Parted Magic

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Parted Magic
See caption.
Screenshot of Parted Magic in 2023
DeveloperPatrick Verner
Parted Magic LLC.
OS familyLinux (Unix-like)
Working stateCurrent
Initial release8 January 2007 (17 years ago) (2007-01-08)
Latest release2023_08_22 / 22 August 2023; 7 months ago (2023-08-22)[1]
Available inEnglish
Platformsx86-64 (IA-32 previously supported)
Kernel typeLinux (Monolithic)
Default
user interface
Xfce (previously Openbox) [2]
Official websitepartedmagic.com

Parted Magic is a commercial Linux distribution based on Slackware that comes with disk partitioning and data recovery tools.[3] It is sold as a Linux-based bootable disk.[4][5][6] The distribution's nomenclature is derived from the names of the GNU Parted and PartitionMagic software packages.

Features[edit]

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.[7]

Although originally designed for mechanical hard disk drives, Parted Magic is suitable for use also with solid state drives and can perform an ATA Secure Erase (a method that is built into the hard drive controller to return the drive into its factory state).

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 Linux systems.

The software distribution includes networking support, and comes with the Firefox web browser.[8]

System requirements[edit]

As of version 11.11.11, Parted Magic supports x86-64 processors natively (32-bit x86 processors were previously supported), and requires a computer with at least a 64-bit Intel-compatible processor and 2GB of RAM. Secure boot is also supported.[9] x86 versions from 2013_09_26 do not require the Physical Address Extension (PAE) computer processor feature."Changelog". Retrieved 28 January 2022.

All versions starting from 2020_08_23 no longer support 32-bit x86 systems.[1]

Availability[edit]

Up to version 2013.08.01 the distribution was freely available for download from the official website and the project page on SourceForge. The distribution moved to a pay-for-download business model, despite the packaged software being free and open source.[10][11]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "News". Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  2. ^ Nestor, Marius (13 October 2020). "Parted Magic Distro Switches to Xfce Desktop, It's Now a Full 64-Bit System". 9to5Linux. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  3. ^ Bärwaldt, Erik. "Fixing Disks with Parted Magic". Linux Magazine. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  4. ^ Parting is such sweet sorrow – The Optimistic Contributor's review of Parted Magic, LWN.net
  5. ^ Parted Magic 3.7|linuxsysconfig
  6. ^ PartedMagic: A Swiss Army Knife for Hard Drive Resuscitation|Reviews|TechNewsWorld
  7. ^ "frugal_install – Parted Magic". Partedmagic.com. 17 July 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  8. ^ "Parted Magic". Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  9. ^ "start – Parted Magic". Partedmagic.com. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  10. ^ "Parted Magic is still free". Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  11. ^ "Parted Magic starts charging for downloads". Retrieved 26 August 2013.

External links[edit]