System hangs while mounting hda1

[zorblek]

I'm attempting to use Knoppix 5.01 to rescue files from an ailing WinXP partition. In the middle of copying files, the system hung. Since then, whenever I try to mount hda1 to finish the job, Knoppix hangs again. Any suggestions?

[Jacky]

Hi,

I will need some more information to understand your problem before I can offer any advice. 1) What kinds of files were you copying over -- large or small files, and how many files? 2) to which destination were you copying -- what kind of media, and what was the file-system on the media? 3) how did you do the copying -- what program or command did you use? 4) when you say "whenever I try to mount hda1 to finish the job, Knoppix hangs again", do you mean it hangs immediately on mounting, always at the same point of a copy operation, or at some different point? 5) files which were copied over before the hang -- are they visible in the new location?

Sorry if I am asking for so much info, but there are many many reasons why the copying operation could hang. A common one with ailing disks is attempting to copy a file from a part of a disk which has a bad sector..

[zorblek]

1) I was copying my Documents and Settings folder, so it was a large number and wide variety of files. I believe it froze while in the middle of copying an mp3 file.
2) I was copying to an FAT partition on an 80GB Iomega portable HD.
3) I'm not entirely certain. I believe I just did a drag-and-drop of the folder.
4) It hangs while in the process of mounting. The dialog that displays the progress mounting the drive pops up, and it hangs at 0%.
5) Some are, and some are not. Files I specifically remember being copied are not there, but some of the files are.

[Jacky]

4) It hangs while in the process of mounting. The dialog that displays the progress mounting the drive pops up, and it hangs at 0%.

I have not encountered this kind of 0% progress error message during a mount command before. It looks more like a copy operation hanging at 0%.
May I suggest that you try to mount hda1on the command line instead, and see what sort of error messages you get. Open up a root shell and explicitly mount hda1 read-only with:

mount /dev/hda1 /media/hda1 -o ro
If this works, you should get back to the command prompt. If not you should get a useful error message. If it works, then mount your IOMEGA disk, which should be sda1 or something like that. Remember to mount it as read-write. You can check what has been mount by simply issuing the command

mount
If you successfully mount both the source and the destination drives, then try copying a few files at a time instead of dragging a whole folder across.