A LiveCD is a bootable CD that provides a fully functional operating system with no need for installation.
The best known as a LiveCD (as opposed to being the most popular with a LiveCD available) is Knoppix.
Most of the popular Linux distributions these days have a LiveCD portion, including Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, and even Gentoo. The most popular known specifically for LiveCD functionality is probably Knoppix.
Yes. All desktop editions of Ubuntu have a LiveCD edition. It is the default and recommended method of installing Ubuntu.
The image downloaded from Ubuntu's website is already a LiveCD. If you want guides on how to customize it, or to create one from an installed system, refer to the links below.
The following are designed primarily or entirely to function as LiveCD distributions: * Knoppix * Damn Small Linux * Feather Linux * Slax * Archie The following have a LiveCD component, but were designed more for installation to a hard drive: * Ubuntu (and derivatives like Kubuntu and Xubuntu) * Freespire * PCLinuxOS * Fedora * Mandriva * Pardus
ndiswrapper is not included by default in the LiveCD, but it is available from the repositories.
Use a boot disc or a Linux LiveCD such as Knoppix
Yes. This is the preferred and most common method for installing Ubuntu.
No. A L:iveCD will not even touch the hard drive unless you tell it to.
It is a LiveCD version of Fedora 8 intended to run on i686 (Pentium Pro and higher) processors.
You will need to make a bootable USB stick. The Ubuntu LiveCD should include a tool to do this.
Supposing that the hard drive is unmounted, you can just install and run gparted or qtparted. If the hard drive is your main hard drive (ie. you cannot unmount it), download a Linux LiveCD, burn it, place it in your drive and restart your computer. Boot from the LiveCD and then run gparted or qtparted. Caution: BE VERY CAREFUL YOU COULD, BY ACCIDENT, DELETE ALL YOUR DATA