Knoppix- Data Recovery

[drkestrel]

Situation
I have a (partially) broken Hard disk on a Dell Dimension 4100 PC partitioned as follows:

Primary Partition
C:\      FAT16    50MB  DOS6.22
D:\      NTFS5    4GB   Windows 2000 Pro
E:\      NTFS5    500MB Windows 2000's swap file
F:\      NTFS5    15GB  Windows Applications
G:\      FAT32          Blank
H:\      FAT32          Blank

Following a 'Blue screen', E:\ to H:\ has become unformattable even with Partition Magic 8.0 or Windows NT4 and windows 2000's boot CD/Diskettes

Attempted to use Norton Ghost to salvage partition on D:\ (on last run of CHKDSK D: /R /P- no errors reported) but Norton Ghost reported numerous "Bad blocks encountered...." errors. using the -FRO switch to force ghosting results in a corrupted image file. On examination of my log file, Symantec suggested that this is due to a 'drive geometry' problem, which could be due to a bad Hard Disk or the use of Partition Magic (Ghost does not support Partition Magic).


Mission
(Note my PC has a NEC CD/DVD Rom as well as a Sony CDRW drive)
1) Use Knoppix boot disk to boot up PC on the DVD Rom
2) Mount my D:\
3) Mount the CDRW drive
4) 'copy'/'burnt' stuff I need from D:\ onto CDR(w)


Problems/Issues- Help :-(
I haven't used linux for a while
1) What is the implication of mounting a (potentially partially faulty) NTFS5 partition? Would it cause more harm to the partition and hard disk?
I believe the syntax is

mount -t ntfs /dev/hd{a|b}{1..n} /mnt/ntfs_dDrive

what do I need for my D:\, which is the first extended logical partition

2) Does Knoppix have CD Recording capabaility?? If so, how could that be done? Probably I want files to be 'gzipped' before CD Recording. Could gzipping be done in memory?? (I don't want Linux to have to write to my HDD!!)


Please help! (

 

[drkestrel]

P.S:
All drives other than C:\ are in the extended partition

 

[AP81]

1)
Mounting a partition in read only mode is not harmful. At most it can only fail to mount the partition.

The syntax for the partition you want to mount would be:

mount -t ntfs /dev/hda5 /mnt/ntfs_dDrive

This should default to read only. The first logical partition is always referred to as hda5. Make sure you do not write to the NTFS partition, otherwise you risk killing it altogether. Also check the file /etc/fstab. Knoppix usually will pick up all the partitions and comment them out.

Knoppix may also display some of your partitions on the desktop. You can right-click on what and mount it also.

2)
You can record as you would normally. I normally do it by command line. There are plenty of tutorials on the net.
By default, Knoppix will only use a swap partition if it detects a Linux swap partition. Without a swap, it will not write to your drive. However, write at a slow speed, as there is no swap and the performance is somewhat reliant on the amount of ram you have.

Good Luck

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

My first recommendation would be to find out the manufacterer of the hard drive (Seagate for Dell?) and download their diagnostic utility. That will verify the itegrity of drive. If you get an error code, call up Dell (assuming it is under warranty) and talk to them about it.

Another idea for formatting is to use ranish partition manager (

http://www.ranish.com/part/),

that might work. I have found this to be a very useful utility to own (or hve since it is free).

Other than that, your linux idea might work. I can't offer help on that though... sorry.

iSeriesCodePoet
iSeries Programmer/Lawson Software Administrator

See my progress to converting to linux.

http://koldark.hopto.org/linux/

The Programmer's Knowledge Base ->

http://koldark.hopto.org/twiki/bin/view/Programkb/WebHome

 

[drkestrel]

Dell's utility has certified the drive as "non functional"!!

This is purely a a data salvaging operation!!

I just downloaded the ISO image (>700MB), but the thing is Easy CD Creator 4 which I frequently uses complained it's not a valid Image file (even after renaming it to *.cif).

What Windows Shareware could I burn such an image. I only have a CDR that has a 700 capacity!!!

