You can create a LIVE USB with Ubuntu 8.10 or 9.04 with persistent storage so that the work can be saved on the USB as is not the case in Live CD’s and Live USB.It can create LIVE Bootable USB from Disk Images (ISO), CD, or Download the Distro.It supports Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint or CrunchBang.You can also load from the created LIVE USB in Windows with a special portable version of Virtual Box.All the data stored in the usb persistent storage are hidden and the data is stored in a special file called casper-rw.

uSbuntu Live Creator will also create a portable(no installation) version of VirtualBox, that can be launched by running Launch_usb.exe located in the Portable-VirtualBox folder in your USB Drive, so that you can launch ubuntu right in windows.

Features :

• Create bootable USB device from Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint or CrunchBang
• Enable persistency of your data
• Launch Ubuntu directly in Windows with a special Portable VirtualBox
• Hides created files on the drive.

Steps to create a Bootable Ubuntu USB Drive :

• Prepare your USB, ie., Format the drive with FAT32 or FAT partition
• Download and launch the uSbuntu Live Creator and choose a USB key or drive in the list
• Select a ISO file or CD of Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu 8.10 or 9.04
• Choose the size of persistency data.
• Check the options you want
• Click the thunder to start the creation

Next, launch Portable Virtual Box and from the Boot Options you can start Ubuntu in

• Persistent Mode (your data will be persistent)
• Live Mode (all your data will be discarded after reboot)
• Install (to install Ubuntu on your hard drive)
• Integrity Check (check the files on your key)
• Memory Test (can diagnose RAM problems)

The data on your Ubuntu can be backed up by simply copying the “casper-rw file” in your Windows OS.

Downlaod uSbuntu Live Creator

If you are a computer professional then you have to be prepared to protect your hard drive data well from unexpected data loss and take back ups. Hard drives corrupt more often now then before. Sometimes we delete data by accident. Sometimes we delete data but we may need that later on. Computer data is not fully deleted from hard drive. It remains in some form for sometime unless you write more data and fill up the space. You can recover that data easily if you have some powerful tool to recover it. Here are some free powerful data recovery tools which I have been using.

Emergency file recovery requires more than the correct tool, though. It requires knowing how file deletion occurs, and what you have to do to maximize the chances of a successful recovery. When a file is deleted from your computer, its contents aren’t immediately destroyed. Windows simply marks the hard drive space as being available for use by changing one character in the file table so that the file entry won’t be displayed in My Computer or a command line DIR command, etc. If you manage to start an undeletion process before Windows uses that part of the hard drive to write a new file, all you have to do is set that flag back to “on,” and you get the file.

Obviously, the sooner you try to restore a file, the more successful you’ll be. But stop a moment and think about the other things that could cause this part of the hard drive to be overwritten. If your hard drive is pretty full, the odds are much greater that Windows will grab your precious unallocated space for its next write. Or, if you defrag the hard drive, you run the risk of unused parts of the drive being overwritten! (This also means that if you are running silent background defrag services, or if you have defrag utilities scheduled to defrag automatically, you might get blindsided — lose your chance at data recovery — if you don’t halt them until you have your deleted file recovered.) Here are some cool softwares to recover deleted data.

Recuva (Windows)

Recuva (pronounced “recover”) is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses! Recuva is free for both commercial and personal use. You have to just select disk drive to search lost data. It even retrieves directory structure for lost data.

Download Recuva

Download Recuva (2.99 MB)
Website

TestDisk, Data Recovery (Windows/Mac/Linux)

TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It is designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

Features

• Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
• Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
• Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
• Fix FAT tables
• Rebuild NTFS boot sector
• Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
• Fix MFT using MFT mirror
• Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
• Undelete files from FAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem
• Copy files from deleted FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3 partitions.

TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.

Download TestDisk

Download TestDisk
Website

PhotoRec (Windows/Mac/Linux)

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and lost pictures (thus, its ‘Photo Recovery’ name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media’s filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted.

PhotoRec is free, this open source multi-platform application is distributed under GNU Public License. PhotoRec is a companion program to TestDisk, an app for recovering lost partitions on a wide variety of filesystems and making non-bootable disks bootable again. For more safety, PhotoRec uses read-only access to handle the drive or memory support you are about to recover lost data from.

Download PhotoRec

Download PhotoRec
Website

Restoration(Windows)

Restoration is a tiny, no-frills, portable recovery tool. You can use it in all versions of Windows and Windows file systems. Restoration is a freeware program by Brian Kato that restores deleted files no longer in the Recycle Bin. The good news is that it works on Windows 9x versions and also on Windows NT, 2000, and XP — even in NTFS! It can fit neatly on a floppy (if any nerd out there using floppies yet!), since it is only 406 KB in size (and the Windows 2000/XP version is less than half that size), but you can also run it from your hard drive.

Download Restoration

Download Restoration (180 kb)
Website

Undelete Plus (Windows)

Accidentally deleting a file from your computer, flash disk, camera, or the like does not mean it is lost forever. Software doesn’t destroy files when it deletes, it simply marks the space the file was using as being available for re-use. If nothing has needed that space since the deletion, the data is still there and the file can be recovered.

