Totally new to linux but hope someone can help

[peterbotes]

Hi All,

I know very little about Linux but I hope this OS can help me out with a problem I have with windoze.

I want to make a small usb boot pen that can read / write to NTFS drives without all the Windows PE / Bart PE bloat, just like an old DOS disk used to work before Bill decided to make life hard for us all.

All I want to do is copy/delete files and folder on NTFS drives from a bootable USB pen, am I asking too much

Pete

[jayd512]

Hello and Welcome!

Parted Magic should be able to do what you need.
And there are a couple of methods for installing it to a flash drive.
How To Create A Parted Magic Bootable USB Flash Drive

[Wifi-Fanatux]

Boot and run Linux from a USB flash memory stick | USB Pen Drive Linux

[peterbotes]

Great Wifi-Fanatux, jayd512

I did find that USB installer for Linux but there are that many flavours of Linux I got a little confused (lol) what is the slimmest CLI version that will give me NTFS access

To clarify I want to get to a CLI as fast as possible then just copy files etc to from NTFS.

Thanks

Pete

[jmadero]

Not sure why you would want the slimmest as you're not using a CD so you can format the USB drive after but if you're really looking for a small Linux distro I suggest

DSL information

Don't think you'll get much smaller than 50 megs and it be functional but I could be mistaken. I have never run a pure CLI based Distro before, I'm sure they exist just not sure how functional they are. I would really just suggest putting Bodhi (~250 megs) and using the terminal in bodhi to do whatever you want to do. In order to have NTFS access you'll need some packages that I'm sure most (if not all) CLI linux distros don't have because it requires the NTFS-3G package along with a few others I believe.

[jayd512]

I loved DSL when it was active.
But it's been dormant now since around 2008.

[jmadero]

Does DSL include native NTFS support? I've never used it before, not much for really minimalistic distros in general (although I'm now a full time Bodhi user which I guess is minimal compared to *buntu)

[jayd512]

I don't believe so... especially since it was built on a 2.4 kernel.
If the only purpose of the system is to copy files, it would be worth a shot.
However, if it's not included, I dare say that the DSL software repos are likely offline now.

Though not exactly minimal, antiX may be worth a look, as well.

[LinuxOwner]

Could you also maybe just install puppy Linux or some small distro and then just mount the NTFS filesytem using disk utility.
I say puppy as I believe it to be smaller, however my choice would be to install Ubuntu in persistent mode on the flash.

I can't post the exact link as I am a noob to this forum but you should be able to paste this is your browser:

wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent

Good Luck with your quest.

As an afterthought.. I guess I could elaborate a little as you may not know what this means. Once you have booted into your Flash Drive, you will be using the Ubuntu OS. Under the Sytem button (on your taskbar) you can navigate to the Administration>Disk Utility.

On the left select the appropriate drive, on the right, locate the NTFS volume you would like to be able to access, click on it so it is highlighted. Once selected you should be able to locate the Mount Volume option. Hope that helps.

[MASONTX]

You might look at TinyCore or TinyMe. Both are very small.