See if this explanation helps ...
A "rescue CD" (or "liveCD") is simply a bootable Linux system on a CD or DVD: one that does not require
any hard drive in order to run. You just put the CD into the drive and reboot the system from that CD.
Now, you'll find yourself in a completely stand-alone environment in which any of your hard-drives can be mounted, repaired, inspected, optimized, or what-have-you
without any of those drives being "the root filesystem." Furthermore, since the Linux that you are now running is fixed onto the CD, you can't affect it by whatever you do.
So, for example, if you find that you flubbed a change to the Grub or LILO configuration-files and can't boot your machine, you can boot the CD,
mount the hard-drive,
cd to the proper directory, and edit the file.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Voice of Experience
You need to practice these procedures, ahead of time! Do not wait until the fire is raging to learn how to use a fire-extinguisher!
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Another example is doing filesystem verification and repair: you can't do that with a
mounted filesystem, but if you have booted from a LiveCD, the hard drive filesystem(s) can be mounted or dismounted at your discretion. Therefore you can perform these tasks.
Finally... a
few distros still mumble about "rescue floppy disks."
Fuhgeddaboudit! Every computer you'll find these days can boot from a CD or DVD, and more and more of them don't even have (nor do they need) a "floppy" drive.