UndeletePlus is powerful software that can quickly scan a computer or storage medium for deleted files and restore them on command. It works with computers, flash drives, cameras, and other forms of data storage. Simply scan the device, select the files you want to recover, and click a button to restore the information or picture you thought was lost forever.

Undelete Plus is not a free software but here you can download its free portable version from below.

Download Undelete Plus

Download Undelete Plus (615 KB)
Website

DiskDigger (windows)

DiskDigger is a utility for recovering deleted or formatted files from any storage media connected to your computer, including all types of memory cards, USB drives and internal or external hard drives. The program thoroughly searches the file system for traces of files as well as deleted files and allows you to preview many of them as they are found. You can limit the search to certain file types and also specify the sector range of the disk to scan.

Download DiskDigger

Download DiskDigger (665 KB)

EASEUS Deleted File Recovery (windows)

EASEUS Deleted File Recovery enables you to recover files that have been accidentally deleted, even after they have been emptied from the recycle bin or were deleted directly from another program. An easy to use 3-step wizard interface guides you through the process of selecting the drive to be scanned and lets you preview and select the files to be recovered. The program supports thumbnail previews for common image formats and hex or text previews for other data types. EASEUS Deleted File Recovery works with FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT 32 and NTFS file systems on your local hard drives, portable devices and memory cards.

Download EASEUS Deleted File Recovery

Download EASEUS Deleted File Recovery (5.91 MB)

ICE ECC Data Recovery (windows)

ICE ECC is a file verification and repair tool that enables you to protect your important files against digital corruption using Reed-Solomon codes. The program is not intended as a main backup solution, but rather as a backup for your backup – it can be included on CDs or DVDs before you store your data, allowing you to recover data that has become corrupt due to age of the media or scratches. You can protect selected files or entire folders by simply selecting them and having the program generate an ECC file. If you ever need to verify whether the data has been modified or corrupted, just select the appropriate .ECC file and load it into ICE ECC, which will then analyze the files and can recover any corrupted data.

Download ICE ECC

Download ICE ECC (685 KB)

Pandora Recovery (windows)

Pandora Recovery enables you to recover accidentally deleted files from NTFS formatted drives, even if they have been emptied from the recycle bin. The program offers a quick scan for recently deleted files and a more time consuming surface scan that attempts to find all deleted files. The scan results provide a detailed list of files that were found along with a preview of the file content and an estimated chance of recovery. You can also search for files based on their name, type, size and other criteria.

Download Pandora Recovery

Download Pandora Recovery (3.05 MB)

Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery (windows)

Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery is an easy to use data recovery tool for the recovery of accidentally delete image files on removable media disks (Compact Flash, SmartMedia, Memory Sticks etc.). The interface is very easy to use, just select the device that contains the images that need to be recovered and specify the folder to save the images to. Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery works with images that have been deleted or formatted by the camera. Supported formats are TIFF, Exif, JPEG and GIF. We tested it successfully with a freshly camera formatted 1GB Flash card and were able to recover all images.

Download Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery

Download Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery (597 KB)

PC Inspector Smart Recovery (windows)

PC Inspector Smart Recovery is a data recovery program for Flash Card, Smart Media, SONY Memory Stick, IBM Micro Drive, Multimedia Card, Secure Digital Card(SD) or any other data device for digital cameras. It enables you to recover accidentally deleted or formatted pictures, videos or sound files from the selected media. The program also offers a mode that enables you to check the media for errors.

Download PC Inspector Smart Recovery

Download PC Inspector Smart Recovery (5.34 MB)

If you ask me. Recuva is the best.

If you’re interested in running Skype on Ubuntu then follow these steps.

From the Ubuntu System menu select:
Administration –> Synaptic Package Manager

Inside Synaptic Package Manager select the Tools –> Repositories menu option. Make sure all the checkboxes are checked. Then close the Synaptic Package Manager.

Next you need to add the Medibuntu repository. Full details about this repository, including installation instructions, can be found on the Medibuntu home page.

To install Medibuntu you need to run a Terminal window session. From the Ubuntu Applications –> Accessories menu select Terminal

Assuming you’re running Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn you need to enter the following into a command window. If you’re using an earlier version of Ubuntu then refer to the Medibuntu home page for installation instructions.

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update

sudo aptitude install skype

That’s it!

Skype should now be available from the Applications –> Internet menu.

Wifi Radar is a free small utility for Linux which help you find wifi connections near you and give you option to automatically connect to network and overview signal strength. You can create new profiles and set connection priority if a network is inaccessible you’ll automatically be connected to other network you specified.

Wifi Radar’s interface is pretty simple and its very usable utility because nothing like this comes by default in Linux so for people using laptops and wifi this free piece of software is a must have.

How to Install:

Installing from source:

Download and untar the latest “Official Tarball” or do an anonymous checkout from SVN (See the “Download” box on the left).

Move into the wifi-radar source directory.

