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102 Comments
- FlareHeart, on 02/20/2009, -3/+68I have lost count of the number of times I have had friends come to me in a panic because their computer won't boot anymore and they don't have a backup and they don't want to lose all of their data when they re-install windows. I boot to a linux live cd, force mount the ntfs partition and copy all of their data off. Done and done. Linux helps a lot for stuff like that.
- canthraxp, on 02/20/2009, -3/+42Even though I don't like the Linux success stories of people in digg (for example: guy moves from vista to ubuntu... yawn), this is one point I agree, I have rescued windows machines with linux livecds and it's great. Even windows users should have a rescue livecd for emergencies.
- inactive, on 02/20/2009, -2/+30I do that all the time too. I think they see me as a computer "genius", because I use an unrecognizable (to them) OS-on-a-CD, and save all their stuff.
- Minishark, on 02/20/2009, -1/+19Don't give away our secret! We are geniuses!
- Elranzer, on 02/20/2009, -1/+19Only Apple Stores have "Geniuses"
/rolls-eyes - Biscuitz, on 02/20/2009, -1/+18I booted up Knoppix to fix a jacked boot sector on my HDD. Worked perfectly =)
- sigmaman2, on 02/20/2009, -3/+19I remember something similar happening in the 80's with automobiles. Ford, Dodge, and Chevy drivers would have an inexpensive import as a backup so they still could get around when their main car was in the repair shop. Over time, they realized that their backup car never had to be taken to the shop. So they made their backup car their main car.
If your Windows system keeps failing, and you regularly use Linux to recover it, maybe you should just use Linux as your main OS. - MaverickAlex, on 02/20/2009, -0/+12Doesn't building the micro-XP that boots off a flash drive violate the license agreement. At the very least its a copy of another XP key therefor not legal unless you paid for a separate key.
Its a great idea by the way, I was just wondering about the legal status of that flash drive. - FyberOptic, on 02/20/2009, -0/+11This really has nothing to do with just Windows breaking. A Linux LiveCD is handy for when almost ANY operating system breaks.
You can make Windows "LiveCD" discs too, and they're handy for other circumstances. You should have one of these on hand too. Even more useful are bootable USB keys with an OS installed.
It all comes down to using the right tool for the job. You can be a Windows desktop user but still be perfectly capable of using Linux elsewhere. Limiting yourself to one OS is only limiting your capabilities. - KibibyteBrain, on 02/20/2009, -0/+11ISOLINUX has always been a killer app. BartPE and such can be useful if you need to do really obscure windows administration from a boot CD, but overall it can't compare to the features most linux boot CDs have, nor their usability(rare you will hear this being a pro for Linux!).
- Eqxy, on 02/20/2009, -0/+8We've installed windows on your windows so you can.... waste time...
- dalittle, on 02/20/2009, -0/+7except that his superior windows os is borked, and even if he can fix it , it will be again soon.
- smotpoker, on 02/20/2009, -0/+7Depending on how long ago and what livecd you used, could be because of lacking ntfs-write support. Since
MS keeps ntfs specs secret, Linux developers had to reverse engineer them so for a long time ntfs write support was unstable and omitted from many distros by default. You could still read ntfs to copy files from it but you would have to put them on a vfat partition to get them back. - 2of8, on 02/20/2009, -1/+7I've done this for my computer twice. It's great because there's no worry of changing any data on the computer, as you don't have to modify anything (such as boot record, or system files if running a repair) in order to copy data off the computer.
However, one time I had a problem with a corrupt hal.dll, and couldn't copy the correct .dll into \system32 as Linux saw that folder as empty and write-protected. I was hoping to fix the corrupt dll by simply copying a proper one in. Anyone know why? I ended up having to copy all the media off the computer (~200 gigs...) and reinstalling windows. - connieLingus, on 02/20/2009, -0/+6i hope they at least like bought you some beer or something.
- charityjustice, on 02/20/2009, -5/+11Ironically, I've repaired a friend's linux rig with a custom bootable micro-XP off a flash drive.
- xzitony, on 02/20/2009, -1/+6That's funny... I always rescue my Vista installs with the VISTA CD.
Crazy, I know. - dontreplytome, on 02/20/2009, -2/+7Of course, after you do this *once* you setup your friend's PCs with automatic backups in Windows, which is easy to do. Right?
- computershack, on 02/20/2009, -1/+6You don't need to use Linux to do this....
