Parted Magic is a free partitioning tool. The Parted Magic OS employs core programs of GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease, while featuring other useful programs (e.g. Partition Image, TestDisk, fdisk, sfdisk, dd, and ddrescue) and an excellent set of documentation to benefit the user. An extensive collection of fileystem tools are also included, as Parted Magic supports the following: ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, jfs, linux-swap, ntfs, reiserfs, reiser4, and xfs.

Parted Magic requires at least a PII processor and 400MB of RAM to operate or 128MB in "Live" mode.

Parted Magic can be created with almost any program that supports creating a CD from a disc image. This web page has many free and non-free tools to write an iso image to a CD-R/CD-RW. Begin with downloading the image file "pmagic-x.x.iso" from the partedmagic.com Downloads page, and have a recordable-CD on-hand (using a CD-RW media is best, in case a mistake is made during this process or you care to use the disc over again). For this example, we'll use Nero, a popular Windows CD creating application.

Creating the Parted Magic LiveUSB:

These instructions will help Linux and Windows users alike with the simple task of creating the Parted Magic LiveUSB. And for the purpose of this example, the target USB media will be a single, primary-partitioned drive.

1. From partedmagic.com, download the file "partedmagic-usb-x.x.zip", and extract it to a local folder using Windows' 'Compressed (zipped) Folders', or similiarly, '7-Zip' (another fine, Open Source project). 'unzip' if using Linux.

2. Most USB drives ship FAT16-formatted. If the USB drive is not FAT16 or FAT32, it must be formatted as such (your choice between the two), or the SYSLINUX boot loader will not work. You do not have to erase the files you have on the USB drive to use Parted Magic. If you do have existing data on the USB drive, not to worry - it won't get in the way. Do make sure though to have 40 MB of free space available on the drive's partition where you will install Parted Magic.

3. From the folder used to store the contents extracted from the zipped Parted Magic file, copy the files to the USB drive.

4. Make sure your USB drive is flagged "boot". Linux users can enable this flag by using options provided by 'parted' or 'GParted'. Instructions for Windows users will be provided in subsequent steps.

5. To be able to boot from the LiveUSB, a boot loader for Linux operating from a FAT filesystem is required. With Parted Magic being Linux-based, and the intended media's filesystem being FAT, the Open Source project SYSLINUX will answer to this requirement. While most, if not all, Linux distros come with this already available, Windows users will need to obtain a copy.

6. To prepare to use SYSLINUX, find out what the OS-assigned name is for the USB drive attached to your system. In Windows, make note of the respective drive letter; and in Linux, use the command string 'fdisk -l' (or some other program) to list connected devices and partitions.

7. For this example, let's say that the USB drive is assigned by Windows the drive letter "X:", or alternatively, identified as "/dev/sdx1" in Linux. Use these commands to install the SYSLINUX boot loader on the target USB drive:

The license of this software is Freeware, you can free download and free use this boot cd software.