Type “sudo make install“.
(or “sudo make install sysconfdir=/etc/wifi-radar“)

2. Usage Instructions

To do a quick scan and connect to any available profile:

sudo wifi-radar -d

To show the UI and manage profiles:

sudo wifi-radar

Wifi Radar Official Page

At first I found it quite difficult to use Pidgin Internet Messenger on Ubuntu Linux. Even though it allows signing into MSN, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk, it still doesn’t give me the real feel of an instant messenger.

After a little research on the Internet, I was sad to find out that Microsoft does not provide a Linux version of MSN. But thanks to following two softwares you can enjoy MSN instant messaging on Linux just as you would on Windows.

KMess tops the list for me as its interface closely resembles to that of Windows Live Messenger. It features offline messages, Winks, Rich text chats, Emoticons and much more.

The other software that you can try is aMSN. It has all features of KMess and some other additional features such as Webcam support, Tabbed conversations and Voice Clips.

Otherwise you can always try installing original Windows Live Messenger using Wine on Linux. However there is no guarantee if this will work or not.

To install KMess and aMSN simply visit their respective websites or use the universe package repository in Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu.

Adobe Technologies released the Linux version of Adobe AIR some weeks ago which brings web applications and widgets to your desktop. Installing new applications on a Linux distribution is always a mystery for newbies so here is a guide that teaches you how to install Adobe AIR on Ubuntu.

1. Open the Terminal
2. Download the file from here using the wget command:
   http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/lin/download/1.5/AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
3. The name of the file is AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
4. Save the file in the Home folder (Places > Home Folder)
5. Run this command:
   chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
6. Now run this command:
   sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

The normal installer will open, install it. From now whenever you download a .air file, just double click it and it will be installed.

Linux Distro’s started Live-Cd’s which was a functioning Linux OS that could be booted into right from your CD, without the need for anything to be installed and without disturbing the base OS or boot loader.Now it’s the next level of portability of carrying your Ubuntu Linux Disto right in your USB Drive and start using it as any other portable application.

The major disadvantage of a LiveCD is that the data and settings cannot be saved and are lost when you shut down the OS, but with Portable Ubuntu all the data is saved in your USB Drive.

Portable Ubuntu for Windows is a Ubuntu system running as a Windows application, that’s built with the Colinux Kernel, Xming X server and Pulseaudio server for Windows.

How To Use Portable Ubuntu :

1. Download Portable Ubuntu and Extract its contents to a folder
2. Navigate to the same folder in dos (command prompt) as an administrator and enter “run_portable_ubuntu” and press enter “Enter”. or double click the “run_portable_ubuntu.bat” file in the same folder.
3. Now after a few seconds you will observe a menu with Applications, Places, and System.(See Image below), from which you can execute all possible functions that are possible from Ubuntu.The menu is the same you would find in Ubuntu on the desktop, on the top.

Check out this video, showing Portable Ubuntu in action.

Features :

1. No Installation.
2. Can run and store all settings/data right on your USB Drive.
3. All changes and settings are saved, so you can have fully working Unbutu on the move which would not be possible with a Live CD.
4. Can run Windows and Ubuntu simultaneously.
5. Access Windows files in Portable Ubuntu using the file browser from “Places” menu.
6. No need of virtualization tools like Virtual Box, or VMWare.

Note : The password for the Portable Ubuntu pubuntu user is 123456 which you would need for using sudo or gksu applications (Administrative/System tools).

To change the default password,

1. Open terminal and type “passwd” and change the default password.
2. To change root password type “sudo passwd root”.

I’ve shared many portable applications that could be carried in your USB drives,and Portable Ubuntu seems to be the best of them and also the largest in size.

The Download is around 439 MB and on extract can take upto 1.9 GB.

Download Portable Ubuntu

Check out the Documentation for more details on how to use.

Source : GHacks

Now here is the transformation pack to get Fedora Linux looks in Windows XP. This free transformation pack will transform your Windows user interface to a great new stlye. Never seen before icons or wallpaper for a Windows user are included in this shell pack.

It will freshen up your desktop with a great new look, including new themes, icons, wallpapers, screen-savers and much more. It will change number of elements of Windows, like:

• It changes icons for system drives, control panel icon, cd-rom drive.
• It changes almost all of your Control Panel applet icons.
• It also modifies the appearance of your Windows Live Messenger.
• The Turn Off Computer Screen is displayed in Fedora colors and shows the Fedora icon in the top-right corner

Screenshots:

Transform Windows XP into Fedora Linux style.

Windows XP to Linux Fedora Transformation Pack

Download Windows XP to Linux Fedora Transformation Pack

More Downloads

Windows XP to Linux Fedora Transformation Pack – Link 1
Windows XP to Linux Fedora Transformation Pack – Link 2

1. Feel of Japan

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

2. SudUbuntu

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

3. Vibrant

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

4. Gartoon Redux

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

5. Circle Starts

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

6. Meliae (White)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

7. Nostromo

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

8. Oxygen Refit

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

9. Jungle

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

10. Lynx (Black)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD