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 .