[lotuseclat79]

Saikee must have read my mind - uh, no he didn't, but I was having 2nd thoughts while I was away just now and thinking the same thing as he mentioned.

Saikee is correct. However, I can tell you that when I mounted my unbootable WinXP Pro SP2 disk onto my Linux Fedora Core 3 ext3 file system, I was able to read my WinXP disk and copy every file of interest onto my Linux ext3 HD, saving every file but one that was in a protected folder that was not readable anyway. It was no longer important, so that is what I have done to save my WinXP data, and it still resides just where I put it to this day. I do go back and reference some documents, but not all that often anymore - not that I won't get back to it at some point, but that is where it stands today.

I would suggest that the crucial issue is to not only get the data off, but get the data back onto the WinXP disk when it is rebuilt.

That said, I think if the external HD is at least the same size as the WinXP HD, then the dd command is the way to go provided you know the data you want to save - i.e. you still do not have to do a full sector by sector clone as the above dd command Saikee has shown in his msg. For example, you only want the data - not the broken WinXP OS. So, you need to identify the folders on the WinXP laptop HD that you want to save.

When the WinXP disk is either rebuilt or reinstalled with an OEM disk, then is when the data will need to be copied back to the WinXP HD in the laptop.

Ok, so it looks like Saikee recommended to reformat the external HD as FAT32, and write the data to it then.

-- Tom

[ljbirns]

Tom

It appears that USBDISK ( /dev/sda1) is not rw. If I look at permissions it says read only.
BTW unmount said no such command so I rebooted.
Screenshots 999 of mounting

screenshot Fdisk is the fdisk

I could re format the external to FAT 32 if we need to.

Lew

[saikee]

My post #15 does not require any formatting. Cloning a hard disk by dd will always work if the target is the same size or just larger.

The USB hard disk is read-only because Ubuntu does not shipped ntfs-3g with the Live CD!!!!!!!

Cloning the hard disk is a better way because it is done at a hardware level when the filing system is not involved. dd just copies the "1" and "0" of the hard disk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You cannot get anything simpler and more reliable than this.

dd is better because if there is corruption in the filing system the copying command with break down whereas at the hard ware level dd will stop only when part of the hard disk is not readable and that has to be in a pretty bad condition.

dd is faster and more reliable than files copying.

[lotuseclat79]

Hi ljbirns,

Have you looked at the folders in the WinXP laptop HD and decided whether or not to get a subfolder of importand documents only or something else? Where are the important files you need to save - i.e. full path name on the WinXP drive in the laptop from C:\?

If you cd to that folder (assuming only one) in the Ubuntu environment from the mount point, then you can issue the command:
$ sudo du -s to find out how large in 1k blocks the folder's contents are.

-- Tom

P.S. Any command I have give with $ sudo can also be done as root by first doing the sudo -i command to become the root user, and then the prompt is #.

[ljbirns]

Tom
Saiklee

Ok I tried the clone dd if=/devhda of=/dev/sda bs=32768

it took about 22-25 minutes. Said it copied 2678851 bytes BUT when I looked at the the External drive it was completely full and unreadable > same as yesterday.

So I reformatted it to FAT 32. Permissions are now R W.
I have mounted hda2 as before and I did a ls and show the directories and the files as before. HOWEVER, if I click on that drive 18.6GB in Places > Computer I get a BLANK GUI and at the lower left corner it says 0 items 18.6 Gb free spacei

From terminal root@ubuntu:/mnt/hda2# ls I got as before:

802Money Backup.mbf I386 * Program Files*
AUTOEXEC.BAT IO.SYS RECYCLER*
AVG7QT.DAT MSDOS.SYS System Volume Information*
BOOT.INI Money Backup.mbf VolStp.log
BOOTSECT.DOS Money.mny WINDOWS*
CONFIG.SYS My Money Backup 0.mbf aolconnfix.exe
DELL * My Money.mny aolconnfix.txt
DELL.SDR My Music * hiberfil.sys
DRIVERS * NTDETECT.COM hph7350.log
Documents and Settings* NTLDR pagefile.sys
Food Pantry Holiday List * Palm *
The * asterik notes that those items are in BLUE
I cannot cd to Documents and Settings or any other of the listings

What do you suggest next.? If I ever get to Ricky Dr I'll buy you a beer.

