Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS

How to Create and Use a Linux Mint Mate USB Flash Drive to Recover your Files​

   Note

If you are in a hurry and don't want to read the whole saga, skip to point #2 and watch the videos. That will give you enough information to do the job.
The method proposed here is really extremely easy. Even someone with little computer experience should be able to deal with it.

   Information

I am now getting suggestions for additional use of Mint Mate on the USB flash drive. I will list those in random order as they come in. Feel free to make suggestions on the thread and I will include them.

• It is a very safe environment to operate on the internet. Malware infections are quasi impossible and should they really happen you can recreate the flash drive very easily.
• Very often it is difficult or impossible to delete files under Windows. With Mint Mate on the flash drive you have an easy tool to accomplish those deletions.

1. Introduction


A total OS crash is not uncommon and then the last resort is very often to reinstall the operating system. The users who made provisions for that case by separating their user data into a data partition, or making frequent images, can easily recover. However, there are many that did not take any precautions and are desperately trying to recover their user data which is sitting on the OS partition that is no more accessible.

The traditional advice is to salvage the data with a live Linux CD from Knoppix, Puppy, DSL or alike. That works fine if you are familiar with any of those programs or take the time to understand them. But they all have one thing in common - they are very Linux and somewhat alien for a Windows user.

One Linux distro which feels comfortable for a Windows user is Mint Mate. There is quasi no learning requirement because things work in a very similar way as they work in Windows. You can judge for yourself by watching the second video.

The emergency kit I propose consists of a persistent Mint Mate OS on a USB flash drive. That means that any setup or modification you make to Mint Mate on the flash drive will be preserved and you don't have to redo it the next time you boot from the flash drive. The setup of such a drive is extremely simple as you will see in the first video.



2. Preparation and Requirements

We will use Mint Mate 14 which is the latest version and can be download from here. The download will take some time because it is 966MB large. And if you want the latest Mint Mate 17, it can be downloaded from here. The characteristics are the same as for Mint Mate 14.

Note: I haven noticed that not all download sites give you the same edition. In fact the downloads from some sites don't work as described. I suggest you use the James Madison Univerity site because that one I know works correctly.

We will also download and save the Universal USB Installer from here. With this program we can create the Mint Mate flash drive very, very easily.

As last component we need an empty flash drive formatted in Fat32 of at least 2GB but bigger is better. I use a 16GB USB2 flash drive which works very well. A USB3 flash drive would be even better. My USB2 flash drive has a data transfer rate of 30MB/sec and an access time of 0.8ms as measured with HD Tune.



3. Installation of Mint Mate on the Flash Drive

I will explain the extremely easy installation process of Mint Mate with the Universal USB Installer in a short video. Depending on the speed of your USB flash drive, that should take between 10 and 20 minutes.






4. Recover files with the Mint Mate flash drive

Here again a short video is the easiest way to explain the recovery procedure. This video was taken with a program installed and running on the flash drive.

The Mint Mate on the flash drive is a fully operational operating system. Due to the persistent nature of the installation it can be setup, tuned, and tweaked like an operating system on a system disk and the settings will remain. I often use this Mint Mate flash drive to run a PC. It is a very safe and fast method to navigate on the internet. Another safe method is to run Mint Mate in a virtual partition.

In the next chapter you find tutorials that explain how to setup Mint Mate and how to install it in a virtual partition.





5. Setup of Mint Mate




These tutorials explain how to setup Mint Mate. The first 7 videos cover the following subjects

• Basic setup after installation
• Refining the Theme and Skin
• Start Menu and Taskbar settings
• Terminal window setup
• Installing and uninstalling Programs
• Screen Recording
• Screenshots and snips

In addition, there is a link to a PDF with the topic : Installation of Mint Mate in VMware Player. This section contains a written tutorial and three videos.

If you are interested in the subject, download the control sheet (a PDF) from my Skydrive

Related Tutorials

---

• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ate-live-cd-dvd-usb-use-emergency-backup.html
• How to Copy & Paste in Recovery Console on Windows 7 or Vista

 

[bawldiggle]

Thanks whs

 

[GokAy]

Is the part in red a typo? I guess it should be "Mint Mate 14 which is the version used in the tutorial"? As it is, causes brain melt , since it states the latest is Mint Mate 17 in the next sentence.

Another typo, should be "have".

2. Preparation and Requirements

We will use Mint Mate 14 which is the latest version and can be download from here. The download will take some time because it is 966MB large. And if you want the latest Mint Mate 17, it can be downloaded from here. The characteristics are the same as for Mint Mate 14.

Note: I haven noticed that not all download sites give you the same edition. In fact the downloads from some sites don't work as described. I suggest you use the James Madison Univerity site because that one I know works correctly.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yep 17.1 to be exact is the current version of mint
It's really pretty good
Try it
Zorin is closer to windows 7 though but not as powerful,
Zorin OS - Home

 

[GokAy]

All downloaded already, but haven't tried yet. I need to set the VirtualBox/VirtualPC whichever is better. I will go to the appropriate forums when that time comes.

I got this - zorin-os-9.1-core-64 - is this one a Live CD as well or need some special download?

 

[ThrashZone]

I don't know either will do Zorin would be great in a v-m
I believe the live disk/ flash drive one would be better as the mint 17.1 version it's more powerful so I've been told by whs the original

 

[bawldiggle]

Last week I finally installed Mint on an ancient Win-XP Acer laptop (1GB RAM, 2003 vintage).
- Dumped XP for Linux Mint OS only.
- my first OS install in my life. Was dead easy
- a bit slow to boot but I have only discovered it boots using the HDD by default, can be tweaked to speed up boot
- Acer was a horror machine with XP, so I suspect better hardware would be an improvement for Mint/Linux

Before that while Mint was on thumb-drive was very easy to access WinXP Windows Explorer and all files from Win-XP OS
- thumb drive is now a very handy tool if I have problems with other PCs.

 

[whs]

Mint 14 was the latest at the time when I wrote the tutorial originally. Currently it is Mint 17.1.

Zorin is a good alternative but has less function than Mint. On the other hand it is nearly complete out of the box and Windows users are not alienated.

 

[bawldiggle]

Mint 14 was the latest at the time when I wrote the tutorial originally. Currently it is Mint 17.1.

Zorin is a good alternative but has less function than Mint. On the other hand it is nearly complete out of the box and Windows users are not alienated.

Thanks Wolfgang for the update

I am still playing with Mint when time permits. The 12 year old Acer leaves a lot to be desired, but it is a good experimental machine while I learn.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yep I need to get off my duff and actually try Zorin soon
I was waiting to get my new system up and running and install it there in v-m since it's a pain on this system to do a v-m

If evga ever releases some new cards is what the hold up is now

 

[MDRI]

Good to see your piece. Thanks for providing this to forum. I have the situation. You can review my posted thread. My laptop is Lenovo Z580

Win 7: Black screen on boot up, before login screen?

I am looking your approach to backup my files. Here are some questions, I have . I need your guidance.

How do I able to backup OEM Hidden partition using Mint?

I have three(3) user logins in this laptop such as Admin, Local user1, Local user 2.

What are the additional steps required to preserve the data within these logins/users?

I have installed various tools/software in this laptop.

Will I able to restore (bring back) all installed items (Software/tools/Registry entries etc) during this process?

My HDD capacity is 750 GB. What kind of media to use for backing up my data using Mint?

Will Read/write CD work?

How do I restore back after setting to factory default?

How do I bring back all the windows 7 updates todate?


Thanks for helping.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
This is designed to transfer personal files only
Not programs....

A large flash drive can be used to copy and paste the personal files onto using Linux or another flash drive connected at the same time as running Linux recovery or even a external hdd enclosure,

Another option would be to remove the messed up hdd completely,
Put it in a hdd enclosure
Install a new or spare smaller hdd and install Linux on it,

Then connect the old hdd and recover your personal files that way.

I might add this is mainly for a dead operating system not a dead hdd
There is a large difference.

 

[Berton]

If the HDD is still readable I use a Linux LiveCD or LiveDVD made from a downloaded .iso file for the version of Linux, boot to it and copy files to a different drive. I usually use Linux Mint 16 or later but for some older Centrino computers have Linux Mint 13 to fall back to.

 

[MDRI]

Thanks for your suggestions.

This is designed to transfer personal files only
Not programs....

What are the options, I have to back up/restore installed programs/tools/Registry etc?

I do not have an external hdd enclosure. Do I able to use large flash drive for this?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Berton]

For my reply, I put a USB Thumb/Flash drive in the computer, put the DVD in the Optical drive and boot up. Might have to change the boot sequence in the BIOS or press a key such as F12, etc., to choose what to boot. Once loaded it's simple file management to copy from the HDD to the Thumb drive. I copy only those things the user created, things that exist nowhere else. But then I do this a couple times a week, working on one now.

 

[MDRI]

Thanks again. I understand.

What are the options, I have to back up/restore user installed programs/tools/Registry etc?

What did you do for these items , when you do back up/restore?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Well if the programs came in a zip folder you can copy and paste them but anything simply ran to install would have to be re-downloaded from where ever they got them

First you should see if you can even access the drive at all and see the personal files.

 

[MDRI]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I do have lot of installed software/tools for which I do not have KEYS to reinstall. These are not zip files (eg MS Office)

I have three(3) user logins in this laptop such as Admin, Local user1, Local user 2.

Are there any backup/restore software to pull/push user by user?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I personally don't see how to do that
Possibly ask a new question and some others might know how ?
I'd at the least see if the drive is actually accessible first
Good luck
Cheers.

 

[Layback Bear]

From post #76

I do have lot of installed software/tools for which I do not have KEYS to reinstall. These are not zip files (eg MS Office)

How can this be?
Why and how can one have a lot of programs and tools that need keys installed and yet not have the keys to activate them properly?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I do have lot of installed software/tools for which I do not have KEYS to reinstall. These are not zip files (eg MS Office)

Well all you need for any M$ keys is the Magic Jell Bean see this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/153626-product-key-number-windows-7-find-see.html it works because I have used it to reistall Pro 7 where the seller did not provide any media but I have the code and an ISO I saved from Heidoc.com they shut down