[lotuseclat79]

Always issue the copy command with the -p parameter to preserve permissions and ownership.

If you issue: cp -p /mnt/sda1/Tootsie
you forgot the destination directory

The syntax of the copy command is: cp [params] [source files or dir] [destination directory]

Yes, its getting late, so I'll pick up the thoughts I have tonight in the AM.

-- Tom

[lotuseclat79]

Note: Issuing the cd command without any parameters gets you back to the home directory for the account. So, from the root account with th # prompt, if you are located at the My Pictures folder and want to go up a directory the
parameter to give is ".." without the quotes, as in:
# cd ..

Assuming the following, i.e. both drives are mounted under Ubuntu Live CD:
Please verify that the external hard drive is writable when the mount command
is given - I assume it is mounted by a mount command? Isn't it? Or, is it just
plugged in and automatically detected by the Live CD Ubuntu environment?

1) usb device name = /dev/sda1; mount dir = /mnt/sda1 (fat 32 formatted)
2) WinXP device name = /dev/hda2; mount dir = /mnt/hda2 (ntfs formatted)

The following example is to ascertain whether a file can be written to the usb
device and read afterwards:
$ sudo -i
# cd /mnt/hda2/Document*/My*Pictures
# ls -lt

(choose one file, e.g. assume it is named birthday.jpg for this example, i.e.
choose any file you want and substitute its real name for birthday.jpg)
# cp -p birthday.jpg /mnt/sda1/Tootsie/
# pushd /mnt/sda1/Tootsie
#ls -lt

Did the copy work or not, i.e. did the ls -lt command list the file?

If that did not work, try the following (substituting the real file name again):
# popd
# dd if=birthday.jpg of=/mnt/sda1/Tootsie/birthday.jpg
# pushd
# ls -lt

Did that work, if necessary to try?

If it did work, it gives you a mechanism to copy one file at a time if there
are only a handful of files instead of multiple 10s or 100s.

If at this point we are not able to write to the usb external drive formatted
as a fat32 disk, then if I am not mistaken, there is a set of msdos tools -
mtools - that can be used to write to an msdos formatted disk from Linux.
We would have to import them into the Live CD environment (in one session)
using the Synaptic Package Manager (i.e. be connected to the Internet) and
then use them to write to the external drive. Its been a while since I have
used them, so I would need to import them myself and test them initially, but
they just might do the job if we need them (I hope they do at any rate).

-- Tom

P.S. While you do this stuff, I'll be taking a break for lunch and then updating my Live CD environment with mtools to give them a tryout.

[lotuseclat79]

I found out that Linux can read/write to FAT32 partitions, so you should be able to accomplish either using the cp -rp <source file|dir> <destination dir> or the dd command to the external drive - so, no need for mtools or dd command variant.

Let us know how things are going that you try.

-- Tom

[saikee]

I really can't believe how long this thread has dragged on.

Can the OP download the current version of Slax and burn it into a CD?

This distro automatically mounts every NTFS partition with ntfs-3g and allows you to log in as root to the desktop. Copying XP files out is just a simple drag and drop in the desktop.

Absolutely nothing is needed to be done and you don't even need to see a text terminal! Just drag files from one ntfs partition to another one.

[ljbirns]

lotuseclat79

Had a long day on other stuff. Ok I followed your very clear instruction and I CAN copy
a file from hda2 ( NTFS ) to sda1 ( FAT). My biggest problem now seems to be that the files I think I need are in hda2/Documents and Settings/Mary Lou Birns. ls (list) gives input / output error Also I cannot find a listing for the MY DOCUMENTS directory whichi is where I would think the majority of the files she wants would have been.

How can I READ or look at the contents of a file ?

Thanks
Lew

saikee
Tried to burn SLAX as you suggested,( although the external is now FAT32.) from
http://www.slax.org/download.php. download was ok but niether ImageBurn
( which I used to burn the Ubuntu ) or Nero made me a good live CD. Tried it twice.

[saikee]

Files not belonging to a user that doesn't own them are not shown in UBuntu desktop. That is the price you pay to use Ubuntu.

In root terminal you can see and use these files because as root you are the equivalent admin.

There you can see them by

"ls /media/hda2/Document\ and\ Settings/Username/My\ documents"

You can use the tab key to get you there because of there are a lot of spaces which need "\" in the terminal command.

Basically you type "ls /media" first to see all the choices inside /media directory.

You then hit the "upward direction" key to reproduce the last terminal command and add "hda2" to make the next command

"ls /media/hda2/"

You then repeat the same process but only add "docu" to make the command

"ls /media/hda2/docu" and hit the tab key. Bash will try to present to you choices available to continue with the command. Therefore you never need to type the full line because a space in bash shell has its own meaning.

I can see your problem can disappear if you either clone the whole disk or copy the whole partition. In the latter case it is just

 cp -R /media/hda2/* /media/sda1/

Do adjust the device names as reported in your own circumstance.

[ljbirns]

Hi Tom
saikee
Ok I got the files copied to the external and my win XP can read them.

There are apparently quite a number of files that are either corupted or missing from my wifes HD ( her E-Mail files in Thunderbird, her Pictures etc ) I believe the entire " My Documents " directory is gone or unreadable since I cannot find it anywhere.
Strangely Thunderbird resides in ( in Windows) Documents and Settings/Application Data
and it does not show up. Actually the Directory /mnt/hda2/Documents and Settings/Mary Lou Birns returns an Input/Output error when I try ls. That is where I believe the files should be.
However I did salvage what I could thanks to your time and efforts and I thank you very much. And I learned a bit about Linux and I am going to play with it and learn some more.

Without your help I would have gotten nowhere. Thanks for putting up with my lack of knowledge.

Lew