Installing Ubuntu from a USB memory stick

Installing Ubuntu from a USB memory stick

This guide will help you install Ubuntu on your computer by using a USB memory stick. USB memory sticks are sometimes known as flash drives, memory pens or USB Mass Storage devices.

Installing from a memory stick is useful if you have a computer without a CD drive (like a netbook), or prefer the convenience of a memory stick. Alternative methods are available, like installing Ubuntu from inside Windows.

Here I'm going to explain on how to install a fully working linux specifically Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on USB Flash drive

Pro's of installing linux in a USB flash drive---

1. Linux is a great OS which can run on a variety of computers without the need of additional drivers unlike windows where you have to install drivers every time you install the OS. So you can say it's a very good OS having very good mobility. ( Now it is challenged by 'windows to go' feature of windows 8 .)

2. Linux requires very less hardware to run.

3. In linux, drivers do not conflict unlike windows so it's easy to use same linux installed on USB flash drive to work with different computer.

4. You can carry your personal and customized OS with you anywhere you want on a USB.

5. Various application can be installed on it like avast antivirus, Gparted etc.... which can rescue a broken system.

Con's of installing linux in a USB Flash drive--

1. As USB flash drives are slow than Hard Disks so the OS will run really slow. Mind it, it will be annoyingly slow.

2. Installing OS on USB may eat your USB Flash drive soon as Flash drives have limited write cycles.

3. Browsing may seem very slow as browsers waits to read cache from filesystem.Now as you have seen the pro's and con's now we will proceed on installing linux.If you have not downloaded ubuntu then download from www.ubuntu.orgAfter downloading burn the downloaded image on CD or DVD and boot from it.

You need at least 4 GB Flash Drive but 8 GB is recommended.

Here is step by step procedure-

1. Boot from live CD in ubuntu.

2. Insert the USB flash drive in USB Port.

3. On desktop double click on icon 'install ubuntu 12.04'

4. Click on continue and it will ask if you want to unmount the flash drive click on yes

5. Choose some thing else when ask to where to install ubuntu.

6. Next you will see your hard disk partitions and flash drive. Click on flash drive partition and then click on change. Change the partition type to ext4 and mount as to '/'. Click on ok to close the dialogue box.

7. In last you will see a drop down menu on where to install the the boot loader. Initially it will be showing sdc,sdd but on drop down you must select sdc1 or sdd1. Failing this step you may render your computer unbootable.

8. Then click on install and linux will be installed on your USB Flash drive. 

9. The installation will begin, and should take 10-20 minutes to complete. When it is finished, choose to restart the computer and then remove your memory stick. 
Ubuntu should start to load.

10. What if things go wrong?
I can't boot from USB even though I have USB Disk (or similar) as the first option in my boot list.
Sometimes the memory stick will not be recognized when you boot. Leave it plugged in for 30 seconds or so, then restart with it left plugged-in. Or, unplug the memory stick, restart the computer and then plug it in as soon as anything appears on the screen (i.e. as early in the boot process as possible).

Also, some BIOS options could interfere with USB booting. Go into the BIOS and try enabling or disabling options like Fast Boot, USB keyboard support and USB 2.0 support. Finally, make sure you haven't selected a USB-FDD or USB-ZIP boot option.

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How to protect your USB from getting infected

How to protect your USB from getting infected

Some users are lucky enough to have USB devices that have write protection switches, just like floppy drives had back in the good old days. They just need to pull the switch to write protect their devices.

Modern USB devices on the other hand do not ship with write protection switches anymore, which means that other solutions need to be discovered that work equally well.

What if you’d fill the storage on the USB device to the brim? That’s what USB Dummy Protect does. The idea is simple. You create a fake file that takes up all free space on the device. With no space left on the drive, viruses cannot write on it which means that they are blocked and cannot replicate.

There are some solutions/alternatives to that like:

- using a media disc (CD, DVD, etc...): of course it is safe but quite expensive if i need to update my tools.

- using a USB with write-protected switch: the simplest method, but a bit pricey especially if you already have many USBs.

the free solutions available are:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Security/Encrypting/Windows-Portable-Applications-Portable-USB-WriteProtector.shtml
https://sites.google.com/site/mbentefor/proj_usbdefender
http://securityxploded.com/windows-autorun-disable.php
http://www.mcshield.net/

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How to disable restrict USB Drive in Windows 7,8

How to disable restrict USB Drive in Windows 7,8 

How a USB drive can be disabled on a particular computer. So it's a pretty much Registry Tweak.
To disable the access to USB port, in windows XP, and Windows 7,Windows 8 :
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type regedit, and then click OK. (Or simply open registry)
3. Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
4. In the right pane, double-click Start.
5. In the Value data box, change its value to 4, which was 3 and then click OK.

