Recovery Is Possible is a small, specialized Linux distribution

Linux distribution

A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...

 based on Slackware

Slackware

Slackware is a free and open source Linux-based operating system. It was one of the earliest operating systems to be built on top of the Linux kernel and is the oldest currently being maintained. Slackware was created by Patrick Volkerding of Slackware Linux, Inc. in 1993...

that includes system maintenance and recovery applications on a live CD or USB flash drive

Live CD

A live CD, live DVD, or live disc is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive...

. The RIP disc comes in two flavors: one with the X Window System

X Window System

The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...

 and one without. The X-capable version does not require X to be started at boot-up; it can be started at any time after booting without the server. The main purpose of X under RIP is to provide the capability to run GParted

GParted

GParted is a GTK+ front-end to GNU Parted and the official GNOME Partition Editor application.It is used for creating, deleting, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them...

, a disk partition management program, and Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...

, a web browser

Web browser

A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

. Xine

Xine

xine is a multimedia playback engine for Unix-like operating systems released under the GNU General Public License. xine is built around a shared library that supports different frontend player applications. Another important feature of xine is the ability to manually correct the synchronization...

 is also included for watching movies on DVD.

Common uses of RIP include:

• TestDisk
  TestDisk
  TestDisk is a free data recovery utility. It was primarily designed to help recover lost data storage partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error .TestDisk can be used to collect detailed...
  
   to recover deleted partitions, by ignoring the MBR
  Master boot record
  A master boot record is a type of boot sector popularized by the IBM Personal Computer. It consists of a sequence of 512 bytes located at the first sector of a data storage device such as a hard disk...
  
   and checking cylinders for known filesystem structures (such as FAT, NTFS, ext2/3/4, ReiserFS 3/4, XFS, etc.)
• PhotoRec
  PhotoRec
  PhotoRec is a file carver data recovery software tool designed to recover lost files from digital camera memory , hard disks and CD-ROMs...
  
   to recover deleted files (not only photos) by ignoring the filesystem and checking disk blocks for known file types
• fdisk
  Fdisk
  On personal computer operating systems, fdisk is a commonly used name for a command-line utility that provides disk partitioning functions...
  
  , cfdisk
  Cfdisk
  cfdisk is a Linux partition editor, similar to fdisk, but with a different user interface . It is part of the util-linux package of Linux utility programs.Originally written in 1992, the current version is 2.12r....
  
  , parted, and GParted
  GParted
  GParted is a GTK+ front-end to GNU Parted and the official GNOME Partition Editor application.It is used for creating, deleting, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them...
  
   (with the X11 version) for partition management
• ntfsprogs
  Ntfsprogs
  Ntfsprogs is a collection of free Unix utilities for managing the NTFS filesystem used by Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 on a harddisk partition. 'ntfsprogs' was the first stable method of writing to NTFS partitions in...
  
   (ntfsresize
  Ntfsresize
  ntfsresize is a free Unix utility that non-destructively resizes the NTFS filesystem used by Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista typically on a hard-disk partition. All NTFS versions used by 32-bit and 64-bit Windows are supported. No defragmentation is required prior to resizing since...
  
  , ntfsclone, ntfsfix, mkntfs, etc.) in order to resize, backup/restore, schedule a CHKDSK
  CHKDSK
  CHKDSK is a command on computers running DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows operating systems that displays the file system integrity status of hard disks and floppy disk and can fix logical file system errors. It is similar to the fsck command in Unix.The command is implemented as an executable...
  
   at Windows boot-up, and perform other operations on NTFS filesystems
• GNU ddrescue to recover data from failed media by copying data from one file or block device (hard disk, CD-ROM, floppy, etc.) to another, trying hard to rescue data in case of read errors.

External links

• RIPLinux home site — official website