Crash Recovery Kit for Linux

http://crashrecovery.org/

Crash Recovery for Linux sounds a bit superfluous. Linux is regarded as one of todays most stable Operating Systems. In the case of some hardware failure like a broken disk it can however be handy. Of course your machine doesn't have to have linux installed to make use of the CRK kit. There are several uses and purposes for the CRK to be used. To name a few :

• recovery of a trashed LILO boot record. How many times does it happen that some person installs windows 98/95 after he/she installed linux? Well in that case windows 9X just overwrites the MBR record and linux won't be able to boot anymore.
• backup over the network in the form of tar.gz tarballs. Both FAT16, FAT32, ext2 and all filesystems which Linux supports in a read/write fashion can be taken care of. The strong part of the CRK is when a disk is replaced or repartitioning is being done. The CRK boots a complete mini linux with networking where all possible hardware which is inside the Linux kernel is available.
• Testing hardware of new intel based machines.
• Detecting versions and types of hardware. The Linux kernel holds a large database of hardware supported. Booting a linux kernel doesn't only resolve if the hardware is ok, it also show its specs. This can be handy if one wants to check-out an old/new PC which is for sale.
• Recovery of a misconfigured or hacked Linux system. Well that can happen. /etc/fstab can be wrong or the root password is unknown etc.
• make a tape backup of a disk which can't be booted anymore.

The CRK is based on RedHat Linux. I have always used RedHat systems, thats why. When my system needed maintenance the rescue floppy image which RedHat supplies didn't fullfill my needs. Thats why i created the CRK. Lately i use Mandrake. How and why the CRK was created read the short history. The CRK is licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL). See the Changelog for whats included.