Falstaff

Hello ! I´m a linux newbie and have the following problem:
I am running a Windows XP system with a 160 Gb HDD, a primary partition and an extended partition. A few weeks ago the HDD stopped working and started making 'funny noises' (not really that funny, however). I was not able to start Windows, and installing the HDD into another Windows System showed the Harddisk working only sporadically, giving only short glimpses on my valuable data (including digital images from my newborn daughter whose backup I had planned for next week...)

Upon a hint from a friend I used the knoppix CD, and lo and behold! I was able to access the hard disk again. Every now and then the hdd produced 'funny noises' again, especially when I try to access certain files, but I was able to recover most of my important files from the primary partition (including all but five of the images of my baby daughter ). It was a real drag to burn them to DVD in a system with only one CD-ROM, but even this worked after a while (which isn`t too bad for a linux newbie, I guess ).

What I have not been able to figure out is how to mount the extended partition which contains also some rather important data. Every time I try to mount hdd5 I get the "wrong fs type, bad option or bad superblock" error message. Partimage doesn´t work either. I am still working under the assumption that the real hardware error is in the primary partition. So the question is:

- Am I missing something ? Do I have to do something special to mount an ntfs extended partition (as opposed to a primary partition) ?
- Or is the extended partition completely shot ? Can I try to repair the partition table ? Can I 'force mount' ntfs somehow using fdisk data ?
- Is there an easy-to-use method to read the raw data from the ntfs partition (on the Knoppix CD) ? (Short of dd which I don´t really know how to work with and also poses the problem of a 120 GB partition trying to copy towards a 120 GB HDD which is the only one currently available to me.)

I have searched the web for ntfs data recovery software, but I don´t even know how to install it under the Knoppix environment. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you (for even reading until this point )

dylunio

I don't think you can mount extended partitions (since they are not data storeing partitions, they only give space for logical partitions), so the best advice I can give is to mount with the logical partition, try /dev/hda6?

Also try as tell the fs type with replaceing {name} with the mountpoint name.

dylunio

__________________
Registered Linux User #371543!
Get force-get May The Source Be With You
/dev/null
/dev/null2

Falstaff

dylunio: thanks for the prompt reply !

Rereading my earlier post I realize that I didn´t express myself correctly: hdd5 is the (single) logical partition, hdd2 is the extended partition containing hdd5. I tried mounting both (including -t ntfs) to no avail.

Does that mean the partition is shot ? If yes, any suggestions ?

dylunio

Falstaff, it does seem that that partition is shot, you might want to run a disk fitness check if this is true, check out this, this will create a floppy diskette which you boot up from and then run the test program (be warned, the same program can be used to wipe a drive, but you are warned many times before it does so).

I'm not sure about any other advice I can give you,

dylunio

__________________
Registered Linux User #371543!
Get force-get May The Source Be With You
/dev/null
/dev/null2

changlinn

I don't think his partition is shot, I can mount drives where the actual head has crashed onto the disc, that doesn't mean I can read it, the error your getting sounds like an error in the mount command...

Falstaff

Well, thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

I do indeed think my partition is shot: I tried running dd_rescue on hdd5 and it stopped after approx. 1 GB, showing the usual symptoms: clicking hdd, not responsible to any command. Trying to start dd_rescue at several later position gave a picture of unreadable blocks (and crashing hdd) every 2-3 GB or so. At first I had planned to reconstruct an image file of the disk, filling the crashed sectors with zeroes - but after seeing this pattern I just gave up.

I'm happy having been able to recover most of my important files from the primary partition thanks to the Knoppix CD (although the secondary partition contained my precious collection of 'Allo 'Allo Series 5 & 6 ) I have sent for a replacement under warranty (Samsung at least gives 3 years manufacturers warranty even if their HDD are c**p) and so am well out of it...

tom_j

Might be a little late now, but make sure your logged in as root by using the su command. Might sound silly but I sometimes forget to switch to root.