[NTLUG:Discuss] HD problems from a Windows machine

[Leroy Tennison]

Russ wrote:

>Thank you Robert,
>
>I am experiencing the most success since I started this!
>
>On 12/20/05, Robert Citek <rwcitek at alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>On Dec 20, 2005, at 7:55 AM, Russ wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Someone else replied, off the list, saying that possibly the HD was
>>>defective already.  He said that where he worked they put the HD's in
>>>the freezer for a while.  Now he might be pulling my leg but it may
>>>also be a 'trick of the trade' that might help.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>Nope, no leg pulling.  It is indeed a 'trick of the trade'.
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>If that's what it takes, I could do it but my friend says the only
>>>important data is on five or six small Microsoft Word files.  I
>>>thought doing a copy to a floppy would work.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>How familiar are you with the command line?
>>    
>>
>I've used command line a long time ago with Solaris 5.
>
>  
>
>>If you are comfortable
>>with working at the CLI, then you can boot up Knoppix into runlevel 1
>>with "boot: knoppix noswap 1"
>>    
>>
>
>The first time I tried "boot: knoppix noswap 1", it was not
>successful.  The machine hung while trying to establish a path,
>displayed error codes, then went into kernel panic.
>
>I tried it again only a few minutes later.  This time there was less
>thrashing with the CD-ROM and the PC hung at the attempt to build the
>RAM disk.  More errors, and eventually panic.
>
>The third time, I got to the USB scan... It hung, threw out errors and
>stopped without kernel panic.
>
>The fourth time, I got all the way through to the roo at tty1 prompt.  I
>have moved from the root directory to the dev directory.
>
>I now need to do several things:
>
>1) Search the HD, here called hda, for all files having a DOC suffix,
>2) Copy those same files to a floppy.
>
>I have questions about procedures and commands.  Do I need to mount
>the HD in order to do a recursive listing for the files?  I think I
>know how to do the mount (mount /dev/hda).
>
I've never even thought about trying to access a device without mounting 
it.  Decided to try - don't go there!  I did a 'cat > /dev/fd0' and the 
floppy activated but nothing was written.  If I try 'cat > 
/dev/fd0/test' I'm told that it isn't a directory.  As a different test 
I tried 'cat'ing a small file I knew existed on a partition which wasn't 
mounted - got all kinds of weird stuff on the screen.

Concerning the hd mount and setup, I suggest:

cd /
mkdir hd
mkdir floppy
mount /dev/hda1 hd        If its the second drive use /dev/hdb1
mount /dev/fd0 floppy

>
>Then having found the files I would use the cp command.
>
>How do I determine the designation for the floppy and do I have to mount it too?
>
I would expect the floppy to be /dev/fd0.

>
>I have all my Linux books out looking for commands and procedures but
>any direction to speed the process would be appreciated a lot!
>
>  
>
>>You then should be able to copy the
>>files off the drive to a floppy, USB stick, another drive, or over a
>>network.
>>
>>You had mentioned a kernel panic in an earlier post, which is quite
>>odd for Knoppix from a CD.
>>    
>>
>
>Another thing that's odd is that the HD is very active for use of the
>noswap command.  I've never seen it before.
>
>  
>
>>If booting into runlevel 1 still has
>>kernel issues, you can try "boot: failsafe nohwsetup 1"  The failsafe
>>label avoids almost all hw detection, including disk.  Beware that it
>>also won't detect any USB devices, including a USB keyboard.
>>
>>Good luck and let us know how it goes.
>>
>>Regards,
>>- Robert
>>http://www.cwelug.org/downloads
>>Help others get OpenSource software.  Distribute FLOSS
>>for Windows, Linux, *BSD, and MacOS X with BitTorrent
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>    
>>
>--
>Russ
>
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>
>  
>