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

 

[Kari]

Could you please make a screenshot, at least I have some difficulties to understand you now.

If you are setting up (installing) Linux Mint, select a username, select and confirm a password and you are done. If Mint is already installed, use the username and password given when Mint was was installed.

 

[Layback Bear]

I must of missed something about passwords when I install Mint on a stick. I will just do a fresh install on the stick and make sure I do things correctly. I will get back with you in a little while.

 

[whs]

If you did the installation with the Universal USB Installer, there should not be any user name or password. The username is mint (per default) and I have never seen a password request with this way of installing. Try this way. This is how I installed on 3 sticks and an SSD and they all run without user name and password.

 

[Kari]

If you did the installation with the Universal USB Installer, there should not be any user name or password. The username is mint (per default) and I have never seen a password request with this way of installing. Try this way. This is how I installed on 3 sticks and an SSD and they all run without user name and password.

Ah OK, I stand corrected! Never done it so, always only a clean install on a PC or vm.

Never too old to learn something new. Thanks Wolfgang.

 

[Layback Bear]

I did it that way 3 times now. It keep asking for a password and then goes back to a black screen several times after a while.
I do not get this.

 

[whs]

I am very sorry Jack. But now I am lost myself. I just booted with the newest system from my 60GB SSD that I created just a few hours ago and it went like on rails.

I wanted to make a small video for you, but for that I have to first get Plop working with VMware Player so that I can make a video recording from my host system. But that is a bigger job.

Did you format the stick in Fat32 before you installed.

 

[Layback Bear]

I hooked it up to my other computer and it loaded and showed this.

[ 20.630278] EXT2-fs (loop1): error: ext2_lookup: deleted inode referenced 163707
[ 20.630301] ext2-fs (loop1): error: ext2_lookup: deleted inode referenced 163707
Welcome to Linux Mint 14 Nadia (GNU/Linux 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64)

Welcome to Linux Mint
*Documentation: http:/www.linuxmint.com
mint@mint ~ $ (blinking cursor)

Yes I did format eFAT 32.

I did download and install Mint using a computer with UEFI Bios.
I will try it on the other computer with NON UEFI Bios.

@Kari: Once I'm in mint I have no way of making a screen shot that I know of.

I will be back.

 

[Layback Bear]

Whs I did notice form here Mint Mate is 16 1.2 gb instead of 14 968 mb when doing this Try this way.I will continue.
I will try Mint 16 1.2 gb.

 

[whs]

Yah, the older tutorial is on 14 and the last one on 16. Maybe you should try 16. I think there is a problem with the iso. Get this one - and get it from the James Madison University.

Linux Mint 16 "Petra" - MATE (64-bit) - Linux Mint

 

[Layback Bear]

That is what I'm downloading now from James Madison University. 45 minutes to go.
I got over half a day in Mint 14 from James Madison University and I can't get it to work on either computers. One with old style bois and one with the new UEFI bios.

 

[bawldiggle]

I am a behind with keeping up with posts (email notifications are lagging)
The string between the two tins must be wet or not tight enough.

Looks like Linux Mint 16 "Petra" - MATE (64-bit) - Linux Mint is the way to go.

I have never dabbled (or fiddled) in BIOS.
Do I have to make changes in BIOS to start/boot Mint-Mate (from a thumb drive) ?

 

[Layback Bear]

If you want to boot from something other than the drive Windows 7 is on you have to use in most cases the F8 key and select what you want to boot from and on one of my computers I have to go into bios and change boot order.
It varies from bios to bios. Try the F8 key first.

 

[Layback Bear]

Okay I get the picture like in post #44.
I will continue with the tutorial. Try this way.

 

[whs]

I am really sorry Jack. I have no clue what happened there. This never happened to me and I muck with it quite a bit. Maybe the 16 version will be kinder to you. I wait for a success report, LOL.

I just had a disappointing experience too. I wanted to run the stick or the SSD in VMwarePlayer with Plop. Got quite far - the thing started to boot but then nothing.

This is really only a fun project that serves nothing. The only advantage it could be that I would be able to video the boot process from my host system. I will try again another day. Maybe I overlooked something.

 

[Layback Bear]

I'm into Mint Mate 16 now on my other computer. Just look through things.
What are some good programs to download into it.
I did check for updates already and set the time and date also screen resolution for my 40 in. screen.

 

[whs]

Well that's good. The programs you install with the Software Manager - under System in the left pane of the Menu. Just type the name into the software manager search. Btw - the software manager takes a moment to come up - that's normal. These are the programs I recommend:

Bleachbit - that's like CCleaner. But do not run the (as root) version. And do not check the boxes where you get a warning.

Shutter - a very nice screen snipping program. There is a tutorial in my set

RecordMyDesktop - (one word) is an excellent screen recorder - there is also a tutorial

Gparted - that is the disk management program

Chromium - as second browser. I also have Opera

Addl Themes - that will give you much better options for the looks. See my tutorial for details. The command in Terminal is apt install mate-themes - very easy.

Avidemux - I use that for video editing. But maybe you are not into that.

 

[bawldiggle]

If you want to boot from something other than the drive Windows 7 is on you have to use in most cases the F8 key and select what you want to boot from and on one of my computers I have to go into bios and change boot order.
It varies from bios to bios. Try the F8 key first.

So I would have to access BIOS every time I use the Mint-Mate thumb drive ?
But leave Win7 as the default rather than changing the settings permanently to the thumb drive ?
Currently experimenting with one Toshiba Laptop, but ultimately it will be any number of PCs and laptops

I am very new to this BIOS "stuff". Any suggestions on some reading ?

 

[whs]

You can set the BIOS to boot all the time first from USB. As long as no USB bootable device is plugged in, it will still default to the disk.

 

[bawldiggle]

whs

You can set the BIOS to boot all the time first from USB. As long as no USB bootable device is plugged in, it will still default to the disk.

So a data thumb drive would not sabotage a Windows C: boot if BIOS is set to boot a USB bootable device first ?
Sometimes I forget to remove external data drives before shutting the PC down.
I don't like to pull drives after shut down I have one external drive that gets cantankerous if I do.

 

[whs]

There is really no danger at all booting from a flash drive. And when you are done you properly shutdown the Mint system from the start menu.

When the flash drive is not plugged in, it will boot normally - if you permanently set it to boot from USB. And your wacky flash drive is good for the bin.