Accessing windoze through Linux.RESOLVED,A FUNNY YARN OR TERMINAL EMBARASSMENT

[wavemaker]

Gooday all. I have a windoze box of my daughter's. It wont boot up , I'm getting the :NTLDR error and everything I have tried so far has failed to get it going. I read somewhere in my
efforts to fix this that I should run a live Linux disc and use that to retrieve my girls photos and music. Is this possible? and if so, how do I go about doing this? Thank you in advance, James.

[arochester]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

Yes this is possible.

The most used distro for recovery is probably: Knoppix

Have a look at "System recovery with Knoppix" on http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/li...y/l-knopx.html

Basically you put the disk in your CD-Rom and boot from there. Make sure that the BIOS is set to boot from CD first! The Knoppix system will appear and the Windows disks will be shown. Stuff can be copied off the Windows disk on to an external USB...

[JohanLingen]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

Voor je Windows PC:
Controleer even of je niet toevallig een floppy in de floppy drive hebt zitten (of zet voor de zekerheid in de CMOS setup je harde schijf als eerste boot device).

Als dat geen resultaat geeft, start dan de PC op met de XP CD-ROM (eerst natuurlijk weer de boot device volgorde aanpassen).
Uit mijn hoofd:
Kies "Repair" met toets R en daarna de Recovery Console met "C", kies dan je installatie en dan heb je een opdrachtprompt.
Je kunt NTLDR gewoon kopiëren vanaf de CD-rom naar C:\

copy D:\I386\NTLDR C:\NTLDR

[Kubuntu Computer Geek]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

Voor je Windows PC:
Controleer even of je niet toevallig een floppy in de floppy drive hebt zitten (of zet voor de zekerheid in de CMOS setup je harde schijf als eerste boot device).

Als dat geen resultaat geeft, start dan de PC op met de XP CD-ROM (eerst natuurlijk weer de boot device volgorde aanpassen).
Uit mijn hoofd:
Kies "Repair" met toets R en daarna de Recovery Console met "C", kies dan je installatie en dan heb je een opdrachtprompt.
Je kunt NTLDR gewoon kopiëren vanaf de CD-rom naar C:\

copy D:\I386\NTLDR C:\NTLDR

Seriously??

[arochester]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

For anyone who doesn't speak Dutch, Google Translator says:

For your Windows PC:
Check whether you do not happen to floppy in the floppy drive you are (or move to the security in the CMOS setup your hard disk as first boot device).

If no result, run the PC with the XP CD-ROM (first course adjust the boot device order).
From my head:
Choose "Repair" with key R and the Recovery Console with "C", then choose your installation and then you have a command prompt.
You can simply copy NTLDR from the CD-ROM to C: \
Code:

copy D: \ I386 \ NTLDR C: \ NTLDR

[HavocXphere]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

Double-check which hdd the system is booting from in the bios. Then do a memtest (available on the LiveCD). Between those 2, one can fix 95% of the ntldr issues. Another possible cause is a bad hdd.

If the bios boot option changed, then you need to replace the CMOS battery...unless the PC was disconnected from mains for a long time.

[JohanLingen]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

For anyone who doesn't speak Dutch, Google Translator says:

For your Windows PC:
Check whether you do not happen to floppy in the floppy drive you are (or move to the security in the CMOS setup your hard disk as first boot device).

If no result, run the PC with the XP CD-ROM (first course adjust the boot device order).
From my head:
Choose "Repair" with key R and the Recovery Console with "C", then choose your installation and then you have a command prompt.
You can simply copy NTLDR from the CD-ROM to C: \
Code:

copy D: \ I386 \ NTLDR C: \ NTLDR

Lol, I'm sorry, I didn't even notice I was writing Dutch instead of English. the translation is correct. You can just replace a corrupt NTLDR file (which could be caused by bad sectors on the hard disk).
But first check on the boot order and the presence of any non-bootable floppy disks

