YUMI:  USB Multiboot Creator

YUMI: USB Multiboot Creator (source:  pendrivelinux.com)

I don’t know what YUMI stands for, but one thing for sure this tool is the greatest tool created for us mere computer mortals.  Note that YUMI is a from Pendrivelinux.com, and it is FREE.

With YUMI you can take a simple USB flash drive and turn it into your portable boot-able operating system of your choice.

Personally, I find this tool perfect for recovering a  forgotten local administrative password on a computer, or for recovering data from a boot drive where the operating system is no longer boot-able.

To use it, you need a Windows XP/Vista/7 computer to download and run the YUMI utility.  You then need to build a multiboot USB flash drive using it by specifying the drive letter where the flash drive is.

In building the multiboot USB flash drive, you will need at least one ISO image of whatever it is you want to boot to.  Say for example you have a Trinity Rescue Kit ISO image, and you want to use that to help you recover data from a non-boot-able computer (maybe because OS is corrupted).  When you run YUMI, you will need to specify an ISO image, like below:

Selecting a Distrbution ISO Image in YUMI

Selecting a distribution ISO Image in YUMI

If you don’t yet have the ISO image, you can check the option “Opted to Download the iso.”  After the ISO image is downloaded, you can go to the CREATE phase.  Also, before creating, make sure you have the correct USB device selected.

That is pretty much it.

 

One of the worst things that can happen to you is to lose a flash drive.  The one thing that can is even worst than that is if teh flash drive has confidential information.

Enter TrueCrypt!

TrueCrypt is an encryption product that will allow you to create a secure file which you can access like a drive (e.g. drive G:, M:, or whatever you choose it to be).  In order to mount it like a drive you need to supply a passphrase–which you setup when you build a TrueCrypt file volume.

If you save the TrueCrypt file on a USB flash drive and access it like a drive, you can store your confidential files there.

If you ever lose this flash drive, no one can access the confidential data you have in the TrueCrypt file because they are encrypted.  That solves your problem.  The only thing you need to make sure you do now is make backups of your data so you can recover them should you lose your flash drive; and you won’t have to worry about others seeing your confidential files!