LiveCD

What is LiveCD?

A Live CD is a CD-Rom or a DVD-Rom with an operating system that can be executed from a bootable cd-rom or dvd-rom drive, without having to be installed in a hard drive. The system can return to its previous operating system when the computer is rebooted without the LiveCD.

Its Uniqueness:

Files that would typically install onto the hard drive of the computer are loaded into system RAM and as such simply rebooting the computer will return it to its previous state. These traits make the use of a LiveCD a great idea for anyone needing to use a public computer terminal. Loading an operating system from the CD will allow a user to take advantage of the computers resources, including network access and access to disk drives, but will not load the OS or any applications that are installed on the computer’s hard drive.

Security Perspective:

It is important in terms of security as it helps remove the virus, drive images and recover the dying system when OS of hard disk is at stake. Moreover it is very handy in test driving for a new OS.

Drawback:

It reduces the RAM available for the other applications and apart from that, the operating system runs at a slower rate because it is not executed from the hard disk drive.This is the drawback of the live CD.

Different Types of Live CD’s:

Knoppix

Knoppix is one of the first Linux live CDs that were available. It is a Debain based distribution is packed with open-source goodness. One of the most popular uses of the Knoppix is recovering files from damaged drives. Knoppix contain open source applications for testing disk integrity, recovering files, reading corrupted drives and many more. There are a total of 2,000 programs packed into the disc covering everything from disc recovery to media playback.

Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows

The Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows uses your Windows installation discs (only Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are officially supported) to create a bootable version of Windows contained on a disc. Tons of quality Windows-based tools are included in the custom disc covering everything from backing up and cloning your discs to running diagnostics to partitioning and recovering data. It contains many built in tools such as CCleaner, Ultra VNC, Recuva etc.It is best for the people who use windows.

Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux belongs to the family of ultra small Linux distributions. The size of the operating system is less than 100MB and it can easily be loaded on everything from a CD to a USB drive. The user interface is friendly even for a non-Linux user, and the basic tools you need for partitioning and file recovery are readily available. Although it's just as great for web browsing and basic computing. Puppy Linux also has a rather handy feature: If you burn it to a re-writable CD, you can save your user settings for your next session.

BackTrack

BackTrack is a Live CD which is designed to facilitate penetration testing of computers and networks. BackTrack is a powerful tool which leaves no corner of the computer and network security un-poked,scanned,prodded and analyzed. Backtrack is packed with 300 tools covering everything from packet sniffing to hot spot probing to brute force password attacks. It is best for the network users.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu's enormous popularity as the mainstream Linux distribution certainly helps bolster its rank among live CDs. Many a new user to Ubuntu has messed around with the operating system using a live CD before using that very same live CD to install the full operating system. Even if you don't intend to do a full install, just like Puppy Linux you can do all manner of computing tasks without leaving a trace on the computer you're using. The Ubuntu live CD comes packed with Open Office, Firefox, Pidgin, the Bit Torrent client Transmission, and the open source image editor GIMP—a decent stable of tools for using Ubuntu as a portable computing platform.