- mithilion, on 02/20/2009, -2/+7Grab an ubuntu LiveCD, and check out Synaptic Package Manager. It's terrific, gives you what equates to an app store for thousands of apps, all opensource. You use it for all your system updates as well. Give it a shot, you might be pleasantly surprised. :D
**Disclaimer: some apps still would have to be install from the command line or using .bin or .sh files. - kingmanic, on 02/20/2009, -0/+5NTFS has some system folder properties which lock some folders. I suppose getting a better NTFS driver might help? You can get a Windows XP CD to copy back windows system files too perhaps you needed to try that? The other option is to add a new HDD and install windows there and mount the old HD as a data disk.
- bri719, on 02/20/2009, -0/+5it's a really good strategy
- cezx, on 02/20/2009, -1/+5Windows ME edition fresh install = BSOD all the time :D probably seen more from ME than 98. BUt thats all history, i personally experienced no BSOD from XP or further....maybe on a friends comp but who knows how ***** up their system was :D
- Bicep, on 02/20/2009, -0/+4Funny thing about using Win-based utilities to rescue the Win-based(usually NTFS) file system - sometimes it doesn't work!!
Just the other day I had a client who's machine wouldn't bootup.. it would move past the XP bitmap screen and then reboot(like autorestart from a BSOD for instance).
So then decided to try a BartPE disk(Win-based, awesome and free utility for System Admin stuff - See http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder%29 to boot the machine with the intent of just recovering files from the hard drive onto a USB drive, and that didn't work either!! The BartPE would get all the way to the point where you could fire up the cmd window, but if you tried to run diskpart, win disk-mgmt, or even browse files with the file manager - the system would hang and you'd have to hard-reboot.
This is when the trusty ole' Ubuntu 8.10 livecd came in handy.. It booted right up to the desktop, then I used the Places menu..and voila - the hard drive of the system showed up there.. then I double-clicked the system hard drive and was able to transfer files from the dying hard drive(with Win installed on it) to the USB drive. The reason I was certain the hard drive was dying was because I was able to copy about 4GB of the person's data to USB and then the whole system would suddenly Freeze... so then I hard-rebooted, got back into the system drive, and then recovered the remaining 2GB of data.
Apparently booting to GNU/Linux and mounting the NTFS drive was a lot less stressful on the dying hard drive than using Win, and so that made it possible for me to copy the files from the otherwise dead hard drive!
So for maximum Kung-Fu capability - along with your XP/Vista restore disk, and your BartPE disk, you should also carry with you the Ubuntu Linux livecd, and perhaps even the GParted Linux livecd(http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php%29%28w ... features testdisk and photorec). This way you can fix any problem. If you're trying to blind yourself to only using Win utilities to recover a dying Win filesystem, then you're limiting yourself(as in restricting yourself from the power technology) as to how successful your recovery intentions might be!!
Also, checkout this blog to find more System Utils: http://www.humans-enabled.com/2007/07/list-of-21-f ...
Lastly, start thinking in terms of enabling humans with the power of technology. In my opinion, the most rewarding way to enable yourself with technology is to try GNU/Linux. Checkout http://www.humans-enabled.com/2009/01/plug-for-new ... for more information, and to get started on your journey to freedom!!
Don't let ANYONE restrict you from the true power of technology!!! Use software that is friendly to Open Standards!!! - 2of8, on 02/20/2009, -0/+4Maybe not for you, but there are people who don't know about these tools and could probably benefit from them.
- dagr8tim, on 02/20/2009, -0/+4I had a thumb drive that died and windows would no longer read it. I booted up an ubuntu VM and popped it in. The next thing I know, Ubuntu asks me if I want to auto run the thumb drive. I managed to copy the files off the thumb drive before it promptly gave up the ghost.
- Twinnie, on 02/20/2009, -0/+4Once again Linux proves to be useful, and once again not in an everyday desktop user kind of way.
- shadydentist, on 02/20/2009, -0/+4Agreed. For various software reasons, I need to run Windows. But that Ubuntu liveCD comes in handy pretty often.
- tama00, on 02/20/2009, -1/+5Good luck mounting any Linux file system on XP. You could possibly mount EXT2/3 but you better hope its not encrypted, in a software raid or of any other file system including the new EXT4.
It not like you can chroot into his Linux distro and repair the kernel or any software, nor will you be able to repair corrupt file systems of any kind or repair the boot sector.
I really fail to see what you could do that's useful besides maybe editing a few config text files. - MattBD, on 02/20/2009, -0/+4I've had a couple of occasions where I've used Linux to help rescue a system. Last year my dad's XP machine kept BSODing all of a sudden and wouldn't boot. Fortunately he used Hotmail for email so that was safe, but he had a lot of documents he needed for dealing with my late grandmother's estate. So I booted into Knoppix and copied the files he needed to a flash drive. Then I reinstalled XP. This didn't solve the problem as it turned out it had been hit by a power surge which damaged the motherboard, so it had to be repaired professionally, but he didn't lose any data.