To re-enable a disabled port:
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type regedit, and then click OK. (Or simply open registry)
3. Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
4. In the right pane, double-click Start.
5. In the Value data box, change its value to 3, which you changed to 4 to disable the USB drive and then click OK.

6. Quit Registry Editor.
Now whenever a user will attach a USB storage device which is already installed in system, Windows will not detect it and it'll not be shown in My Computer. However, disabling USB ports totally also disables the ability for Windows to use USB based keyboard, mouse, webcam, printer, scanner and etc., which are common devices for a computer nowadays and essential ones as well.

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How TO Prevent Your USB Devices From Getting Infected?

How TO Prevent Your USB Devices From Getting Infected?

Source: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Question: How can you protect USB devices like sticks or drives from being infected with computer viruses?
Some users are lucky enough to have USB devices that have write protection switches, just like floppy drives had back in the good old days. They just need to pull the switch to write protect their devices.

Modern USB devices on the other hand do not ship with write protection switches anymore, which means that other solutions need to be discovered that work equally well.

What if you’d fill the storage on the USB device to the brim? That’s what USB Dummy Protect does. The idea is simple. You create a fake file that takes up all free space on the device. With no space left on the drive, viruses cannot write on it which means that they are blocked and cannot replicate.

The software is fully portable and needs to be placed on the USB device. You can run the program on any computer system that runs the Windows operating system.

USB Dummy Protect detects the free size on the device directly after it has been started, and begins to write a dummy file of the same size to the drive. The file name is always dummy.file.

If you need space to store files on the drive, you need to remove the dummy file first, copy or move the new files to the drive, and run USB Dummy Protect again to fill the remaining free space again with a dummy file.

The protection is basic, and advanced viruses may be able to circumvent it, for instance by deleting files on the stick to free up space before writing to the stick.

Still, USB Dummy Protect is relatively comfortable to use, especially since it is always located on the USB drive so that it can be used to write a new file whenever that is necessary.

The software worked fine on a 64-bit Windows 7 Pro test system. The developer notes that it only works on USB devices of up to 4 Gigabytes if they use the FAT file system.

You can download USB Dummy Protect from the project homepage at Google Code. http://code.google.com/p/usbdummyprotect/
Softpedia:
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/UsbDummyProtect-Download-172266.html
USBDummyProtect is a freeware which does the same thing - Provides protection to your USB drive.

Once copied into your USB drive and  run the program, it fills up the remaining space in your drive. Suppose you have a 4 GB pen drive and you have a small file in it and you want to put your drive in a computer which you know is definitely affected by viruses.  You just run the USBDummyProtect and it will make a dummy file and consume all the remaining space in the drive.  Now, since the drive is full, no viruses can copy itself into it.  When you bring back your drive, you can again run the USBDummyProtect and it will clear the dummy file and make room for you.

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Installing Ubuntu on USB Flash Drive

Installing Ubuntu on USB Flash Drive

How to install a fully working linux specifically Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on USB Flash drive?.

Pro's of installing linux in a USB flash drive---

1. Linux is a great OS which can run on a variety of computers without the need of additional drivers unlike windows where you have to install drivers every time you install the OS. So you can say it's a very good OS having very good mobility. ( Now it is challenged by 'windows to go' feature of windows 8 which is going to be released very soon)

2. Linux requires very less hardware to run.

3. In linux, drivers do not conflict unlike windows so it's easy to use same linux installed on USB flash drive to work with different computer.

4. You can carry your personal and customized OS with you anywhere you want on a USB.

5. Various application can be installed on it like avast antivirus, Gparted etc.... which can rescue a broken system.

Con's of installing linux in a USB Flash drive--

1. As USB flash drives are slow than Hard Disks so the OS will run really slow. Mind it, it will be annoyingly slow.

2. Installing OS on USB may eat your USB Flash drive soon as Flash drives have limited write cycles.

3. Browsing may seem very slow as browsers waits to read cache from filesystem.

Now as you have seen the pro's and con's now we will proceed on installing linux.

If you have not downloaded ubuntu then download from www.ubuntu.org

After downloading burn the downloaded image on CD or DVD and boot from it.

You need at least 4 GB Flash Drive but 8 GB is recommended.

Here is step by step procedure-

1. Boot from live CD in ubuntu.

2. Insert the USB flash drive in USB Port.

3. On desktop double click on icon 'install ubuntu 12.04'

4. Click on continue and it will ask if you want to unmount the flash drive click on yes

5. Choose some thing else when ask to where to install ubuntu.

6. Next you will see your hard disk partitions and flash drive. Click on flash drive partition and then click on change. Change the partition type to ext4 and mount as to '/'. Click on ok to close the dialogue box.

7. In last you will see a drop down menu on where to install the the boot loader. Initially it will be showing sdc,sdd but on drop down you must select sdc1 or sdd1. Failing this step you may render your computer unbootable.

8. Then click on install and linux will be installed on your USB Flash drive.

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