I added some critical windows patches to a file server at work. After restarting the machine Windows claimed the second HD was dead.

I was suspicious about this 'hardware error' (especially after a software update) so I grabbed a Knoppx CD from home the next morning and gave it a try when I got in to work.

Yep, the drive was working perfectly. Nothing I did on the Windows machine could fix the problem and convince windows to 'see' the drive, but luckily Knoppix comes with a CD burning app built-in, so all the files were burnt to CD and moved to our other file server. The boot, browse, burn took only a few minutes and was as smooth as silk.

The reason knoppix saved my life? Our last backup from the 'dead' drive had failed -- which, of course, you often only discover when you most need it.

I might need to make a donation to balance the Karma.