Comments on: HUGE hard disks problem, PLEASE! help.

By: dellray

dellray — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:30:05 +0000

I would think that Spinrite could help you with your verification of your HDD. It did wonder for me. As far as the UPS, I know that there is some parameters to set for low and hi voltage. Maybe your UPS let some bad spike got throught.

By: spj

spj — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:26:01 +0000

I’ll give it a shot as soon as I get a new disk that I ordered to copy the contents of the damaged one.

Thank you again, Docutechdoug

spj

By: docutechdoug

docutechdoug — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:20:25 +0000

Yes, it should work fine, because your computer will be running the Linux OS from the CD instead of running Windows. You’re just using it to get the files and copy them somewhere else. Windows can’t see them right now, but maybe Linux can. Load the Knoppix CD, then reboot your computer. As it’s booting, you might need to hit Delete or one of the function keys (like F2 or F12) to adjust the boot order so it boots from the CD first and not the hard drive. That’s where to find the BIOS settings mentioned earlier. It’ll take maybe up to five minutes (appx) to load the OS from the CD, but then you should see icons on the desktop you can open to examine the drive contents. You’ll get a little bit of a Linux education, as the drives may be referred to as /hda1 or /sda2 or something other than E: or H:. You’ll kind of have to figure out from the contents and the drive sizes exactly which ones they are. You might even want to disconnect other drives and just do one at a time to avoid confusion. If that doesn’t happen to work for you, I’ve also had good luck in Windows with http://www.pcinspector.de.

By: spj

spj — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:55:44 +0000

Thank you, Docutechdoug, your advice makes sense to me. Looks 100% safe too.

Just one question, and I hope you’ll excuse my ignorance, you mention a “Linux CD”, but my OS is Windows. Can I still use a Linux CD and will it work properly even if I am running Windows?

Thanks again.

By: docutechdoug

docutechdoug — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:46:47 +0000

Get Knoppix 5.1.1 and the iso that ends in EN (for English). The 5.3.1 version is DVD-sized, and too big for a CD.

By: docutechdoug

docutechdoug — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:39:06 +0000

Wow, that’s quite the situation you’ve got there. Here’s my suggestion. Download and burn an .iso of Knoppix. (I, personally, trust getting Linux .isos from distrowatch.com.) Boot the computer from that Knoppix live CD. It won’t write to any hard drives without you actually telling it that it can, so the data will be safe. If the data is still readable at all, Knoppix will likely be able to see the files. Then you can copy them to another hard drive, such as an external USB drive.

My motto is generally “if Knoppix can’t see the data, it’s gone.” Whether I’m right or wrong about that, Knoppix (and other Linux liveCD distros) have saved my hide a number of times. It’s worth a shot, and won’t cost much more than your time (and the cost of a blank CD). Good luck.

By: spj

spj — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:48:16 +0000

How do I find that out?