trying to get my data with knoppix

[jr312]

Hello,

I have no clue if I am posting in the write place please forgive me but I have no clue about anything Linux. I am using something call DSLinux right now because my PC will not boot from HDD. I run Window tinyXP SP3 and am running this DSLinux from the tinyxp boot disc. Thank god I have that or else I wouldn't even know where to start.

Can someone please tell me if there is anyway I can figure out what happened to my HDD??? Also are there tools in this DSLinux OS to try to access my C: drive? Again, please forgive my ignorance; I swear I bought a removable HD last night to start backing up my data and this just happened this morning!!! I really need to know if there is anyway I can salvage my data or do I need to format... or even worse, buy a new HDD.

Apologies for probably posting in the wrong place and thanks to anyone willing to help me out. Aready just from this tiny linux boot I am thinking I might make the switch from Windows!!

[bigtomrodney]

Glad you're enjoying DSL, it's a nice trimmed down distro. Simple and to the point

The first thing I'm thinking is that your system is trying to boot from your new drive. It's only a theory but I figure I better check with you before we start diagnosing: Have you had your new drive plugged in since this problem started? That is did your system stop booting when you plugged in the removable drive?

I'm going to move this thread to a more suitable area.

[jr312]

hey Bigtom!

Thanks a million for replying and moving the thread over to where it should be. The new removeable HD is not plugged in... in fact even if it were it probably would not matter... whole reason i bought it was I was suspecting a big problem because for about a month my pc does not recognize anything plugged into the USB nor does it read CDs or DVDs. It must be a software issue because it reads boot discs.

I also ran some disc scanners that were on that boot disc and they all recognized my HD and gave it 100% health. I really hope I can get at my files and then format windows off my pc once and for all.

If you could pleas guide me through how to see if DSLinux can access my hd that would be awesome! I found a step by step for something called knoppix which I thought was the same as this but it looks different so I'm lost.

Thanks a milion!

[bigtomrodney]

Well unfortunately with DSL you'll need to do it the long way. Any other modern distros would generally do this automatically. Can you open a terminal and run the following command. Post the details back

fdisk -l
cat /etc/fstab

That's a lowercase L after fdisk

[jr312]

ok well since i can't figure out copy and paste i guess i'll be typing it in...


---------------------
dsl@box:~$ fdisk -l
Cannot open /dev/hda
dsl@box:~$ f disk - l
BusyBox v1.2.2 (2006.12.07-15:23+0000_ multi-call binary

Usage: fdisk [-luv] [-C CYLINDERS] [-H HEADS] [-S SECTORS] [-b SSZ] DISK

dsl@box:~$ cat /etc/fstab
/proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/sys /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
/dev/pts /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/auto/floppy auto user,noauto,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/auto/cdrom auto user,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1/ auto noauto,users,exec 0 0
-------------------

hope you got all that... and yes i guess the first command didn't work so I put a space after the dash and before the L... really hope that's not a bad sign...

[MikeTbob]

That didn't look good, try prefacing the command with sudo, and bigtomrodney had it right, no space between the - and l

sudo fdisk -l

And in case you didn't know, it appears that some drive is already mounted.

# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1/ auto noauto,users,exec 0 0

Open a file browser and direct it to /mnt/hda1, let's see what's there.

[jayd512]

dsl@box:~$ f disk - l

Do like Mike said and preface it with sudo, and I see a space in there... do this

sudo fdisk -l

But also open up the file manager and check out the contents of /mnt/hda1

[jr312]

Thanks guys,

ok so sudo fdisk -l produced

disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 9732 78172258+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

this sounds promising right???


i opened what i can't only assume to be a file manager called emeIFM and tried to get to those places but they all cam up empty... i think. That's can't be good.

Thanks again guys! Really hope we can figure this out!

JR

[MikeTbob]

Yes this is very good, I think the reason you can't view the directories is because they are NTFS and you might not have NTFS support.
Are you using Knoppix? Which version?
Do you have a working network connection?

[jr312]

I am loving the optimism!!! Ok, I running Damn Small Linux v4.3 off my cd rom. So I have been reading up on it and it says it has some elements of Knoppix but it is different from all the Knoppix screenshots i've seen. I do have an internet connection using DSLinux.

If it would be easier or better for me to get Knoppix and work from that I guess i could look into that but that means i'd need to find another pc with a burner... a bit of hassle as I am an international student on exchange... but i could swing it.

Just to let you guys know my entire situation. this is an AMD based laptop, unforunately with USB 1.1 (NO 2!). I bought a WD 250GB passport a couple days ago. before my HD crashed, windows was simply dying; video drivers had uninstalled themselves without being able to reinstall, CD/DVD drive was not reading, Itunes recognized a good ipod as corrupted and would format (I have been without music on my ipod for weeks!), all usb functionality is very iffy, my system has been running very hot and not too speedy.

I used a PCIMIA to USB 2.0 card... which might be the root of all this trouble as it needs a bunch of drivers and is listed as 3 different components plugged in at once.

Thanks for all the helps fellas!!!

JR