Accessing HDDs when using Live CDs

[Captainlegless]

G'day Linuxers........Pengiuns?

I'm looking at entering the world of Linux after my Win XP machine fell foul of yet another virus. As I have two machines on a wireless network, both with broadband internet access I have, (by using Knoppix 5.1), been able to access and back up data that I want to save from my XP machine before I decide to format the C: drive and install a new operating system.

I've downloaded the 'Live CD' versions of Ubuntu 8.10, Mandriva 2009, Freespire, openSUSE4.1, Mepis 7.9 (I already had Knoppix 5.1 and Ubuntu 7.04 lying around), all of which I burnt to CD.

My problem is that when I run the live CDs I can access my HDDs via any of the OSs other than Knoppix 5.1 or Ubuntu 7.04 (which I'm using at the moment. With some of them I can see the HDD but can't read from them. I can access my other machine via the wireless network and and read and write on that machines HDDs with no problems.

I would like to try out the various distros for a while before deciding on an installation to the HDD but obviously I can't do that fully if I can't access my data. I appreciate that one may not be able to write to a HDD whilst running a Live CD but surely there must be a way to read the contents of the HDDs and associated partitions?

Am I missing something obvious?

Please be gentle - like Windows, I break easily!!

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

You have to mount partitions first. Let say, you are using Ubuntu 7.04. Open Terminal and execute this

sudo fdisk -l

* Its small L in fdisk -l.
It will list partitions of all attached Harddisks.

Create folder for each partition and mount it using mount command.
Let say, partition is /dev/sda1 having NTFS filesystem.
Execute this

sudo mkdir /media/sda1
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g  /dev/sda1 /media/sda1 -o defaults,umask=0
ls /media/sda1

You will have full access in /media/sda1 folder ( /dev/sda1 partition ). Do the same for all other partitions.
Execute df -h command to check mounted partitions.

[Captainlegless]

Thanks for the promt reply Casper!

Can I assume that the 'fdisk' command is similar to that used in Windows DOS and if so by using it under Linux am I going to be doing any formatting of my drive or partition? Bear in mind that as yet I haven't decided which distro I will opt for nor decided on it's permanent location on a HDD.

Are the same commands applicable in all the previously mentioned Linux distros?

[devils casper]

fdisk command does the same thing as in Windows OS but -l option lists partition table only. Its safe to execute fdisk command with -l option.

sudo fdisk -l

Command is same for all Linux distros but you must have root privileges to execute fdisk command.
In ubuntu, its sudo fdisk -l and in other distros, execute this

su -
fdisk -l

sudo and su - are for gaining root privileges only.

[Captainlegless]

Thanks again Casper.

If my memory serves me correctly one of the distros did ask for a log in username and password during boot up. "Root" in that instance gave me access to the HDDs.

When I do decide on which distro I'm going to use I plan on setting up a dual boot system as I do still have to use some M$ programs. My intention is to use GRUB, is this a favourable choice?

[L4Linux]

GRUB is used by default by most (can't say all for sure) modern distributions. You can also try to run those applications inside Linux, using the program WINE. Or maybe an alternative exists. Which applications do you want to run?

[Captainlegless]

.....You can also try to run those applications inside Linux, using the program WINE. Or maybe an alternative exists. Which applications do you want to run?

Deamweaver, Paintshop Pro, some of the movie editing bits and pieces..just off the top of my head. Stuff I'm familiar with.

[devils casper]

I would suggest you to go for dual boot only and as L4Linux mentioned already, GRUB is default boot loader of most of distros.

[Bemk]

There is another, once often used, boot loader and it's called LILO (Linux Loader), it's an option too, but GRUB is used more common now, so there are more people able to support you.

I think it was thanks to Ozar and TechieMoe that I found this:
The table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux. (Official site of the table).
It's a list of Windows applications and their Linux alternatives. It might help you getting started quicker.

[Captainlegless]

I think it was thanks to Ozar and TechieMoe that I found this:
The table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux. (Official site of the table).
It's a list of Windows applications and their Linux alternatives. It might help you getting started quicker.

Thanks for that info Bemk.

I've done a bit of reading on the web about 'Virtual Machine' and wondered if that might be worth risking giving a go, I've no idea just how idiot friendly it is though.