is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

[burizonik]

My friend's computer stopped working (probably she deleted something important) and I want to save her fotos... There is ext4 (110gb) and swap partition (2,5gb). I wonder if there is a possibility to install kubuntu on that 2,5 partition and see the content of ext4. (If I run live image I cannot see the content, it announce error or something..)...
Please, I'm newbie, can someone hel me? What would be the partitioning I have to make?
Thanks

[dibl]

Re: is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

2.5GB is not enough to install, but you do not need to install to save her data. Just make a Kubuntu Live CD, and boot that, and then you will need to mount the partition where her data is, probably it is NTFS. Review the "Top 20 FAQs" in my signature for some other questions you are going to have.

[toad]

Re: is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

Agree with dibl (@ dibl - although OP says it is ext4, not NTFS).

You should look at

a) why you cannot read the 110GB partition from a live CD or even
b) what happened to the original Linux

rather burden yourself with a new system install. Yes, there are live CDs out there with a 2.6 kernel and ext4 support which would fit onto 2.5GB (archbang comes to mind), but check a) and b) first

[dibl]

Re: is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

Agree with dibl (@ dibl - although OP says it is ext4, not NTFS).

Ooops -- good catch, toad --- thanks!

@burizonik, there must be more to this story, but maybe it's not important "how it got to be this way". If the desire is to back up the data, and then to make a new installation, then here's advice:

1. Make a Parted Magic Live CD -- get the ISO image here: http://partedmagic.com/download.html

2. Using any Linux Live CD including your new Parted Magic Live CD (or Kubuntu), backup your friend's data to another hard drive or media.

3. Using your Parted Magic Live CD, re-partition the hard drive. If you do not plan to install any other OS on that computer, then make a 15GB partition for the Linux filesystem (ext4), a 2GB swap partition, and the third partition (all the rest of the hard drive) can be for user's data (ext4).

4. Then you can install Kubuntu on the 15GB partition, and in the user's home folder make simlinks to data folders that you will make in the user's data partition.

The "Top 20 FAQs" in my signature will guide you to many answers that you may need for this project.

Do these things, and we will never again need to discuss how much space is needed.

[burizonik]

Re: is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

ok, I run PartedMagic but I cannot resize the block ext4 and when I chceck the partition for errors it says something like: the filesystem is apparently too high for this version of e2fsck (or the filesystem superblock is corrupt) The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs..), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock: e2fsck -b 8193 -device-
...
no idea what to do now
is there anything else I can try?
thanks for helping

[dibl]

Re: is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

Have you backed up all the data off that hard drive?

[burizonik]

Re: is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

no, I have not..I have no place to backup them

[toad]

Re: is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

If it is just a bad superblock or two I'd run a couple of file checks off a live CD - in my experience ext4 has been remarkably cooperative when it comes to not losing data (unlike reiserfs...)

For comprehensive info: http://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Ext4_Howto

[Jonas]

Re: is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

Out of curiosity, why wouldn't it be possible to repair/install broken packages with a/the CD same as the OS? Not possible to add CDRW as 'repository' perhaps?

[dibl]

Re: is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

no, I have not..I have no place to backup them

The only "safe" thing to do (meaning relatively safe, not totally risk-free) is to run fsck with the "verbose" and "preen" options. "man fsck" will show you how to do that, and of course the partition must not be mounted.

If you could find a way to back up that data on another drive, then it is easy and obvious how to use dd to overwrite the MBR, then GParted can create a new partition table and you can proceed with partitioning. But you can't do any of that while the drive has needed data on it.

[kevinc]

Re: is 2,5 GB enough to make new install?

Out of curiosity, why wouldn't it be possible to repair/install broken packages with a/the CD same as the OS? Not possible to add CDRW as 'repository' perhaps?

I usually use the install CD for repair, rather than making an extra recovery CD, and it has worked each time.

In this case, to save photos on an ext4 partition, if you can read the partition from a live CD or USB or something, then you should be able to copy the photos onto another USB memory stick or something, before trying to solve the problem. Do the logs offer any ideas?