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

 

[GWilliamT]

Error Msg on boot from stick

Excellent tutorial.
Created the Mint Stick.
The 'dead' win7 booted, but seemed to stall for a while.
Then the Mint screen came up, but also this error msg: Unable to mount DATARECOVER. Adding ACL for UID 999 to '/media/mint' failed: Operation not support.

Attempting to access any drives results in the same msg.

What if anything do I need to do?

Thanks.

When I get through this battle to recover my data I think I will get educated in Linux. It returns me to simpler days, when OSs were a lot more direct, sometimes even elegant.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Did you try to install mint 17.2 along side of win-7 ?

 

[GWilliamT]

No. The stick is Mint14. Would Mint17.2 be a better choice? And would it be advisable to install it on the non-booting HD? I'm assuming I would need to create another stick or overwrite the Mint14 stick to do so.

The nature of the message makes me think there is a switch or setting that may solve this issue. Especially since the problem is also there when I boot my laptop from the stick. The msg seems to say Mint is not allowing the operation that would mount the drive.

I can see the drives (locations) but they are "not mounted."

-Gary

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Well 17.2 is the most recent release of mint mate
I have 17.1 personally

Trying to install along side might fix the boot loader because Linux will take it over if at all possible.
If not all that will happen is an error can not install...
50/50 chance

 

[GWilliamT]

I think I have resolved the problem, which appears to be that the /media/mint directory did not exist. So, in terminal, I created it, using an example I saw elsewhere, I don't know anything about Linux terminal command structure so I was going on faith. But the solution made sense to me. And I can now access the HD.
-Gary

 

[ThrashZone]

Very good post a link to the terminal stuff you used so if someone else runs into the issue

 

[GWilliamT]

Ok. The problem as per this error msg has been resolved (msg: "Unable to mount xxxx. Adding read ACL for UID 999 to '/media/mint' failed: Operation not supported".)

Problem the directory /media/mint did not exist. Created it in terminal:
sudo mkdir /media/mint
This resolved my original "unable to mount" problem.
But, subsequent events suggest there is another problem under that one - namely a damaged HD.

I discovered this after upgrading my boot stick to Mint 17.2. The version is probably not relevant to either issue, except that in 17.2 did had the needed directory without my intervention.

So, now I gotta find another way to retrieve my data, unless I can doctor that HD. Oh well. It's been one of those weeks. At least I got Linux out of it.

-Gary

 

[ThrashZone]

Possibly try and post here for this Linux recovery option
http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198909-lucid-puppy-way-recover-files-non-bootable-computer.html

The author is a little more available than here not sure where whs is :/

 

[Night Hawk]

I'm glad to see a guide like this was posted. Years back it would have been Knoppix Live for DVD or any other small live distro like ubuntu able to read Fat16, Fat32, NTFS volumes in order to rescue files from a machine that either went to the dinosaurs or some who the Windows installation got trashed and won't run while you need files from the drive "Now Please!".

What helps is having a good sized flash drive like the 128gb Kingston I carry on me with Linux Mint Debian Cinnamon flavor on the small second VFat partition since Windows will only see the first on any flash drive which is about 105gb roughly with LMD 17.2 on the smaller 13gb.

Did you know you can also fix boot problems when you can't reach the F8 option by booting live from a ubuntu cd? How To Fix A Corrupted Windows NTFS Filesystem With Ubuntu

 

[ICIT2LOL]

How To Fix A Corrupted Windows NTFS Filesystem With Ubuntu

Thanks for that have been looking for something similar as I have been using the bootable Ubuntu for pirising open dead drives for years now and found some undoable.

 

[maxseven]

I have used Puppy Linux for years to get-at hard drive files, mostly just to delete files that Windows refused to. I had never heard of an NTFS "repair" tool so thanks Night Hawk for that link.

Mint seems like it's meant more as a complete PC OS i.e. not for repairs of Windows per se but all options are welcome of course!

 

[Night Hawk]

Long before you even saw Linux Mint being a relatively more recent distro over the last several years to emerge you go back 10yrs. or so and Knoppix Live or ubuntu were the two open source live recovery options suggested. Knoppix is strictly live for disk or now it would be flash drive only since there was never any install to drive option. You could mount the iso however.

The big difference seen at this time of course is Linux Mint aimed more towards drawing Windows users with some 200 prepackaged options to download and install various Linux apps including media players over Knoppix a Debian release there, ubuntu live, Puppy, Slax, Mephis, Gentoo, etc. with the list going on and on.

