Failed WinXP HDD backup to 320Gb external HDD

[david-m-wood@hotmail.co.u]

I have burned and booted Knoppix 4.0 - at first, the boot stalled at the PCMCIA stage so I used the cheatecode no PCMCIA and it booted successfully. I have been and purchased a Toshiba 320Gb external HDD which I plugged in via USB prior to booting up Knoppix.

When the desktop appears I am able to mount the hda1 and sda1. I have also made them both write enablled. However when I click on actions menu ' change read write mode on the mounted Toshiba drive I get a warning dialogue saying the partition type is NTFS and to try using the Captive-ntfs driver via Knoppix utilities (which isn't included in v4.0 I have noted from other posts). The result is I can see all of my data I wish to recover from my laptop HDD but I have no way of copying it to the external HDD. When I try to copy from the hda1 to sda1 I get a message saying could not make folder. I have checked that all the write enable boxes and menus are checked.

please help I feel so near and yet so far. Also I am a complete newbie to Linux so please be gentle with your replies. I am assuming that this must have happened to someone else!

[markpreston]

Hi David,
I believe you can mount ntfs read / write with Knoppix 4.x, but it is a bit more involved.
I originally posted about this topic to http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21373, but it seems to keep cropping up.
Regards,
Mark

The /dvd/KNOPPIX/linux-ntfs directory of Knoppix 4 (Linux Magazine November 2005 cover edition) shows state as far as writing to ntfs partitions. This uses libntfs. (The Open-Source linux-ntfs library not the kernel driver, which is derived from it). The kernel module is usually about 6 months behind libntfs. According to the article by Klaus Knopper you can now delete files and directories, and create up to 9 new files or subdirectories within a directory. It is complicated to recompile every program to use libntfs for write operations, so they use the FUSE kernel module and a utility called ntfs-mount to actually mount the NTFS partition.
Hopefully the above background information will help when reading the SNAPSHOT information for developers.
Regards,
Mark

[david-m-wood@hotmail.co.u]

Thanks for the speedy response - as someone completely new to Linux what you suggest confuses me greatly. Fundamentally would it just be easier to acquire an old FAT32 HDD and connect it to my Laptop by an external USB linked case?

how do you # Step 1: Load the "Filesystem in Userspace" module.
sudo modprobe fuse?

sorry it must be eternally frustrated having to offer help to people who have little understanding of the subject matter?

Many thanks

[markpreston]

how do you # Step 1: Load the "Filesystem in Userspace" module.
sudo modprobe fuse?

This is a command line issued from a terminal window.
A bit like using the Microsoft DOS prompt.
If you click on the icon with a black background and a golden shell, or search for the Konsole program, you should get a window to open with a prompt
something like
knoppix@ttyp1[knoppix]$

This is your Bash shell command prompt. type sudo modprobe fuse <enter> and you will have completed stage 1 once the command prompt returns and assuming no errors.

It may be that using an old FAT32 HDD, or even a USB stick if you have one and not too much data to transfer would be easier.
Regards,
Mark

[david-m-wood@hotmail.co.u]

I will have acquired 2 10Gb FAT32 HDDs from old PCs - will give them a try this afternoon.

Will knoppix 5.0 support ntfs write capability? see below

The first release of Knoppix 5.0 is exclusively available as a free pressed DVD on CeBIT, at the KNOPPER.NET booth (University of applied sciences Zweibrücken, Hall 9, booth C39/31) and at the Heise booth (Hall 5, E3. Apart from CeBIT, this version cab be ordered from www.emedia.de. The pressing of the CeBIT KNOPPIX DVDs has been sponsored, like in the past years, by the Heise publishing company.

You can find more information about "KNOPPIX @ CeBIT" at the Heise Newsticker (german text) .


What's new:

Linux Kernel 2.6.15.4
Debian (testing/unstable)
Xorg Version 6.9
udev+hwsetup for automatic hardware detection
KDE 3.5.1, GNOME 2.12 from Debian/unstable
OpenOffice 2.0.1 (german+english)
transparent write access for NTFS partitions (libntfs+fuse)
new knoppix-installer now also with the possibility to update existing installations of Knoppix
Many Updates...

[ckamin]

david-m-wood@hotmail.co.u:

Two things come to mind here. One is that you should never use your email address in a post or user name in ANY forum or internet accessible format. Unless you desire to have all sorts of spam sent to you, at the very least. This one contains your name, which is a critical piece of information for someone to steal your identity.

The other is that you should not expect to write to an NTFS partition with Linux and expect flawless results. It may corrupt the partition and render it unreadable by almost any method. I would recommend using an external drive or partition formated to FAT32 and no larger than 32Gig. that would be the safest for the use you describe. Linux can read NTFS, but is not reliable nor recommended to write to such partitions. There have been claims to the contrary and there are people that still believe that smoking cigarettes has nothing to do with lung cancer.

Good luck!