Does Knoppix "read" NTFS drives? (FIXED)

[philbobilbo]

I had read elsewhere that if you had problems with Windows, you could boot from Knoppix to back up files from the Windows hard drives to whatever else you could back up to (CD, USB HDD, other HDD). Gotta say, it will work GREAT with FAT32 versions of Windows, but when I started the CD with my XP computer with NTFS, I got the following errors, and Knoppix took FOREVER to load.

hdd: lost interrupt

--then I got the following
pdcraid: Error reading superblock

Eventually, the CD went through it's normal boot process, but stopped at the following point:

Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab


So, what could be causing the problem? My C: drive in that computer IS NTFS, but the other is a FAT32. Something else amiss? My other older comp with 98 and FAT32 booted flawlessly, and I was able to surf via DSL straight from the CD!!!

[Stephen]

I had read elsewhere that if you had problems with Windows, you could boot from Knoppix to back up files from the Windows hard drives to whatever else you could back up to (CD, USB HDD, other HDD). Gotta say, it will work GREAT with FAT32 versions of Windows, but when I started the CD with my XP computer with NTFS, I got the following errors, and Knoppix took FOREVER to load.

hdd: lost interrupt

--then I got the following
pdcraid: Error reading superblock

Eventually, the CD went through it's normal boot process, but stopped at the following point:

Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab


So, what could be causing the problem? My C: drive in that computer IS NTFS, but the other is a FAT32. Something else amiss? My other older comp with 98 and FAT32 booted flawlessly, and I was able to surf via DSL straight from the CD!!!

From the error it looks like it thinks it is a raid drive do you have such a setup in your computer or maybe an onboard raid that you are not using but still set to on in the bios of the motherboard? Sometimes there are problems with dma for the HD's so use the cheat code (http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/CheatCodes) knoppix nodma at the boot: prompt or maybe even though I do not see it in the list noraid there's a cheat code for almost everything else to prevent the detection worst it can do is tell you it does not exist. BTW a description of the hardware in the machine could help you know make/model/brand/size kind of thing.

[philbobilbo]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the quick response: my computer is the following

ECS K7S5A Mobo with 12/29/02 Bios update
Windows XP Home with SP1
256MB PC2700 Mushkin RAM
Atlhon XP 1800+ processor
Radeon 9600 Pro All-in-Wonder vid card
onboard sound
onboard nic

btw, tried noraid and nodma, and still nothing. any other suggestions? my bios didn't show any info (unless I missed something) about Raid. I know for sure I DON'T have the drives set up in that manner.

[Stephen]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the quick response: my computer is the following

ECS K7S5A Mobo with 12/29/02 Bios update
Windows XP Home with SP1
256MB PC2700 Mushkin RAM
Atlhon XP 1800+ processor
Radeon 9600 Pro All-in-Wonder vid card
onboard sound
onboard nic

btw, tried noraid and nodma, and still nothing. any other suggestions? my bios didn't show any info (unless I missed something) about Raid. I know for sure I DON'T have the drives set up in that manner.

In that case you should try knoppix testcd just to make sure you have a good CD and use failsafe all by itself at the boot: prompt to see if it will both with the minimal hardware detection. One more thing did you turn off the Plug'n'Play OS setting if you have one in the BIOS?

[Yakumo]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the quick response: my computer is the following

ECS K7S5A Mobo with 12/29/02 Bios update
Windows XP Home with SP1
256MB PC2700 Mushkin RAM
Atlhon XP 1800+ processor
Radeon 9600 Pro All-in-Wonder vid card
onboard sound
onboard nic


considering the question is about accesing a hard drive, don't you tihnk you should have listed your drives and the interfaces they're using?

[philbobilbo]

no, the question is NOT about accessing a hard drive, it's getting the computer to boot up from the damn cd!!! I am just passing on the errors I received when I attempted to use the bootable cd. and yakumo, don't you really think a phallic response such as yours is unnecessary? :evil:

[philbobilbo]

Well, here's the story: Stephen, I tried your "failsafe" only option, and Knoppix booted without a hitch. At that point, I was pretty sure my problem was hardware-related. After trying "knoppix noraid nodma", I got the same old error. Hmm, so just for kicks, i typed "expert" at bootup, and I'll be darned if I didn't see a lot of useful information come up. I then saw that the drive that was causing the problem was the second drive on the secondary IDE channel (normally a swap drive in XP), and that drive was the one causing the "hdd no detection" error. So, I just unplugged the power and IDE cable from it; rebooted, hit "knoppix lang=us" and VIOLA! Booted just fine into Knoppix normally!!!! Had both network and USB HDD working fine, and was able to pull off files from the NTFS drive onto the USB drive, which is FAT32. So I indeed CAN back up NTFS files if indeed my XP install should get crushed somehow in the future. Great to know. Wow, a free OS that works like a charm. Simply amazing. Nice job, folks.