I copied a screenshot from Ubuntu to the 80GB External just to see if I could. Then I plugged d the 80 GB external into my windows machine. Suddenly it is an 18.5 GB drive. The screenshot is there but that is all. The clone must have done something to it since the source drive ( hda2 ) is an 18.6 drive., but there is nothing on it.

I am now very confused. Have anice evening. I'm going to bed.

Lew

Lew

[saikee]

I don't think the cloning has failed . It may be the way you looked at it.

When you started the cloning operation the Bios has a record of the the partition details of hda and sda. It is obvious to me that there are at least 2 partitions in hda as your XP is in hda2.

The external disk is less clear but it cannot have the same 2 partitions in exactly the same positions.

Upon the completion of the cloning process the operating system may have changed sda to have exactly the same partition table as hda but the Bios may not know that and could be still working to the old partition table before the cloning. Therefore to usea newly cloned disk the system must be rebooted first.

Does this make sense to you?

For all we know you could be just looking at the previously mounted partition held possibly in the swap. That information could be before the disk was cloned.

[lotuseclat79]

When you say you cannot cd to Documents and Settings - how are you trying to do that?

Have you tried to do: cd Documents* in the Live CD Ubuntu environment?

It should work.

Also, by doing the dd command the way you did it, you'll notice that you got a lot of system files that are not of interest to you in saving your files of interest.

Have you determined yet what files you want to save, for example:
Everything under Documents and Settings/My Documents

The way you would cd to that folder before issuing the dd or copy commands would be to do: cd Documents*/My*

Give it a try to see if it works.

Also, what Saikee probably meant in how you looked at the drive was that since you used the graphical interface (by clicking on the drive icon) instead of using the command line terminal window interface - you were foiled by using the graphical interface. Stick to the terminal window command line interface to look at things when doing these procedures.

-- Tom

[ljbirns]

Good afternoon

Screenshot.png = mounting of /mnt/hda2 which is the Xp corupt HD we are trying to salvage files off of. I would like Documents and Settings, Food Pantry List if possible

Screenshot 1.png = Places > Computer. The 18.6 GB Volume usbdisk is the EXTERNAL
HD previously 74.6 GB now after the clone shown as 18.6. If I attach this drive to my good Win XP it shows total of 18.6 empty with only a screenshot file
which I took last night off the Ubuntu. Wife's bad XP drive ( /dev/hda2 ) does not show up
but it must be there if I can mount it and list it.

Screenshot 2.png is the Dell Utility ( see desktop shot ) opened by graphical interface double click in the Ubuntu file browser. All files in this can be opened. This Dell Utility is from wife's bad XP HD and now resides on the EXTERNAL HD

Ignore USB DISK 28X that is a thumb drive I use to transfer the screenshots to my computer to send to you

Needless to say I am confused .

saiklee
You may be correct because the drive has changed. But HOW do I look at it
I have re booted with the external drive plugged in. It mounts but nothing shows
anything. It shows as empty except for the one file I wrote to it.

Tom

I tried to cd to Documents*/My* Documents* Document and Settings
none worked.

Lew

Ok 2:15 PM

root@ubuntu: /mnt/hda2# cd I386 AND IT CAME UP (screenshot I 386 )
So if I can do that it would seem to me that the other directories and files are readable.
I tried cd Documents and Settings but I get; bash: cd Documents : No such file or directory.

Lew

[lotuseclat79]

Hi Lew,

From the root account (i.e. from ubuntu account issue sudo -i)
# cd /mnt/hda1 (which should position you at the C:\ folder if you then do an ls command to verify that)
# cd Document*
# cd My*

The problem with the way you tried previously is that you included the space character, which in my examples above will probably get you to the My Documents folder.

In other words go one folder at a time and verify with an ls command to see its contents to make sure that is where you are for current working directory/folder on the corrupt WinXP disk.

Let me know if that works.

Do not use the graphical user interface, i.e. do everything with the command line terminal window.

-- Tom

[ljbirns]

Ok !

