SystemRescue is an Arch-based Linux system on a bootable CD-ROM or USB drive, designed for repairing a system and data after a crash. It also aims to provide an easy way to carry out administration tasks on a computer, such as creating and editing hard disk partitions. It contains many useful system utilities (GNU Parted, PartImage, FSTools) and some basic ones (editors, Midnight Commander, network tools). It aims to be very easy to use. The kernel of the system supports all of today's most important file systems, including ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, Reiser4FS, btrfs, XFS, JFS, VFAT, NTFS, ISO9660, as well as network file systems, such as Samba and NFS.
To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
Colour scheme:green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
System Rescue CD has been around for a long time and keeps on getting better, while keeping out the bloat! So 853MB won't quite squeeze onto a CD anymore, but those are now scarce devices that the kids look at like a rotary phone. System Rescue CD is the #1 Swiss Army Knife to have around in your IT support pocket. Countless times it has proven itself, at times in some very strange situations. As the smallest USB stick I can buy now is 16GB, my only question :) is what to do with the other 15GB? :)
Highly recommended!
It's a lovely distro for system repair and maintenance.
I'm very happy that it worked when my usual go-to, GParted Live, failed to load on one computer. I really needed to repartition and reformat the computer.
SystemRescue to the rescue!
It loaded fine after typing 'startx' to get the XFCE desktop up and then I was able to use GParted as I had wanted to do.
I haven't used it for anything else, mainly because I didn't even know that it existed until today, so I can't comment on any of the other tools.
In general though, I do like the XFCE aspect of it: user-friendly, but less demanding. It's a nice, minimal system that you could browse with (wifi and Firefox ESR are included), if you need or want it. Pretty cool.
Also, SystemRescue does load up with Ventoy, so it will be a handy tool when I need it again. I hope that you have the same good fortune with it.
I have given SystemRescue a score of 9 because I know that it is a distro that extensive in it's capabilities. It provides a large variety of Linux tools and configurability, to allow for an experienced Linux user or a person performing a role such as "Network Administrator" to accomplish tasks and fix problems that something like a "desktop" installer distro is not capable of. I understand that some users (and reviewers) find it not immediately intuitive or easily helpful and so might be inclined to give it a lower rating. As a Unix user since the mid 1980's and Linux user since version 0.2.13 of SystemRescue back in May 2004, I know, through successively using multiple versions of SystemRescue since, that is a tool that is well worth having on hand, worth persisting with, aids in continuing to learn more and more about Linux/Unix and has the capabilities to allow an experienced user to solve difficult problems or perform complex tasks. For those who might read this and think, “well, that is OK, he obviously knows what he is doing or is some kind of expert”, I would like to say that I am still “learning” and enjoying the reliability of this distro. Yes I do use a Linux desktop distro [MX Linux] as my preferred “daily driver” but I also still am a Windows user as well, since MS-DOS days. In summary, SystemRescue has indeed “rescue-ed” many PC’s that I have had placed before me and also rescued me from embarrassing situations more than once. Don’t badly review it, keep using it or just keep it on hand, one day you just might need it ... ! ;-)
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