Also, what options have I got in terms of CD writing, "You can record as you would normally". Do I need to 'mount' the CDRW as a seperate drive?? If so how? And can I presume I just do cp -R /sourceDir /mnt/myCDRW ?? Or does Knoppix come with any CDRW GUI tools?

 

[fdalmoro]

When you boot up Knoppix it will put an icon on the desktop for all of the partitions that it can find. You just click on it and that's it. There is a software called k3b that is a gui for burning CD's (K Menu/Multimedia/CD). You should run k3b setup before running the software.

We use Dell's at the company I work for, their service is great which makes it worth the pain of having crappy components like their hard drives. I have had so many hard drives break I lost count. One little trick I picked up from Tech-Republic is that if your hard drive is completely inaccessible, wrap it with tissue to soak up any moisture, put it in a plastic zip lock, freeze it (2 hours should do). Pop it in the pc and 50% of the time it will work for another hour or so (I had a drive up all night before it crashed again). I don't know why it works but it does.

Hope this helps

 

[drkestrel]

Hmm... so I don't even need to use the mount command?? What would it do in regards to my unformatted (corrupted) partition- what used to be e: to H: drives).

All I want is my D:\ can I FORCE it to be read-only, and less 'strict' in regards to bad sectors, etc??

Dell is OK- they are sending me a replacement, but they don't do data recovery and I think I have to give the broken HDD back at the same time as receiving the replacement.

any suggestions of how/with what to burn a Knoppix CD??

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

As far as burning the ISO, I have never had a problem with EZ-CD Creator. The ISO will fit on a 700MB CD. I don't have a hint there... sorry :-(.

iSeriesCodePoet
iSeries Programmer/Lawson Software Administrator

See my progress to converting to linux.

http://koldark.hopto.org/linux/

The Programmer's Knowledge Base ->

http://koldark.hopto.org/twiki/bin/view/Programkb/WebHome

 

[drkestrel]

What version of easy CD Creator did u use and what procedures did you use?
e.g.
-put in CDR first or start Easy Creator first,
-did u double click the cif file (renamed from *.iso)

 

[drkestrel]

Also, is there anything I could do to ensure/force Knoppix to mount my first logical extended NTFS5/Win2K partition read only and ignore all other partitions, just in case...??

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

I _think_ this is right, it has been a while since I used 4.0. I would rename it back to .iso, then do the following.

1) Start up EZ-CD Creator
2) Choose File | Burn Image... (or something like that)
3) Set the filter to All files and select your .ISO
4) Follow steps to burn it

iSeriesCodePoet
iSeries Programmer/Lawson Software Administrator

See my progress to converting to linux.

http://koldark.hopto.org/linux/

The Programmer's Knowledge Base ->

http://koldark.hopto.org/twiki/bin/view/Programkb/WebHome

 

[drkestrel]

Much to my surprise, downloading the ISO image file from another site (FTP via germany) solved the CD burning issue.

I am impressed by Knoppix linux's functionality, and its ability to run on the RAM Disk.

However, CD Burning is now a major issue to me.

I burn the first CDR- it terminated with errors in 95% completed, although the CDR looks pretty readable on another PC (don't know why- doesn't it need to have completed a Table of Content at the end?)

Now, on to the second CDR, it has completed 100%, but now it's at the 'fixation stage', with % completed stayed at 0% for >5 hours. My system would NOT respond to any mouse or keyboard IO (so I can't even go to a console, do a ps -ef and kill the CD Burning process). The CD Burning software is K3B.

What could I do now?? My system is completely frozen. I have NEVER seen this on Linux!! Have I got any choice other than to turn the machine off? That could do serious damage to my Hard disk and other hardware, right?

 

[iSeriesCodePoet]

You can hit the power button, I have done it thousands of times, sometimes you just have to do it. Yes it _could_ cause damage, but I think in this day and age the chances of it happening is slim to none.

iSeriesCodePoet
iSeries Programmer/Lawson Software Administrator

See my progress to converting to linux.

http://koldark.hopto.org/linux/

The Programmer's Knowledge Base ->

http://koldark.hopto.org/twiki/bin/view/Programkb/WebHome