Parted Magic

{{Infobox OS

| name = Parted Magic

| screenshot = Screenshot of Parted Magic 2023.5.21.png

| screenshot_size =

| screenshot_alt = See caption.

| caption = Screenshot of Parted Magic in 2023

| collapsible =

| developer = Patrick Verner
Parted Magic LLC.

| family = Linux (Unix-like)

| working state = Current

| released = {{Start date and age|2007|01|08|df=yes|paren=yes}}

| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|reference|edit|Q1650739|P348}}

| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|single|P548=Q2804309|P348|P577}}}}

| language = English

| supported platforms = x86-64 (IA-32 previously supported)

| kernel type = Linux (Monolithic)

| ui = Xfce (previously Openbox) {{cite news |last1=Nestor |first1=Marius |title=Parted Magic Distro Switches to Xfce Desktop, It's Now a Full 64-Bit System |url=https://9to5linux.com/parted-magic-switches-to-xfce-desktop-its-now-a-full-64-bit-system |access-date=10 May 2023 |work=9to5Linux |date=13 October 2020}}

| website = {{URL|https://partedmagic.com/}}

}}

Parted Magic is a commercial Linux distribution based on Slackware that comes with disk partitioning and data recovery tools.{{cite web|last=Bärwaldt|first=Erik|url=https://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Features/Fixing-Disks-with-Parted-Magic|publisher=Linux Magazine|access-date=31 December 2020|title=Fixing Disks with Parted Magic}} It is sold as a Linux-based bootable disk.[http://lwn.net/Articles/255776/ Parting is such sweet sorrow – The Optimistic Contributor's review of Parted Magic], LWN.net[http://linuxsysconfig.com/2009/02/parted-magic-37/ Parted Magic 3.7|linuxsysconfig]{{Cite web |url=https://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/73085.html |title=PartedMagic: A Swiss Army Knife for Hard Drive Resuscitation{{!}}Reviews{{!}}TechNewsWorld |access-date=27 May 2018 |archive-date=18 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618175302/https://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/73085.html |url-status=dead }} The distribution's nomenclature is derived from the names of the GNU Parted and PartitionMagic software packages.

Features

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.{{cite web|url=https://partedmagic.com/docs/frugal-install|title=frugal_install – Parted Magic|publisher=Partedmagic.com|date=2012-07-17|accessdate=2012-11-24}}

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 to 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.{{cite web|url=https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=partedmagic|title=Parted Magic|accessdate=21 August 2011}}

System requirements

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.{{cite web|url=https://partedmagic.com |title=start – Parted Magic |publisher=Partedmagic.com|accessdate=2012-11-24}} x86 versions from 2013_09_26 do not require the Physical Address Extension (PAE) computer processor feature.{{cite web|url=https://partedmagic.com/changelog.txt|title=Changelog|access-date=28 January 2022}}

All versions starting from 2020_08_23 no longer support 32-bit x86 systems.{{cite web|url=https://partedmagic.com/news/|title=News|access-date=22 June 2024}}

Availability

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTQzNTI|title=Parted Magic is still free|accessdate=13 August 2013}}{{cite web|url=https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20130826#qa|title=Parted Magic starts charging for downloads|accessdate=26 August 2013}}