newbe needs help

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: newbe needs help
started by: bryanw20

Posted by bryanw20 on Dec. 06 2003,11:21

Ok, 1st I'm completly new to any linux product, last one I saw was like RH or something in like 98-99, no GUI's then.

Ok, long story, I'll try to be quick. My win2k notebook crased and I can't use anything I know to access the HD. the file winnt/sys32/config/system is missing or corrupt. I can't repair win, can't reinstall, I get messages to the effect my HD is toast.

So I boot to dos, run ntfsdos and I can see all my files, so I believe win install is lying to me.

So that leads to DSL. I finally remember about other OS's and thought, maybe, just maybe i can either A) boot to linux, write to the ntfs drive fixing the corrupt file and maybe have windows boot again. or B) use the built in nic in notebook, linux and transfer my data to a network drive.

So far A seems nearly inpossible as I can not find a write access program for any OS w/o paying like $300 (data not worth that much) so that leaves B. I finally after several hours on dialup got DSL, burned the iso and viola I have a DSL screen. with much searching this forum & google I have been able to learn much. DSL is surfing the web, I've been able to mount the HD and read it, but I have not yet figured out how to move data from the bad HD to a good one. Can anyone suggest how I might be able to do so?

I think I gathered from one post I may need Samba something or other to access a windows network drive. If so, what do I d/l, how do I install it, esp if I'm running DSL off CD.

I'm real good so far in typing in commands I see on screen, but havn't really learned linux "dos" yet so I may need real good step by step instructions. While I maybe consided a computer neard by friends/family, I have not ventured into the linux field, and this I come to you all. I'm hoping I'll be able to accomplish my task, rescue data, restore HD with CD, and maybe even keep a copy of DSL around to learn on!

Sorry so long,
Bryan

Posted by skaos on Dec. 06 2003,16:05

If DSL comes with an NTFS module (i.e. driver) you probably should be able to mount (i.e. access) the w2k partition. First find out which partition w2k is on with 'fdisk -l' (logged in as root). This probably shows something like /dev/hda1. Then make a mount directory with 'mkdir /mnt/hdaX' (replace hdaX with the output put from fdisk), load the ntfs module: 'modprobe ntfs'. And last, mount the partition: 'mount -t ntfs -o ro /dev/hdaX /mnt/hdaX'. I'm not quite sure about the last command, but the point is to mount it as read only as ntfs support isn't 100% stable.

If this doesn't work, you could try knoppix (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html) which should mount the partitions automatically.

Posted by bryanw20 on Dec. 06 2003,17:30

Thanks, but as far as I can tell, I've been able to mount -t ntfs and read the harddisk locally. I can browse around the hard drive within linux. So I'm getting somewhere. The problem is I need to get the HD data off the laptop onto another HD on my local network (win 2k's & win Xp's). In dos I can ping the linux box from windows, and vice versa. I assume there has to be a way to do this as I hear linux boxes make great servers.

Thanks for any info
Bryan

Posted by roberts on Dec. 06 2003,18:33

Let see, you can mount the win2k partition and read the files and now you want to copy some files to another win2k machine. Now to do this without Samba and from liveCD... You can search the forum for a very good post from Bill about using ssh and putty. In a nutshell ...

1. Add putty and pscp to the win machine that you want to copy to.
2. On boot up from DSL, mount your bad win2k partition.
3. Change root password (sudo su, sudo passwd )
4. Start ssh (on 0.5 it is on the menu)
5. Now from the good win machine open a shell window, msdos or cmd.exe and run pscp to copy over the files

C:\pscp root@ip_of_dsl_machine:/path_to_file .

Good Luck

Posted by cbagger01 on Dec. 06 2003,18:45

DSL is not the right choice if you want to off-load your NTFS files over the network over to a Windows computer because Windows network support isn't included on the disk. You should use KNOPPIX for that.

I know of 4 ways to get your files from your Windows partition:

(1) Remove your hard drive and install it into another Windows 2000/XP computer. It will appear as another drive (for example "D:" drive) Then copy your files over.

(2) If you have a USB flash "pen drive" or a digital camera, you can boot under DSL or KNOPPIX and copy the files into the pen drive or the digital camera. Then attach the pen drive/camera to a Windows computer and copy the files on to the new computer's hard drive.

(3) If the damaged computer has a CR-RW drive, then you can boot under KNOPPIX and burn the files to a CD-R disk using the supplied CD burning software that comes with KNOPPIX.

(4) Use KNOPPIX to boot to the network and use the built-in smb client (Windows network drive sharing) to copy the files over the network to another Windows computer.

Good Luck.

Posted by bryanw20 on Dec. 07 2003,20:16

Thanks, I did get DSL & another program fron a unenet post WinSCP (I'll post a link when I find it) wich is a gui based pscp type program. It connects from a win machine to the linux box using SSH. Been transfering files, and they appear to be just fine.

WinSCP2 < http://winscp.sourceforge.net/eng/ >

Of course sticking drive into another machie is easiest, but until I ordered and received a 2.5" to 3.5" (2-3 days atleast) adapter I'd still be waiting, while I can now begin restoreing the hardrive.

Thanks for the help. I may even attempt a dual boot notbook, DSL & win2k.

Bryan

Posted by charliet on Dec. 10 2003,05:34

cbagger01, (or anyone else who might know,)

Do you know of any way (under Knoppix or other distro) to write files to an NTFS partition? Assume that the administrator password has already been changed or nulled out with a pw tool.

Charlie T.

Posted by John on Dec. 10 2003,08:44

check out:
< http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/ >