PoliArch

PoliArch is an open source distribution of Linux based on the Arch Linux operating system and designed to provide users with a quick and easy way to conduct the management and administration in any computer.

Allows users to do a lot of things

Thanks to the included applications, this distribution allows users to create and edit disk partitions, restore data from damaged drives, change hard disk geometry, fix broken operating system that won’t boot anymore, as well as to backup data.

It can also be used to access Windows installations that are no longer bootable, clone entire hard disks, reset Windows passwords, scan an installation for viruses and malware, run DOS or Windows applications, or create USB sticks with Windows Vista or 7 installers.

Among other features, we can mention the ability to read and write on NTFS partitions, share files from or to a Windows machine via Samba, browse the web anonymously using Tor, and interact with iPhone devices using the ifuse and libimobiledevice libraries.

It includes a lot of open source Linux software, such as GParted, FSArchiver, Midnight Commander, NTFS-3G , Apache, MySQL, Samba, DRBL (Diskless Remote Boot), PHP, Webmin, Partimage, and Clonezilla. A desktop environment powered by the lightweight Xfce project is also available if you type the startx command on the shell prompt.

Availability and conclusions

It is distributed as a single and hybrid Live DVD ISO image that supports both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures, and can be deployed to either a USB flash drive or DVD disc. UEFI/SecureBoot machines are supported at this time, The default language is Italian.

In conclusion, PoliArch proves to be an efficient, reliable and full featured Linux-based operating system for administration tasks. However, for basic disk cloning, data restore, and system recovery tasks we recommend a smaller distribution, such as SystemRescueCD.