Now the one time circumstance where any live data recovery tool could have been used here would have been the old Vista build replacing the even older XP case Vista was first run on which actually lasted through the beta and RC builds 7 saw and then saw the retail 7 go on that first! Both supply and board suddenly bellied up back in 2010 when the present case saw the hardwares upgraded from 4gb to 16gb, 500gb OS and storage drives to a pair of 1tb drives for both OS and storage.backup with all files tranferred over first to the initial pair of 1tb drives which were later replaced by the second pair of 1tb again seeing that pair replaced just recently with a pair of 2tb drives now almost full!

One of the 1tb drives had been seen access problems for some time and then 10 came along and the second OS drive which had Linux Mint Debian physically set up for a time with the rest of that drive holding system images until I ended storing more images for other people like an older Vista laptop seeing the drive go twice! Original and then a new one a month after a clean install of Vista went on. A pro data recovery service would have been needed to get family photos off of that drive!

Fortunately the one out of the two drives replaced on the main build here went into a second mini tower that only saw one drive originally until 10 came along. The other drive was used to backup a laptop that saw the upgrade there until the image was tranferred over to one of the new 2tb drives for safe keeping. That 1tb however was since scratched off!

What all this shows is that there will be those times when hardware not the OS turns out to be the culprit where a live recovery tool is simply not an option. The experienced user is much more aware of this reality and will keep in the mind the concept of frequent backups if not full system images just in case something goes "bump in the night"?! "all my data!"

And people still can't figure out why I stick to larger spinners over jumping on SSDs for the large capacity on the OS drive itself instead of spreading things to other drives. With everything on one drive you make an image and if the drive goes DOA you simply restore the image to a new drive! Plus everything is backed up to other drives and if one of those goes on you the files are still found on the main! And I still carry that 128gb flash drive with Linux Mint Debian 17.2 about to replaced with 17.3 "Rosa" just out!

Linux Mint 17.3 “Rosa” Cinnamon released!

This article was posted on: Fri, 04 Dec 2015 20:55:02 +0000
The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 17.3 “Rosa” Cinnamon Edition. Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa Cinnamon Edition Linux Mint 17.3 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2019. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable […]

Linux Mint Blog for anyone looking to keep the latest on.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I have used Puppy Linux for years to get-at hard drive files, mostly just to delete files that Windows refused to. I had never heard of an NTFS "repair" tool so thanks Night Hawk for that link.

Mint seems like it's meant more as a complete PC OS i.e. not for repairs of Windows per se but all options are welcome of course!

Yep max my little exercise with Ubuntu is simple and I used to use it on a lot of the older IDE drives if you like I can PM you with it.

 

[Night Hawk]

Well that's another thing right there. If you only have a 32gb flash drive you wouldn't want a larger distro but one as compact as possible such as ubuntu or another small one while Mephis and Gentoo aren't good candidates due to not reading MS type partitions well.

For LMDE 2(Linux Mint Debian Edition 17.2) I simply used the entire 24+gb for the distro until getting a buy on a pair of 128s where I could split those up to see a small Linux install on the back end keeping the 100+gb NTFS formatted for ready access on any Windows machine. The new look for ubuntu 15:10 didn't go over big here leaving ubuntu out for this. I'll also be looking at the 17.3 flavor on a new VM to measure size compared to the LMDE VM for 17.2 already seen to see which will work the best size wise. Under 64gb in size you will start wanting a small .... release rather then anything bloated up with options!

 

[maxseven]

I have used Puppy Linux for years to get-at hard drive files, mostly just to delete files that Windows refused to. I had never heard of an NTFS "repair" tool so thanks Night Hawk for that link.

Mint seems like it's meant more as a complete PC OS i.e. not for repairs of Windows per se but all options are welcome of course!

Yep max my little exercise with Ubuntu is simple and I used to use it on a lot of the older IDE drives if you like I can PM you with it.

I dunno what you mean--NTFS is NTFS so why "older IDE drives"?

I have DL'ed Ubuntu desktop 14.04.3 LTS after following the link from the "rescue" page Nighthawk referred to and will be interested to play with it. Do other Linux distros have this magic ntfs-3g command, or just Ubuntu?

I suppose I need to surf on it--it seems to me MS has historically held the details of NTFS held close to their chest so I wonder if that changed or if ntfs-3g is some sort of reverse-engineered tool perhaps.

 

[Night Hawk]

Actually I haven't had the occasion where I could check out the ubuntu option seen at the link there but saved the information in case an occasion came up just the same. Generally either entering the F8 boot menu if you can or booting live from the Windows media will suffice as far as the Startup Repair tool or using the command prompt option to fix a boot issue. If you just happened to trash the Window mbr with Grub you can use the bootrec commands as well as the "fixmbr".

