If I boot my computer from a linux live cd, how can I access the computer hdd to recover data?

Question

My computer quit, but before I reset the system, I need to get pictures, documents, and other data from it. I can boot up with a Linux Live CD, but am having trouble accessing the HDD. Any Ideas?

Answer 1

I am assuming when you say "access the HDD" you mean the files created under Windows?



If so, you can still get to them: remove the CD and it will boot up in Windows; then put the files you need on a flash drive, CD or external HDD.



Then reinsert the linux CD, boot up linux, and retrieve the files from the flash drive, etc.



PS, if you're using ubuntu, some great sites for questions/support are:

- http://ubuntuforums.org/

- http://www.ubuntu.com/support

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Answer 2

This may differ depending on the setup of your hard drives. You'll want to boot up into the live CD and login as root, or do a sudo to obtain root permissions.



Then you'll need to mount your hard drive to your system. Mounting is a way to point a directory in Linux to a specific device/partition.



First you can run fdisk -l to get a listing of all of your partitions for a specific hard drive, be careful not to format anything.



Now, once you find out which partition it is you want to mount, you can mount it by running this command (let's say you found the partition to be hda1):

sudo mount -t ext3 -o defaults /dev/hda1



will be an empty directory, normally in the /mnt directory.



Also note, that if the hard drive you're booting is a windows partition, it will likely be using the ntfs file system, so you should change ext3 to ntfs.

Answer 3

there are many flavours of Linux. Get the latest version of Knoppix, or my preferred distro, Ubuntu. Using Ubuntu you can graphically load the partitions, without a lot of command line mumbo jumbo (fdisk - haven't used that in ages myself thank you). You may have to enable NTFS if you had 2k/XP/Vista, etc., set up with NTFS partitions - graphically, no command line necessary. Once you can read the harddrive partitions, copy the files you want to save either to a flash drive, or if you can hook the machine up to a network (and can figure out the configuration) you can transfer files that way. I have used an Ubuntu liveCD to recover data from my spouse's dead Vista machine with an NTFS partition. I have not used Knoppix - but those who have used it speak highly of it.



If your machine is dead because of a harddisk failure, then if it is a "total failure" Linux in any flavour may not work.

Answer 4

On a working computing gadget seek for Dell's boot disk from CD, acquire and burn to disk. in no way had a project with it. Or in case you have the OEM application packet there could be a boot disk blanketed with it. the two way in BIOS exchange the boot precedence to CD once you start up. undecided approximately ubuntu and vista, you could could format and reinstall. flow with residing house windows 7, did this while Vista crashed and no problems on account that then.