2 methods for accessing and copying data in Inspiron 2600

I am posting this as a public service. Because I was frustrated after extensive reading I could find very little information after my Dell Inspiron 2600 (made in 2002) deny my access through Windows (due to the use of the flaky Norton GoBack) .

So I needed a way to copy the data from the C drive of my Dell laptop without going through Windows .

Now I have discovered 2 methods that I did not find in this forum. May be it is because I could not understand most of what I have read. Anyway , here is method 1

Here are my reports about how I managed to use knoppix, Hard Drive Cable Adapter , and an external drive that is formatted in FAT32 (i.e. not NTFS formatted):


Method 1:

Here is how I managed to retrieve data from my Inspiron 2600 laptop , which was not accessible after Norton GoBack messed it up.

I downloaded Knoppix and made a CD out of it.

Then I read , in Dell support forum: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...=321148#M24006

and

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...=321131#M12468

and also posting and receiving answer at http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...3133&jump=true



So I bought 2.5 inch to 3.5 inch IDE Hard Drive Cable Adapter and an external hard drive (which to my pleasant surprise came already formatted in FAT32 . FAT32 is the file system Knoppix will write to, not NTFS. ) from CompUSA.


With the help of pictures and instructions,
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...5-5160538.html

Pay attention to Figure E , that is the direction the Hard Drive Cable Adapter should be attached to my laptop hard drive.

Note that the special interface plug board at the end of my laptop hard drive is removable, just be very careful. Once removed it will reveal 2 rows of pins the Hard Drive Cable Adapter can be attached .

Then I make a DVD player the secondary master drive , and the Hard Drive Cable Adapter (with laptop drive attached to it) the secondary slave drive. Watch the red lining on the IDE drive cable , make sure it is aligned with the right side of the Hard Drive Cable Adapter . If aligned wrongly the computer will not recognize the presence of the laptop drive. And then when I boot up into Knoppix , at the boot: command, press enter, and it shall go all the way to KDE desktop.

Then I need to right click the laptop drive icon , and change the read/write mode. Because it is right now only in read mode, and so nothing can be copied to it. If you don't understand , read:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...eff214a350b11a and
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...eff214a350b11a

And after I have finished copying, I am in business .

Here is method 2 (alternative method) using only Knoppix and an external drive (doesn't matter whether it is formatted in NTFS or FAT32):


Method 2:

The goal is to use knoppix to transfer data from Windows C drive in my Dell Inspiron 2600 laptop because I cannot access Windows after Norton GoBack messed it up for me:

Eventually, with the help of a Debian expert , I learned to access and copy data from my laptop using the command line of Knoppix . I never get to find out the cheatcodes usable for my Dell Inspiron 2600. I am not prepared to spend any more time on finding the cheatcodes in order to access the graphical user interface of KDE in Knoppix.

Laptops are notorious for requiring cheatcodes. And I think this particular Dell model manufactured in 2002 is probably one of the more notorious and unyielding model , as far as Knoppix cheatcodes is concerned.

So this is what the Debian expert showed me:

Make sure there is enough space on the external drive to receive data from the laptop.

Hook up my external drive (and it does not matter if the drive is NTFS or FAT32 formatted, at least as far as Knoppix 5.0.1 is concerned) :
When Knoppix CD is powered up upon booting , I will see the boot: sign. Type the following cheatcodes to get into the command line interface:
knoppix xserver=XF86_SVGA noagp 2

Then after it has finished doing its things, I will see
root@tty1[/]#
At this point , type the following lines to start mounting the external drive and also the internal drive, whenever I see root@tty1[/]# , press ENTER key after every line :

root@tty1[/]#mount /dev/hda1 {mount internal drive in laptop}
root@tty1[/]#mount /dev/sda1 {mount external drive already hooked up to laptop}

root@tty1[/]#mkdir /mnt/sda1/Copied { Create a folder called Copied in my external drive to hold all the stuff from laptop }
root@tty1[/]#cd /mnt/hda1 {I don't remember what this is for. But it is part of the game.}
root@tty1[/]#cp -a * /mnt/sda1/Copied { To instruct to start copying everything from laptop to Copied folder. Watch the space between some of the characters.}

root@tty1[/]#umount /dev/sda1 { Once it is done copying , I will see the root@tty1[/]# again. Now I must dismount the external drive before unhooking it from the laptop. Very important, or I might lose data , even if not, I will not have access to external drive in Windows. }

root@tty1[/]#exit { and then I will see logout in the next line and it should be safe to close down the computer and unhook the external drive.}


To call up help directory , which is messy because it is full of command lines, type at root@tty1[/]# :
cp help

The size of the Copied folder on the external drive is surprisingly small, considering I have about 5 gigs of data (including operating system and data files from the laptop. So some operating system files definitely not copied to the external drive. I only hope all the data files are copied. }