As far as which distros are able to access NTFS volumes I generally keep Linux Mint Debian note Debian based edition of Linux Mint simply since that packs more options. Knoppix and older strictly live distro first seen on cd-r and later grew to require a blank dvd-r disk is an old time data recovery option. That's another Debian release there. Ubuntu is in it's own category as far as which Linux apps are compatible.

I didn't care much for Puppy Linux while also finding that Mephis and Gentoo a pair of the smallest ever distros wouldn't work! When Knoppix grew too large for a blank cd-r I started looking at other smaller distros and still ended up with Ubuntu until Linux Mint came along which packs the options most like! The prepackaged options for some 200app which include media players and something besides Firefox are one ot the main reasons while Knoppix stil Konquerer there.

As for the latest 15:10 ubuntu release the main bar is on the left side not bottom or top and you can hardly get at any actual menu as you would have. You may want to stay with the 14.04 LTS you have there while Linux Mint is often the more appealing for general use. Ubuntu was the Flavorite for most Windows users for years before they discovered Linux Mint due to the small size and ability to boot live. It's been known and recommended for some time as another live data recovery method as well as the blogs you may still find for Knoppix and maybe by this time Linux Mint as well.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Max my little ditty for Ubuntu if you are interested it is quick simple and small enoug to boot froma disk which I prefer.
BOOTABLE UBUNTU
Make a bootable Ubuntu disk Download Ubuntu Desktop | Download | Ubuntu
Set the BIOS to boot from the optical when the machine boots it will show you a screen with TRY or INSTALL > select TRY not INSTALL
When it is finished - it takes very little time you will get a screen like in the pic .
Open the drive you want > User and dig down until you get to the data / settings you may be able to copy / paste the material you want to an external source or other installed drive doing this.
I am not sure if it will get everything some I have found have encrypted stuff on but I have recovered tons of data etc using this method both on "dead" or just plain drives that you cannot get data from using Windows.

 

[maxseven]

Well my "easy" way of booting to .iso files using EasyBCD is not working on this compter for some reason, but I will try it the "normal" way another time, thanks.

 

[Berton]

I dunno what you mean--NTFS is NTFS so why "older IDE drives"?

Basically there's 2 types of IDE drives based on their connection to the motherboard, either the older PATA/Parallel ATA drive or the newer SATA/Serial ATA drive. The IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics which is the printed circuit board on the drive. Optical drives have the same type board but it's inside the case. What is IDE Interface? Webopedia

Both types support NTFS formatting or other types of formatting when used on Linux and Mac OS X, but not mixed on the same drive. Linux usually has no problem reading/writing NTFS-formatted or FAT32 drives [mine are Linux Mint 17.x], Mac OS X does work with FAT32 but has issues with NTFS [mine is OS X El Capitan 10.11.1], usually needs a third-party software.

 

[Night Hawk]

Well my "easy" way of booting to .iso files using EasyBCD is not working on this compter for some reason, but I will try it the "normal" way another time, thanks.

Create a VHD and attach that or simply run the distro on a VM and later see if that can be attached
when the OS is on the vhd there. For a period of time I actually ran the Debian flavor of Linux Mint on the second OS now Window 10 drive until first seeing one of the early builds on a VM while not getting to run 10 on a physical drive until July. Now any distro is either put on VM or on a flash drive.

I dunno what you mean--NTFS is NTFS so why "older IDE drives"?

Basically there's 2 types of IDE drives based on their connection to the motherboard, either the older PATA/Parallel ATA drive or the newer SATA/Serial ATA drive. The IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics which is the printed circuit board on the drive. Optical drives have the same type board but it's inside the case. What is IDE Interface? Webopedia

Both types support NTFS formatting or other types of formatting when used on Linux and Mac OS X, but not mixed on the same drive. Linux usually has no problem reading/writing NTFS-formatted or FAT32 drives [mine are Linux Mint 17.x], Mac OS X does work with FAT32 but has issues with NTFS [mine is OS X El Capitan 10.11.1], usually needs a third-party software.

Actually there are or should I say were more then two types of drives. Some of the earliest were only 20mb or so in size! The first on the desktop platform were 40pin not the standard 80pin seen at the present time. And then you also came into Sata I, ii, and 3 drives once Serial ATA was introduced.

Actually that was far more recent then past as far as anything Sata is concerned. And well before the 40pin drives for desktops you saw the earliest drives developed for server application for main frames going back to the late 1950s! A better reference would be WikiPedia's page found at Hard Disk