System Repair Thumbdrive + Linux Distro?

[CptnObvious999]

For my new job I basically take in Windows PCs and try to fix them. For this I have a 4GB USB Thumbdrive with the following on it:

• 7-Zip - For extracting basically any archive
• ClamWin - For scanning for viruses and malware
• Firefox - For browsing on a good browser that I can save my bookmarks and preferences onto
• GAIM - Because you should always have an IM client
• OpenOffice - Because you never know when you have to open a crappy Word document
• Putty - SSH should need no explaination
• VLC - Sometimes needed to test sound
• SIW - Shows almost everything about your system (we need something similar for Linux)

(I also have a free AVG edition setup executable to install anti-virus and a free codecs setup executable which I install on everyones machine, take that microsoft! )

Anyways I was wondering if Windows (Vista and XP mostly) would be able to read this if I also had a Linux distro on the thumbdrive on a different partition. Would this work? Would I have to put Linux as the first or second partition?

Also if you have any recommendations for portable distros or apps please let me know.

[Karl]

It should be fine if you add a linux distro to it. I have SLAX on mine. Its on the same partition as my files and works fine.

[CptnObvious999]

It should be fine if you add a linux distro to it. I have SLAX on mine. Its on the same partition as my files and works fine.

Oh you just installed it on your fat partition? I forgot you could do that. It would be nice to keep them seperate but I guess that would work. How much does a base install of SLAX take up? The software I have on my thumbdrive now takes up about 110MB which should leave enough to install a fair amount of programs on it correct?

[chuck]

I've been using TiddlyWiki myself. It's a great way to keep notes on routine problems that you run into. Links to your various LAN directories that you may need regular access to. Keeping a copy of any scripts there is also a great thing.

Don't forget to backup the key. There's nothing worse than having all this stuff and the knowledge base build up then losing the key.

[Jza]

[*]SIW - Shows almost everything about your system (we need something similar for Linux)[/list].

Try dmidecode

[CptnObvious999]

[*]SIW - Shows almost everything about your system (we need something similar for Linux)[/list].

Try dmidecode

Thanks for the suggestion, it seems to report a bunch of good information although in a long and more cryptic form, it would be nice to have a good frontend for it. Maybe that is a project I should start as my programming skills have been stagnant for a while.

Anyways I downloaded SLAX and tried to install it on my USB drive but when I boot from it is says "kernel image not found for: linux" (I'm not sure if that was the exact message, I will check when I get home). Can anyone point me to a tutorial that they know works with the latest SLAX?

[Karl]

Here is what I followed:
http://os.newsforge.com/os/05/07/08/1522251.shtml?tid=2

[kuzew]

What I keep at all times when I repair a system and I don't want to carry a Linux install disk; I keep this binary around http://goodbye-microsoft.com/. Lovely if your client wants to run Linux instead of Windows and you don't have a disk around. (:

Great project, I support it all the way.

Cheers.