Then a few weeks ago I found my Phillips laptop which dual-boots Vista and Ubuntu Hardy wasn't detecting the DVD drive in Vista, but it worked fine in Ubuntu, proving it was a hardware problem, and narrowing the list of probable causes. From there it was just a Google search and I found that I needed to edit the Windows registry to correct the issue. Ubuntu wasn't as directly responsible for resolving the issue, but it narrowed it down (OK, any other OS would have done fine for that too if the problem was just with that Windows install).
Everyone with a computer should ALWAYS keep a decent live CD around for emergencies. Even Mac users. - mithilion, on 02/20/2009, -1/+4meh, if they don't have NAS or other removable storage to write it to there's not too much point. Plus that backup is not a restore disc, and I've very rarely used or heard of someone using a restore point/disc backup.
- sjvn, on 02/20/2009, -0/+3And, of course, if there's a rootkit or virus at the heart of the problem this is so not going to work,
- Biscuitz, on 02/20/2009, -1/+4It's spelled boy, with a y.
- MattB123, on 02/20/2009, -1/+4System Restore is pretty good at protecting the OS (or making it easier to revert) but that is not what he's talking about here. We're talking data which System Restore does not touch. In fact, reinstalling the OS doesn't mess with your data either (as long as you don't reformat in the process).
On my and my wife's computers I use SyncToy and Scheduler to sync up data with our server every night. It's saved us on several occasions.
The point here is regardless of your OS, if you have a good backup plan in place you will be ok and if you don't you only might be ok if you are lucky. - connieLingus, on 02/20/2009, -0/+3i personally like bartPE, but using a *nix live-cd to fix broken ms computers is pretty old hat.
- freezerburn666, on 02/20/2009, -0/+3my boss knows nothing about linux, when he has to recover data from a pc he installs a copy of windows on top of windows, so the drivers are still in tact and then copies the data over the network. i told him about live cd/usb's, etc. the argument is why, if it works his way..... even though it is a huge waste of time. ugh
- fotoshopMASTER, on 02/20/2009, -1/+4Linux FTW
- Myztry, on 02/21/2009, -0/+3Pre-Vista (ie. The majority) Windows backups require you have have a floppy drive for the restore disc and catalog. Guess what. Most computers don't have them. It's a lame requirement.
You can hunt down and manually copy the asr.sif and asrpnp.sif files to work around that, but it's just an amateur oversight on behalf of Microsoft (well technically Seagate because Microsoft wasn't competent enough to write it themselves) - ethana2, on 02/21/2009, -0/+2A LiveDVD?
- raydeen, on 02/20/2009, -1/+3PE. Piece of Excrement.
- ethana2, on 02/21/2009, -1/+3Less rare every day.
- jmdsdf, on 02/20/2009, -0/+2At one point, I had constant blue screens of death on XP, just try running it on a system with a dying hard drive or one that has been partially damaged by a virus.
- darkmagician777, on 02/21/2009, -0/+2I posted a similar article already on DIGG! http://www.squidoo.com/linux_cd 7 months before!!!
I Posted 6/25/2008! - mithilion, on 02/20/2009, -1/+3I'm digging because so few people seem to even know about linux, let alone know how to do this.
- ahhell, on 02/20/2009, -1/+3Why not just use a WindowsPE boot CD/flashdrive? It automounts all ntfs volumes, USB drives, etc.
- Bicep, on 02/22/2009, -0/+2No, actually when I said USB drive, I meant a USB attached hard drive (200GB in size). The system drive was on its way out and was only working intermittently, which was causing the freeze. So once we recovered all 6GB of the client's data to the external usb hard drive, I helped my client find a replacement drive on pricewatch.com (for cheap - she was really surprised at how cheap it is to buy a replacement hard drive(about $65) versus buying a whole new computer). After that, I left Ubuntu booted up on the machine (Dell 5400) so the 13 year old Son (that was watching the whole process) could still use the computer to surf the Internet and explore Linux.
Success story all the way around - and thanks to GNU/Linux!!! - newwatch51, on 02/21/2009, -0/+2I got one yesterday when I tried to install Windows 2000.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -2/+4So... if you play rough with your toys, they break? ;)
- killdeer03, on 02/20/2009, -0/+2I love how BSOD was followed by a link telling you what the "blue screen of death" is....
- sjvn, on 02/20/2009, -0/+2Well, in my experience, etc. etc.
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