CD Documents* got me to> root@ubuntu:/mnt/hda2/Documents and Settings#
LS then gives; All Users Default User Local Service Mary Lou Birns Network Service Owner
Owner.log

next cd My* gets to My Documents which has > My Music and My Pictures
next cd My* gets to My Music Then ls gets her music. How would I get to My Pictures
since MY is My ?
Now comes the test can we copy to the external ?

Thanks

Lew

[lotuseclat79]

Hi Lew,

Great!

Ok, now to get to My Pictures from My Documents issue the following command:
# cd My*Pictures
and as you might be able to guess, in order to get to My Music:
# cd My*Music

Yes, regarding the external's ability to receive copied data via Linux from WinXP.

As I understand it you have reformatted the external HD as fat32 - is that correct?

One thing I wanted to mention about the previous use of the copy (i.e. cp) command in Linux is that it should be given with the -p parameter also to preserve the original user and permissions on the file(s). So, the command would be after locating to My*Pictures, for example:

cp -rp ./* <receiving directory Lew on the external drive> or
you could try from the Documents folder:
cp -rp ./* <receiving directory Lew on the external drive>
in order to copy recursively both the My Music and My Pictures folders and contents with owner and permissions (original).

If that works and you are able to reconnect the external drive to your working laptop and read them - then you are all set.

If that does not work, we are not done by a long shot at saving your files, so don't despair.

-- Tom

[ljbirns]

Hi Tom

Believe me no despair here. Two quickies:

You said: in post 24
From the root account (i.e. from ubuntu account issue sudo -i)
# cd /mnt/hda1 (which should position you at the C:\ folder if you then do an ls command to verify that)
# cd Document*
# cd My*

Did you mean hda1 or should it be hda2 ?

How do I go BACK a directory ? eg I am in >
root@ubuntu:/mnt/hda2/Documents and Settings/Owner/Desktop
and I want to go BACK to Owner ?

Lew

[lotuseclat79]

Hi Lew,

Looks like it should be /mnt/hda2 according to post#25, sorry about that.

To get back a directory or folder you simply do:
# cd ..
which will take you up a directory/folder from your current location.

The Owner can be gotten to under Documents and Settings, so go there and:
# cd Owner
# ls

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

How many files do you need to get off of the WinXP drive? Can you determine their size in total?

Try issuing the command: free -k and list the output here for the amount of free space in your RAM.

Try creating a directory in RAM: $ mkdir /home/ubuntu/Desktop/Lew
Try copying one of the files you plan to save from the WinXP drive into the new Lew directory in RAM.
# cd <to Owner or My Pictures on WinXP drive>
# cp -p <file> /home/ubunut/Desktop/Lew
# cd /home/ubuntu/Desktop/Lew
# ls -lt

Is the file the same size? What kind of file is it? A .jpg file? See if you can load it into Firefox by using File>Open File and go to the Desktop/Lew directory and click on the file. Did it display ok?

Now, try to copy the file to the external drive's Lew directory from the Lew directory in RAM, then cd to the Lew directory on the external drive and try the ls -lt command. Did it work?

-- Tom

[ljbirns]

Hi Tom
I created the directory in RAM. then>
root@ubuntu:/mnt/hda2/Documents and Settings/All Users/Documents# ls
AOL Downloads DESKTOP.INI My Music My Pictures testfile

root@ubuntu:/mnt/hda2/Documents and Settings/All Users/Documents# cp -p testfile /home/ubuntu/Desktop/luigi
TESTFILE was COPIED sucessfully to luigi
Then I did an image file copied but they are locked, I think, because I copied them while in ROOT ???

Can't seem to save to the External HD. I mounted it tried this:>
root@ubuntu:/mnt/hda2/Food Pantry Holiday List# cp -p /mnt/sda1/Tootsie
Where Tootsie is a folder on sda1 (which is external HD)
i got this :
cp: missing destination file operand after `/mnt/sda1/Tootsie'

But I see PROGRESS although strangley I have been unable to find the files
my wife really wants.
I must have mis understood how to go back ONE directory When i do CD
i go right to the root.

Thanks for everything
Have a good night tomorrow is another day.

Lew