Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS

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  1. Posts : 880
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit
       #90

    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!
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  2. Posts : 8,375
    W7 Ultimate x64/W10 Pro x64/W11 Pro Triple Boot - Main PC W7 Remote PC Micro ATX W7 Pro x64/W11 Pro
       #91

    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.
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  3. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #92

    maxseven said:
    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.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 8,375
    W7 Ultimate x64/W10 Pro x64/W11 Pro Triple Boot - Main PC W7 Remote PC Micro ATX W7 Pro x64/W11 Pro
       #93

    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!
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  5. Posts : 880
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit
       #94

    ICIT2LOL said:
    maxseven said:
    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.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 8,375
    W7 Ultimate x64/W10 Pro x64/W11 Pro Triple Boot - Main PC W7 Remote PC Micro ATX W7 Pro x64/W11 Pro
       #95

    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.
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #96

    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.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS-ubuntu-screen-x2.png  
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  8. Posts : 880
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit
       #97

    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.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 1,519
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit, Mac OS X 10.10, Linux Mint 17, Windows 10 Pro TP
       #98

    maxseven said:
    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.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 8,375
    W7 Ultimate x64/W10 Pro x64/W11 Pro Triple Boot - Main PC W7 Remote PC Micro ATX W7 Pro x64/W11 Pro
       #99

    maxseven said:
    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.

    Berton said:
    maxseven said:
    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
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