[wavemaker]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

Gooday again. OK so this is what I did. I got the Knoppix ISO and burned it to CD,md5checksum et al. Loaded the disk into my daughters machine and after going through the set up routine hits a kernel panic. I don't actually know what that means, however one can assume that it's not good. I did get it to start a kubuntu disc all the way to being able to use the desk top. Does Kubuntu have what is necessary to retrieve the files of my daughters borked disk? Many thanks for the replies, even the Dutch one, James.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

On the kernel panic issue, this may help:

http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Kernel_panic


I stand to be corrected here but my experience of the kubuntu live CD is that it is primarily a demo of the OS but it doesn't offer much in the way of tools to rescue files from an existing system. In my dual-booting days I cannot ever recall being able to actually access my windows partitions from a live Kubuntu CD. My experience is that before you can access them you have to install it first.

Knoppix is the market- leader in live rescue CDs. Mandrivas live CDs also enable you to access Windows partitions and I find it easier to use than knoppix, although it's different strokes obviously.

Whichever live CD you use, I recommend that before you run it you ensure you run the boot process at the correct resolution for your graphics hardware, especially if it is a bit old. When playing with live CDs I have often found that to be the factor that determines whether or not it loads. When you see the setup screen you will see some options at the bottom - the resolution is one of them. You may find knoppix will then load.

HTH

[wavemaker]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

OK, excellent, some progress following the above instructions. Got all the way to having the desktop load, but then frozen. Mousey boy doesn't want to play. Going to restart and see if the resolution option appears. James.

[Qqmike]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

wavemaker,

Strange that Knoppix has a kernel panic. It is known for being able to boot and configure everything correctly on most systems. Maybe the burn isn't good.


Kubuntu Live CD:
Yes, you can use that to rescue data off XP.
In Konqueror, find the XP partition (Storage Media), open it, and copy files from XP to Kubuntu--say to the Desktop, if you wish, then copy them to a flash drive or CD/DVD.

Frankly, I haven't explicitly thought about this, but I do stuff like that all the time.
I believe newer versions of Kubuntu, like 8.04, come with ntfs-g, which is what you need to mount Windows partitions.

You can do this. Don't give up on your XP data.


Troubleshooting

-- For this, I would use Kubuntu 8.04, not 8.10.

-- If needed, to open Konqueror as root:
Konsole
kdesu konqueror


-- Problems mounting XP:
To mess with Storage Media:
K > System Settings > Advanced tab > Disk & Filesystems, Administrator Mode (lower right button),
then highlight the XP partition, right-click, Modify, and change things so it will mount:
mount point: /media/MyXP
(create that directory? say Yes)
Click so any one can do anything at any time.
Click Writeable box.
Exit out.
Click to Enable (button at the bottom in the Disk & Filesystems panel).

=> Even then, you may still have to find XP under Konqueror > Storage Media, then right-click on that partition, and Mount, if it did not mount already (indicated by a lit-up green arrow on the XP partition icon).

-- Working in the Live CD: remember, you can do anything in the Live session you do in a normal Kubuntu session, but it only exists in RAM (memory) and will vanish upon re-booting your machine. For example, you can use Adept Package Manager to install programs (like ntfs-g):
K > System > Adept

[wavemaker]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

Gooday Qqmike, and thanks for your careful and thorough response. I have to go to work now and will have a look at that this evening. Many thanks,James.

[JohanLingen]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

wavemaker, did you try to fix XP first? That would save you the hassle of rescue CD's.

[wavemaker]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

Gooday Johan Lingen, I tried a number of things including rescue disk,ntldr tool and tried unplugging from mobo. Tried the jumper in all different positions and ran out of ideas. Know any thing special I could give a go Thanks, James.

[wavemaker]

Re: Accessing windoze through Linux.

OK, just figured out one of my issues. The girls puter is an older model and so New distros won't load. I have an older (7.5.1) kubuntu disk in there right now and am going to follow Qqmikes instructions above. Fingers crossed. James.