help...i can't see some of my windows files.

[blue_sky]

hello. I am using Knoppix 3.7 and i have a windows (corrupted) in hda1. My windows sudenlly reboot by itslef one day and after it could not start anymore...it says that system.ini is corrupted. Ok...so i booted my pc from Knoppix live cd 3.7 and i can mount the hd1 drive, but there are some folders missing. Like the c:\documents and settings\<my user> all files and folders inside this folder are missing and i REALLY need them. What should i do? Maybe if i try the new knoppix it will read them or i need to use one of the file recover software.? Any help ois greatly appreciated..... thanks in advance.

[Harry Kuhman]

... all files and folders inside this folder are missing and i REALLY need them. What should i do? Maybe if i try the new knoppix it will read them or i need to use one of the file recover software.?
I can safely tell you that the new Knoppix isn't gonna see anything that the old Knoppix doesn't see. If they are REALLY important then you have backups, use them. Otherwise some drive recovery software might help find missing files. Without knowing more about what happened and how it happened it's hard to say or know what software to suggest, but most of it will be stuff that does not involve Linux. Google and keywords like partition recovery might be a good place to start searching.

[blue_sky]

When i tried to read the folder(as root on console) i got this message
ls: reading directory .: Input/output error

I can see most of my winodws HD on knoppix.....but the user directory which has the files i need is empty. I did not write anything on the drive so i think i can recover something.

[|enouf|]

I know I may be quite late here, but;
have you tried booting Windows into Safe Mode (F8) - or tried Booting from 2K/XP CDROM ? (set BIOS to boot from CDROM as 1st in Boot device order).....are you using NTFS ? You likely need to access Recovery Console on the CDROM and Run CHKDSK C: /r on your HDD to repair any corruption if possible.

In trying to keep this from becoming a WIn support thread - Knoppix can see all files, but for some reason you may have those contents of \<userprofile> "encrypted" possibly ? If so, AFAIK knoppix won't help you there. Are you sure you're allowing viewing of "hidden" files?