Parted Magic
| Company / developer | Patrick Verner |
|---|---|
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Free Software |
| Latest stable release | 2014_01_04 / January 4, 2014 |
| Available language(s) | Multilingual |
| Supported platforms | IA-32, x86-64 |
| Kernel type | Linux (Monolithic) |
| Default user interface | Openbox 3.5.2 |
| Official website | www.partedmagic.com |
Parted Magic is a Linux distribution with disk partitioning and data recovery tools,[1] sold as a Linux-based bootable disk. It is named after Parted.
Features
The program is directly bootable from a CD, USB flash drive, or through a network using PXE on PC hardware, and does not require installation, or the presence of an installed operating system.[2]
Although originally designed for mechanical hard disk drives, Parted Magic is suitable for use also with solid state drives and can perform a secure erase (a method to return a drive to its factory state). Corsair, a major SSD manufacturer, recommends its use as "the most common and user-friendly tool" for performing a secure erase on its drives.[citation needed] OCZ have also published a guide on the use of Parted Magic on its SSDs.[citation needed]
Parted Magic supports reading and writing to a variety of modern file systems, including ext3, ext4, FAT, exFAT, and NTFS, and as such is able to access disk drives formatted for use under Microsoft Windows and GNU/Linux systems.
The software's distribution includes local network and Internet support, and comes with the Firefox web browser.[3]
Reception
Parted Magic has received positive reviews from mainstream technical magazines and websites,[4][5] PC World noting in particular ability to recover data from multiple operating systems and (at that time) its free cost, "About the only other thing I can say about Parted Magic, besides that it's a must-download for your toolkit, is that it's free".[6]
In August 2013, the tool requires a small fee to download, but still qualifies as Free Software by definition.[7]
System requirements
As of version 11.11.11, Parted Magic supports Intel x86 and x86-64 processors natively, and requires a computer with at least an i586 Intel-compatible processor and 175MB of RAM.[8] x86 versions from 2013_09_26 do not require the Physical Address Extension (PAE) computer processor feature.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ Shilliday, Barry. "Backup and Restore". Computeractive. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ↑ "frugal_install – Parted Magic". Partedmagic.com. 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
- ↑ "Parted Magic". Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ↑ "Parted Magic - CNET Download.com". Download.cnet.com. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
- ↑ Germain, Jack. "PartedMagic: A swiss army knife for hard drive resuscitation". Retrieved 22 August 2011.
- ↑ Jacobi, Jon. "Review of Parted Magic". PC World. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ↑ Larabel, Michael (13 August 2013). "Parted Magic Is Still Free". Phoronix. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
- ↑ "start – Parted Magic". Partedmagic.com. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
- ↑ "Changelog – Parted Magic". Partedmagic.com. 2013-09-26. Retrieved 2014-01-26.
