New to Linux

**Gthang** · 02-12-2006, 08:24 AM

Hello, I just finished downloading Knoppix and have a few questions.

My main computer is a laptop. My Desktop used to be my main computer until I had a big failure.

On the desktop, I had a 6GB hard disk installed. Then I installed Windows XP Pro on this drive. When I got a new drive, I used Partition Magic to image the 6GB drive onto the 30GB drive. This created a C:\ partition and a D:\ partition. At first everything was fine. At some point later, I had to reinstall Windows. It reinstalled successfully, but because the D:\ partition was NTFS at the time of the reinstall, I can no longer access the D:\ partition. I had very important files on that D:\ partition, and have been trying to recover those files with no success. I tried installing a second hard drive with XP installed and set as the main drive, and set the 30GB drive to slave status. But that didn't help either.

So when I found out that you could recover files from bad partitions using Linux, I thought I'd give it a try. But since I'm a newbie, I don't want to screw up my desktop any more than it already is.

Is it possible to access a damaged/unreadable (at least to Windows) NTFS partition via Linux?

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-12-2006, 08:51 AM

1) Awful choice for a subject of a post in a forum already called MS Windows & New to Linux. See my answer #7.

2) Knoppix can often read NTFS partitions when Windows can't. But it should be obvious that certain bad things that can happen to the partition or the disk might destroy it enough that even Knoppix can't read it. Knoppix can not be used to write to a NTFS partition though. See my generic answer #5.

**Gthang** · 02-12-2006, 06:45 PM

Sorry about the title, I couldn't think of any other attention-grabbing titles.

I forgot to ask, is it possible to use a USB data-transfer cable to use the laptop (running Linux) to access the bad WinXP desktop? The instructions for the data cable say to create a name for the desktop and the laptop, and then to access the remote computer via a link in My Computer. But I don't remember if there were any data-transfer drivers for Linux. I will search and try to find one.

Thanks for your advice.

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-12-2006, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by Gthang

.....s it possible to use a USB data-transfer cable to use the laptop (running Linux) t.....

USB is truly awful for networking. There are many different designs of these usb cable hacks and none of them have software that is compatable with other devices, so if you are going to find software for it you will likely have to go to the maker. I certainly don't expect that you'll get Linux software for it.

**Kowood** · 02-13-2006, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by Harry Kuhman

USB is truly awful for networking.

USB is truly awful for most anything. Except keyboards for video game consoles.

**nad** · 02-13-2006, 05:36 PM

If windoze doesn't recognize your filesystem, connecting from another computer no matter what OS is not going to help.

You need to boot the desktop with the knoppix disk and search here for advice concerning your issues.

**Gthang** · 02-14-2006, 12:10 AM

Good news, i was able to boot the Knoppix DVD on the desktop. Even better, I was able to access the bad partition.

Only problem, I am still relatively new, and am having trouble creating a new folder to copy the files to. I get a messge saying I don't have permission to create that folder.

Anyway, I will search the forums and see what I can find.

YIPPPPEEE! (Sorry, can't help myself; after almost 2 years of trying to get into this partition, I finally do!)

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-14-2006, 12:15 AM

Originally Posted by Gthang

Only problem, I am still relatively new, and am having trouble creating a new folder to copy the files to. I get a messge saying I don't have permission to create that folder.

Where are you trying to create that "folder"? Don't do it in the bad partition, and give up any foolish ideas abot Knoppix writing to a partition with an NTFS format. You should be able to copy the files to a FAT partition (assuming that none are larger than 4 gig) but you have to understand that Knoppix by default makes partitions read only and you have to change this if you plan to write to the partition.

**Gthang** · 02-14-2006, 02:39 AM

I opened QTParted, and found out that the bad partition (with the important files on it) was hidden. If I unhid it, and commited the change, would I lose the files, or would it just make it visible to write to it from Windows?

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-14-2006, 03:31 AM

Originally Posted by Gthang

I opened QTParted, and found out that the bad partition (with the important files on it) was hidden. If I unhid it, and commited the change, would I lose the files, or would it just make it visible to write to it from Windows?

There is no easy answer to this. There is no one official hidden bit in the partition table. Some software does hide a partition by setting the high order bit of the partition type byte, thus making the partition an unknown type, but there are other ways to change the partition table so that the partition is not recognized and thus hidden too. And some OEMs do add an extra "hidden" partition to a disk to hold special recovery software. Without knowing how and why the partition is "hidden", it is my expectation that you will only make things worse and lower your chances of recovering the data if you make changes to the partition table without a good understanding of what has happened and what should be there.