Mounting HD with Write permission using LIVE CD

**emmbec** · 01-31-2005, 07:40 AM

I need to change some configuration files in windows because it won't boot anymore. I tryed using the live cd to correct the problem but when I mount the hard drive I can't write to it because it says that it is a READ ONLY FILE SYSTEM..... I tryed using the following commands:

>su
#mount -o dev /mnt/hda1
#cd /mnt/hda1
#mkdir ANYTHING

But I can't write to the HD, please its really important for me to be able to write a file to my windows partition. I only have windows on this computer and i am using the live cd to recover windows.... thanks

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-31-2005, 07:46 AM

Before you find the answer to this it is important to ask what type of file system the partition uses. Knoppix should not be used to write to a NTFS partition, it will corrupt it.

**rcook** · 01-31-2005, 05:27 PM

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

This will edit the registry, change passwords and permit file replacement, as long as the replacement is not larger than the original

Time is short more later, if you are interested or need it.

**emmbec** · 01-31-2005, 08:41 PM

It is a NTFS file system, is there any way I can write to it with knoppix live cd????

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-31-2005, 08:49 PM

Originally Posted by emmbec

It is a NTFS file system, is there any way I can write to it with knoppix live cd????

Assuming that you want to corrupt the disk, yes. Otherwise no. There is software called captive NTFS in some live CD's (although not knoppix) that claims to safely write to NTFS, but from what I've read in this forum it still isn't 100% safe, it just has a lower chance of corruption. Your safest bet would be, before writing to the partition with anything, to use Knoppix to recover everything that you "need" to save to another hard drive (with a fat partition) or to another computer on a network. Then you can either try to use something with Captive NTFS to fix it or just reinstall Windows.

**gnarvaja** · 01-31-2005, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by Harry Kuhman

Originally Posted by emmbec

It is a NTFS file system, is there any way I can write to it with knoppix live cd????

Assuming that you want to corrupt the disk, yes. Otherwise no. There is software called captive NTFS in some live CD's (although not knoppix) that claims to safely write to NTFS, but from what I've read in this forum it still isn't 100% safe, it just has a lower chance of corruption. Your safest bet would be, before writing to the partition with anything, to use Knoppix to revover everything that you "need" to save to anoher hard drive (with a fat partition) or to another computer on a network. Then you can either try to use something with Captive NTFS to fix it or just reinstall Windows.

If after all these warnings, you still want to write to a NTFS partition, you should use the 2.6 Kernel instead of the 2.4. If you don't know how to do it, then you may not really understand the risks you are taking or not care much about the NTFS partition's health.
My $.02
--GN