help using knoppix 3.2 to retrieve data from hard drive

[adamj]

My problem is that Knoppix isn't recognizing my HD partition(s)...

The HD I'm trying to retrieve files from is/was formatted for XP. I get the blue screen when I try to turn it on. I first tried setting it as a slave on another PC but it only gives me access to some of the directories I need. I was hoping I could access the ones I want to using Knoppix. But as I said - when it boots up, there is no "Hard Disk Partition [hda1]" or "[sda1]" on the desktop. I know the HD isn't siezed, but could something have happened that it is just "gone" now?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[Harry Kuhman]

Windows not infrequently will damage the mbr, which could cause this problem.

However, you are using a very old version of Knoppix and you don't say what type of hard disk it is. But you hint that it might be SATA rather than normal IDE. If that's the case I would try a newer version. If it's an IDE drive them your version should be fine.

To try to repair the MBR and recover lost partitions, look at the gpard and testdisk commands. Read the man page for each, enter man gpart or man testdisk at a command prompt.