[fats_mat]

Basically my computer wont let access windows so I'm just going to reformat my hard drive. But here's the problem, I need to recover files and I only have a external usb hard drive to use as a data storage place. So I was told to use Gnoppix, Gnome 2.10 LiveCD, my computer starts up with that fine but I am unable to get into my hard drive, I have no linux experience so I don't know if that is what's needed or not.
Please someone let my know how to get into my hard drive with this live cd if it doesn't support that than can someone suggest on that does.

[CouchMaster]

When the Linux CD boots up it should auto mount the windows partition, provided that there is nothing wrong with the HD. If you can't see it on the desktop then you might have to find the Linux file manager and poke around in there. But it is there, and then you can burn what you want to a CDR. Its actually pretty cool to watch Linux do this!

[fats_mat]

So how do I get this Linux file manager?

[lotuseclat79]

Gnoppix, Gnome 2.10 LiveCD is an Ubuntu based Live CD to demo "an Ubuntu verseion of Gnome" to be specific.

As Ubuntu Fiesty (7.04) does not auto mount any drives you won't see any hard drives mounted. I am assuming that Gnoppix is based on Ubuntu Fiesty (7.04).

Issuing the mount command from a terminal window:
$ mount
should tell you what is mounted.

In order to discover the identity of the device for your Windows disk, issue:
$ sudo fdisk -l
You might see something like:
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9728 78140128+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

The NTFS is the giveaway that it is the Windows disk.

In order to access the Windows disk, issue the following two commands:
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/Win
$ sudo mount -v -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/Win

Note: if the device name on your computer is not /dev/sda1 as output from the fdisk -l command, then modify the above mount command accordingly.

That may only give you read only access to the Windows disk (ro) which should appear in the output of the mount command results using the -v parameter (verbose). DO NOT ATTEMPT TO WRITE TO THE WINDOWS DISK.

From there you need to do:
$ sudo pushd /mnt/Win
$ sudo ls

If you are going to recover your docs and want to copy them over to the external hard drive, that drive also needs to be mounted. Is it already formatted? If so, what format: Fat32, NTFS, Fat16? It might at least need to be formatted as Fat32.

To mount the external hard drive:
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/Extrn
$ sudo mount -v -t <filesytem type format> /dev/sdxx /mnt/Extrn

Then you can Move through the Win folders using an * for the space in a folder name, and issue a cp (copy command in Linux speak) from the Doc folder to the /mnt/Extrn mounted filesystem:

$ sudo cd /mnt/sda1/,,,
$ sudo cp -rp ./* /mnt/Extrn

The ... assumes you have located to the Doc folder by issuing several cd commands to get there after looking at the output of the ls command issued above just after the initial mount of the Windows disk.

The cp command will recursively copy all items and subfolds from the Doc folder to the mounted Extrn usb hard drive.

-- Tom

[fats_mat]

Originally Posted by lotuseclat79

In order to discover the identity of the device for your Windows disk, issue:
$ sudo fdisk -l
You might see something like:
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9728 78140128+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

The NTFS is the giveaway that it is the Windows disk.

When I type $ sudo fdisk -l all I get is >
What am I doing wrong?

[lotuseclat79]

Hi fats_mat,

Are you doing the sudo -fdisk -l command on a Linux system or a Windows?

Look at the Linux man page for fdisk by issuing the command:
$ man fdisk

The command: sudo fdisk -l (i.e. lower case L) Lists the partition tables for the specified devices and then exits. If no devices are given, those mentioned in /proc/partitions (if that exists) are used.

If you forgot the -l parameter, the fact that you are getting '>' (which is a prompt waiting for an internal fdisk command) seems likely.

Try again, but be advised, do not respond if you get the '>' by typing in an internal fdisk command. Kick out of the prompt level of fdisk with Ctrl-c (meaning hold down the Ctrl key and simultaneously press the 'c' key).

-- Tom