boot dvd for laptop

[kqkqkq]

Hi,

I am very new to this. I have a HP laptop that I just bought about a month ago. I have been making changed to my data files on it. Last week it stopped rebooting and started to give me error messagel. It is running windows 7.

I was told to download linux bootable dvd to access my files. I have creaded the dvd and the laptop is booting of it however I do not know how I can see my old "C" drive where my data is saved. I tried going to the "Shell" and tried changing directory "cd c:" to c however it says that the drive is invalid.

Can you please help me here? All I need is couple of files from the hard drive and I am not seeing it.

I would appreciate your comments and or solution for this issue

thanks
Kalim

[krishna.murphy]

Kalim-

When you boot up Knoppix, there are some icons on the desktop, i.e. My Documents. Click that, and it will show a window with an upper left portion similar to the attached screenshot. Click the hard drive partition at the bottom of the list e.g. "11.9 GB Volume" in the attached screenshot (probably different in yours.) Note: if you have multiple "Volumes", the biggest one is probably where Windows keeps the C drive. Once you have one clicked, there may well be a slight delay before the contents show up on the right.

Now the fun part! You should probably just search for the file you want by name; if it was in your Windows "My Documents", try right-clicking the "Documents and Settings" folder and choose search, enter the file name etc. Once you locate the file, right-click it and choose Copy. Now plug in the flash drive or whatever you want to Paste the copied file to, and then click that new icon, find the location on that drive where you want the file, right-click it and choose Paste. Repeat as needed.

Enjoy!
Krishna

[kqkqkq]

Hi Krishna,

First of thanks for replying to my post.

Now I am seeing the 447.0 GB Volume. However when I select it shows me Unable to mount device message: "Error org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.UnknownFailure". I am assuming the hard drive has gone bad here.

thanks again
Kalim

[krishna.murphy]

Hi Krishna,

First of thanks for replying to my post.

Now I am seeing the 447.0 GB Volume. However when I select it shows me Unable to mount device message: "Error org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.UnknownFailure". I am assuming the hard drive has gone bad here.

thanks again
Kalim

Dear Kalim:

I don't have enough information to be sure, but I'll hazard a guess that you have Windows, and that it's using the NTFS filesystem. Basically, that's a M$oft custom filesystem that is best dealt with using their tools. If you can, try to get Windows booted in "Safe" mode (their emergency backup mode - no-frills, fix-the-problem-and then-reboot-again and see if it works.) As the computer is booting, press and hold your "F8 Key" which should bring up the "Windows Advanced Options" and see if you can get in to Windows at some level, even just a text-mode command-line interface. Once in, try to run a chkdsk, either by looking on the Accessories-System Tools menu or by just typing that command in on the command line - it should fix problems like this.

There are other approaches, but that's probably where you need to start. Let us know if it doesn't work, and we'll talk about more drastic measures.

Hope this helps!
Krishna