This file is being created using gedit inside a Linux running entirely in main memory on this machine. The distro is Crunch Bang Linux and although I am pretty favorably impressed, I just noticed a vexing problem I encountered with an Ubuntu release, which version this is based on, that the key mapping is for a UK keyboard not US, so typing the octothorp on my keyboard produced the British Pound symbol. Maybe this gets fixed if I install the distro. (Actually, it got fixed by clicking on a little icon on the status bar.)
The file manager mounts the Windows NTFS partition I have, currently the whole disk. I may try to write this file there to see if I have RW, which would be nice if this is intended to be a rescue distro.
I may have a chance to use the rescue CD for real if the Dell machine that was used by the kids for the past three or so years doesn't boot into Windows XP. I have offered to rescue their files off that partition in exchange for the hardware; I got the monitor when the flat panel I had attached to the Mac Mini died last week. The Dell flat panel is similar and works just fine.
What I am hoping is that even if the Dell doesn't boot that I can use a Live Linux to copy the files the kids want to a writable DVD. I could partition the drive and install a Linux there, but I am concerned that I might corrupt the NTFS filesystem if it isn't defragged. I will look for a linux tool that can defrag an NTFS filesystem or otherwise do the right things at partition time. I'd hope that an fsck for NTFS on Linux would do the same thing; make it safe to partition the drive for a linux install along side an NTFS filesystem. (As it turned out the kids' stuff was copied and the disk put to use as an external drive to a laptop.)
I saved this file on the NTFS filesystem and opened it again in gedit when I used the file manager to select the file and open it. So, now I can just save the edit back there. And now I booted into Vista and examined the file I save from #! CrunchBang. I moved the file from C:/ to my cygwin dir and am adding information to it using Xemacs inside the X11 server under Cygwin.
I have a set of text files that document my use of live Linux distros on this machine, so I can weigh the pros and cons of which one to install. CrunchBang is fast and looks like a good rescue distro if the target is limited in memory. The acid test will be able to write a DVD from a live distro even if the target partition doesn't boot properly.