using linux to recover files.

[K1ttenface]

A few days ago my windows xp was pillaged by a particularly bad virus which has left me unable to access teh files including every photo i've ever taken, a painstakingly assembled itunes library (a lot of which is form CDs i borrowed from people who have since moved away) and backups of a few rare pc games i've long lost the disks from. After asking advice from my cisco networking lecturer i was told that the best course of action was to boot in linux and extract teh data, re-format then put the data back on. I currently have the pc in question, my sister's windows xp (she is reluctant to let me use) a 4gb flash drive and an 80GB ipod and literally no knowlage on the subject. Could someone please point me in the right direction in my struggle.

[L4Linux]

• Download Ubuntu.
• Burn the iso in a cd.
• Boot your computer using the Live-cd. You may have to enter bios to make CD the first boot device.
• Select "Try Ubuntu without any changes to your system", DO NOT CHOOSE "INSTALL UBUNTU" at this point.
• The Ubuntu desktop will appear.
• Go to Places->Computer.
• Your hard disks should appear.
• Plug in a usb-stick or usb-hard disk. It will appear on the desktop.
• Now you just need to copy your files into the usb stick and then right click on the usb icon and press Unmount.
• Your files have been recovered! (To be absolutely sure, remove the and plug it again and see if the files appear in there;they are your precious data after all!)

Now you can format/reinstall Windows or better yet, click the install icon on the desktop to install Ubuntu that is far less likely to put you in a similar situation in the future!!


You can find the exact same post with screenshots here.

[K1ttenface]

thanks, downloading now, will report back after i try it.

[Lakshmipathi]

Also checkout testdisk and photorec,

TestDisk - CGSecurity
PhotoRec - CGSecurity

[*olga*]

I have a similar problem... I tried using a live cd (fedora 9 KDE and ubuntu 5.10 live cds to be exact) and i managed to recover virtually everything... My only problem is that none of the live cds seem to find the "My Music" folder which was ~50GBs... the space seems reserved and not free, i know it's there but i can't find it... it's the only folder i can't seem to find (does it's size matter?) ...

[K1ttenface]

when i start up ubuntu it goes to a login screen i leave it to login itself or just press enter and it goes to a desktop with icons saying "example" and "install" after a few seconds the screen goes black and reterns to teh login screen. What do i do? Edit: it instantly does this if i try adn right-click or drag either of the icons. Edit 2: Linux just dosn't like me. it now freezes on the "starting linux kernel" (or somthing similar) loading bar. just after booting

[K1ttenface]

ok, i got on using fedora, but got this error message. http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...666/screen.jpg Anyone know what it means?

[oz]

ok, i got on using fedora, but got this error message. http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...666/screen.jpg Anyone know what it means?

Not sure what's happening there but can tell you that KDE4 is quite buggy and unstable, and the version shown in the screenshot is an older version that is much less stable than the current version.

[K1ttenface]

Hmm, well could you send me a link to one you would recomend? This and ubuntu seem to have had issues on my pc.