PC Laptop - want to salvage files

[Merc]

X-ray wrote:
Well, I have the Knoppix ISO downloaded and I have burned it to CD. Now...I changed boot order in BIOS to CD first, and the CD boots and I get the Knoppix screen with 'Press enter to boot from CD'. There is quite a bit of CD activity after that but then nothing. Black screen. This happens on my XP desktop with 2gb of RAM, even if I select the option of load all to RAM. Tried the CD on the laptop: same deal. Black screen. I am looking for clues online and in the manual but so far I don't know what the problem is  :-?

I've had the same problem with the last couple of Knoppix versions on more than one machine...  maybe try an older version if you can find one.

[X-ray]

Okay I tried vga=normal and I was treated to a nice error message in the background: crc error.
Burned another CD, tried that, same result on both machines.
The frikken downloaded ISO must be corrupt...or am I thick?
Trying another one, I'll look for older version just in case.

[Trooper]

You could also try typing "failsafe" (without the quotes) at the boot: command prompt and see how you go.

Trooper

[X-ray]

The plot thickens. I downloaded another ISO image of Knoppix, version 3.8, from a different site. I burned that ISO and I have the same problem. CRC error during unpacking. I can't see why. I have used three different blank CDs (my last three in fact) for this and Nero has been quite reliable. I don't get it. If somebody can post a link to a known working download, I'd appreciate it. I'll get more blanks and try again tomorrow.
Any idea why else I could get crc errors like this?

Edit: @ Trooper

Failsafe doesn't help

[X-ray]

Excuse me while I plod along, but I am learning at the same time here...I used Quickpar and the MD5 file associated with the ISO that I downloaded, and it reports my downloaded ISO image as being 'good'. So either it isn't burned properly on CD or there is a problem with that version and my hardware. Can't find older versions than 3.8.1

[countzero]

ok, you don't need to use knoppix. there are other live linux distributions based on knoppix. try Feather Linux (light as feather) or Damn Small Linux. They just don't have the eyecandy X and office apps as knoppix does, but they will do what you need to do.

[AmigaEd]

I've found that I have better luck burning ISO images with Alcohol 120% instead of Nero. I don't know why this is, but it just is.

Also, I've had problems booting Knoppix on some machines and found instead that Dynebolic would do the trick.

Hope this helps.

-AmigaEd

[weirdami]

I hope I will be able to salvage the drive using my A4000 though. Hoping I formatted with FAT back then, fingers crossed.

I hadn't thought of doing that. Instead of looking for an undeleter program for a windows box, could I connect the hard drive (100+ gigs) to my Amiga and use Disksalv on it? I think it's formatted NTFS.

[odin]

Disksalv and NTFS or FFS? :inquisitive: I think not, Disksalv does FFS only. Even PFS or SFS are a no-no.

[weirdami]

Disksalv does FFS only.

I remember being able to do whatever kind you had a driver (probably wrong term) for. At least, if I had a Cross DOSed disk in (IBM type), it would show up on the list. And, I don't remember not being able to salv any particular type of format.

[odin]

Hmm, I'm starting to doubt now..

[X-ray]

@ Countzero

I tried Featherlinux (I have a few 150mb 8cm CDs that I usually use for my camera).
It works in that it loads and I could access the internet and use all the programs. That gives me a bit of confidence in my ISO burning process. However I can't access the Windows drives - is it possible that you aren't allowed to access them with Featherlinux?

@ Amiga Ed

When I have more full size blanks I will try dynebolic. I have downloaded the ISO and checked with the MD5 file, it is 100%.

[countzero]

it doesn't mount the windows partitions for you, so you have to mount them manually. first locate a suitable place to mount under /mnt (maybe there is /mnt/win if not you can make a /mnt/win with mkdir command). then use "mount windows-partition mount-location". your windows partition should be /dev/hdXY where X is the letter of your drive (a for master on primary ide channel, b for slave on primary ide channel, c for master on secondary ide channel, d for slave on secondary ide channel) and Y is the partition number. you can see the partitions on your drive with the cfdisk command (be carefully with it though) for example if you enter

Code: [Select]

cfdisk /dev/hda you'll see the partitions on your master drive, note the number of the windows partition, then use mount command to mount it

Code: [Select]

mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/win

just be careful when you quit cfdisk with the quit command, and not the write command, or you may change the partition table.

http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man8/mount.8.html

[jlariv8957]

Hi,

I think you should process this way:

1) Get an usb drive (hard disk or flash disk)
optional: have a big, strong cofee near you !!

2) download bart's pebuilder, link here:

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

3) Get an SP1 XP CD (no key needed)
4) Make a bootable ISO with PEBuilder, burn it on a CD
5) plug in your usb device
6) boot on the PEbuilder CD
7) Recover your data !

one other way:

2) plug in your usb drive
3) boot on XP CD
4) select "repair" then select "recovery console" (some words may not be the exact ones: i translate it from french)
5) You'll have a sort of dos prompt
6) recover your data
warn: this is a "sort" of dos prompt, not exactly a dos, very sensible with wildcards (*.*,??)

and now you can pray !!, good luck !

[orange]

I'd forget about connecting it to Amiga, it would be much better to connect it to winxp and use some uneraser (there are tons of them but almost none are free, 'Restoration' is the free one but notsogood) of course, be very carefull not to write anything on it.

[InTheSand]

Hi,

A few others to look at are -

RIP Linux (RIP = recovery is possible) - has support for NTFS, FAT, FAT32, etc: http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip

SystemRescueCD - also has support for NTFS and FAT, as well as USB drives: http://www.sysresccd.org

BG-Rescue Linux (only 2Mb!) - minimal Linux system with useful tools: http://omnibus.uni-freiburg.de/~giannone/rescue/current


Although SystemRescueCD is old, I'd be inclined to use this to start with as you can boot from the CD, plug in a USB key/drive, then use the included "PartImage" to make a copy of the hard drive partition where you can then transfer it elsewhere to attempt data recovery.

Given you've stated that the laptop now boots into part of Windows 98's setup, that means the drive is now FAT or FAT32, so if the drive has accidentally been reformatted from NTFS, the free tools may not be able to salvage anything...


As Orange states above, I'd also avoid anything at this stage that makes any changes to the hard drive's configuration or data content.


It might also be worth taking a look at commercial data recovery applications (e.g. http://diskinternals.com/ntfs-recovery) but I don't know how successful these are.


Ultimately, and depending on the value of the data / photos, etc, you will probably be able to send the drive off to a data recovery specialist but expect to pay lots if you do.


Good luck!

 - Ali