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How do I find C:\ drive files in Puppy Linux?


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#1
dwarf_of_ignorance

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I'm currently using a burned Puppy Linux CD to boot my desktop PC after Windows XP stopped booting, in order to retreive whatever data I can from my hard drive. However, I can't work out how to access my Windows C:\ drive files through Puppy.

I can see the NTFS partition in the GParted Partition Manager, although it doesn't seem able to read it. There is also no option that I can see to mount the drive.

Am I missing something or does this mean the disk is too corrupted to read? If the latter, are there any free data recovery programmes I could use in Puppy to rescue whatever data I can?
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#2
silverbeard

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Click on menu and go to file system. Launch Pmount. You should see an option for your hard drive (hda or sda).
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#3
dwarf_of_ignorance

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Right, this time I can see it, but when I try to mount the drive, I get an error message saying unable to mount sda2.

What can I do to access it or rescue any data still on it?
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#4
silverbeard

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More than likely when Windows crashed it marked the drive for a check disk. This will cause an error when trying to mount the drive with Linux.

Since you can't boot into Windows here are some options:

1. If you have a Windows XP install disk, boot the disk and enter "recovery console" and run chkdsk on the drive.
2. If you have a Windows XP install disk and access to another XP machine you can use Bart's PE Builder to make a bootable CD that will allow you to work inside a Windows environment to recover your data.
3. You can try to force the partition to mount. Most of the systems I use you force a mount point from command line as /root with the command "ntfs3g /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2 -o force" (no quotes). Looking through Puppy's file system this should work. If not most distros will give you the command to run to force the mount. THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS!!! DATA CORRUPTION IS POSSIBLE. I've not had any problems forcing mounts but Your Mileage May Vary.
4. Use a different distro. SystemRescueCD is set up for this purpose.
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#5
dwarf_of_ignorance

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Ok I've burned SystemRescueCD and have run it.

I've tried to mount the drive using the command "ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows" as suggested on the opening screen, but I get the following error message:

ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error
Failed to read $AttrDef, unexpected length (-1 != 2560).
Failed to mount '/dev/sda2': Input/output error
NTFS is either consistent, or you have hardware faults, or you have SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot into Windows TWICE. The usage of the /f parameter is very important! If you have SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware then first you must activate it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g. /dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation for details.

I have no idea what any of this means, but since my hardware is running Puppy and SystemRescueCD ok, I think it's an NTFS problem.

I've now created a BartPE CD and am running that. I have opened the file manager, but it seems unable to read drive C:\. What should be my next step if I want to recover my saved hard drive files? Is there any data recovery software I should download, or should I run check disk?

Edited by dwarf_of_ignorance, 27 December 2008 - 04:39 PM.

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#6
silverbeard

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I would run check disk and see if that repairs the problem. Even if your windows isn't bootable you might be able to read the drive.
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#7
dwarf_of_ignorance

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Ok, I've tried that, but the C drive has two partitions - a FAT 32 file system (around 2 GB), which I think was created as a recovery boot disk, and an NTFS partition (112 GB), which I believe is where all my data is. When I run check disk, it only seems to check the FAT 32 partition, as that one is for some reason designated drive C. Should I delete that partition to allow check disk to check the NTFS partition?

Edited by dwarf_of_ignorance, 28 December 2008 - 06:58 AM.

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#8
silverbeard

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Try "chkdsk D:\ /f"
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#9
dwarf_of_ignorance

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It didn't work first time, but I assigned a new drive letter (F) to that partition in DiskPart, and check disk has now run and I can view the contents of drive F (my former C drive) through the file manager.

Now my issue is that, even though I can see all my folders and files in the file manager and can actually open individual files, when I try to copy them it says that it cannot read from the source file or disk. Is there anything I can do to copy these files? Can I create a disk snapshot in Bart PE to restore the disk?

Edited by dwarf_of_ignorance, 30 December 2008 - 06:10 AM.

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#10
Troy

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The hard drive itself may be failing... What make/model is it?
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#11
dwarf_of_ignorance

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It's a Maxtor. Not sure of the model, but it doesn't matter now.

The problem, I believe, is now sorted as best it can be. Parts of the drive are unreadable, but I burned a BartPE boot disk, used DiskPart to delete the FAT32 boot partition that had been marked as drive C, assigned a new drive letter to the NTFS partition containing all my data, and am now running Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier in BartPE. From what I can tell, it seems to be copying most of my files successfully, with only minimal corruption.

When it's all copied I'll try to reformat the drive and reinstall Windows if the drive isn't dead, but I suspect it probably is.
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#12
Troy

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Maxtor are owned by Seagate now...

Head to the Seagate webpage and download the SeaTools set of diagnostics. Burn yourself a bootable CD hard drive diagnostic, and run a check on it.

Cheers

Troy
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#13
Kansasman

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I know it's an old post, but was there a resolution to this? I have the same problem and am starting to work through it. TIA
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