Hi, I've got a broken harddrive sitting in my notebook computer next to me here. I know that the chances of getting anything off of it at this point are slim to none, but there are a few files I didn't back up recently that I would really like to get off of it, if it is at all possible.

I am very new to KNOPPIX, and Linux in general. A friend of mine gave me a copy a while back, and it almost succeeded in saving some files from my harddisk last time it died (unfortunately it wouldn't recognize the USB Zip Drive for some reason, probably my fault. It was an older version). So when I called him up this time, he told me to download the newest version of KNOPPIX and try again.

I downloaded KNOPPIX 5.0.1, and it does work on the computer with the broken harddrive (it booted fine, I can open programs and stuff). However, the whole time it is booting up, the harddrive is clicking away (harddrives aren't supposed to do that I understand ). When it is finally done booting, the harddrive is silent, and when I try to mount it:

"Could not mount device.

The reported error was:

Error reading bootsector: Input/output error

Failed startup volume: Input/output error

Couldn't mount device '/dev/hda1': input/output error

Mount failed."

I tried mounting it through the Konsole with "mount /media/hda1", but it gives a similar error.

I know this is almost certainly a waste of time trying to get files off of the thing, but I still want to try. Does anyone have anything I can try? I'd appreciate any help.