I get one CD and one DVD to get most of the things. I'm downloading System rescue and knoppix 5.0 DVD at the moment.


Edit: F.i.R.E seems nice. Bit outdated too if I'm correct