For awhile now, I have used
Knoppix, a handy Linux Live CD Distro that not only allows you to try out Linux with out touching your underlying hard drive, but can also allow you to:
- scan your Windows Hard drive for viruses
- repair your MBR (Master Boot Record)
- resize partitions
- pull data off of your Windows hard drive (if you are having problems booting into Windows)
just to name a few (the O'Reilly book
Knoppix Hacks has many more of these cool tools).
Thanks to my
co-worker, I heard of another variant of Knoppix, the Knoppix STD, which is a
Knoppix Live CD Security kit.
Update (2/03/06): An
ExtremeTech article that has more detail about resizing Windows partitions using
Knoppix.
Update (2/17/06): And yet another
ExtremeTech article about using
Knoppix, this time to fix Linux.
Update (4/22/06): Another
ExtremeTech article about changing
Knoppix to fit your needs, i.e installing new packages, saving your changes (without rebuilding/remastering the Knoppix CD), etc.