Help! Nedd to recover files

[kk39shadow]

I'm sorry if this has been posted. I searched back a while, and didn't find any answers. I'm new to Linux and have never used knoppix before (obviously) My Windows crashed, and won't boot, so that's why I'm using knoppix. I'm trying to recover files before I reinstall Windows. The hard drive is fine. I'm just totally lost trying to find the files. The knoppix desktop has Hard Disk[ sda], which I can't get into. When I try to open it I get an error could not mount device could not determine the filesystem type and none was specified. There is Hard Disk [sr0], which I can open, and assume is the cd rom drive where Knoppix booted from, and Hard Disk [sr1], which I guess is the DVD RW drive.
Is the first one Hard Disk [sda] my hard drive? And how do get into it? From what I've read I need to mount it, then open it? But how do I do this, because as I said ever time I try to mount it I get the errror message. Any help is appreciated. Thank you

[TopFarmer]

First need to know if you have Norton's GoBack installed , use a third party boot manager or have a DDO (disk drive overly) ? What Windows version does it have and if it is NTFS file system ? Error when trying to boot windows ? What happened before windows crashed ? The info is useful so bad advise is not given.

Very likely TESTDISK (program in knoppix, also dos version available ) will need ran, google program and read the how to use, if you answer yes to first question , do not run testdisk yet.

[kk39shadow]

I don't have GoBack, but I do have Fix It Utilities Recovery Commander installed. I don't know if that will help. I don't use a third party boot mgr, or have a DDO. It is Windows XP Media Center, which is an NTFS file system. I'm not sure exactly what happened to make Windows crash. All I know is I live in an apartment complex, with an ethernet connection, and two computers connected to it. Both crashed at roughly the same time, so I don't know if a virus that symantec didn't catch, or something like that came through.
The error when I try to boot is: Boot device not available press F1 to try again F2 to go to set up. I get the same message when I try to boot with the Windows CD. I already called Dell, and we tried everything to fix Windows. They say my only option is to re-install, so I'd like to try to get my files back first. Thanks

[TopFarmer]

The error when I try to boot is: Boot device not available press F1 to try again F2 to go to set up

That could change every thing. The problem is the bios can not find a hdd or the MBR (Master Boot Record) is bad. First thing is to enter bios (likely F2) and see if the hdd is listed correctly, then check the boot order, my preference is to have the CD first and hdd 2nd.

Is your hdd an IDE or SATA ? (SDA on Knoppix desktop does indicate a SATA hdd and the problem is with the MBR )

In Knoppix - in a root console run FDISK -L post what is displayed.

[Harry Kuhman]

No, run fdisk, not FDISK, Linux is very case sensitive. I don't know if the option should be -L or -l - read the man page for fdisk to be sure.

[cbagger01]

I'm sorry if this has been posted. I searched back a while, and didn't find any answers. I'm new to Linux and have never used knoppix before (obviously) My Windows crashed, and won't boot, so that's why I'm using knoppix. I'm trying to recover files before I reinstall Windows. The hard drive is fine. I'm just totally lost trying to find the files. The knoppix desktop has Hard Disk[ sda], which I can't get into. When I try to open it I get an error could not mount device could not determine the filesystem type and none was specified. There is Hard Disk [sr0], which I can open, and assume is the cd rom drive where Knoppix booted from, and Hard Disk [sr1], which I guess is the DVD RW drive.
Is the first one Hard Disk [sda] my hard drive? And how do get into it? From what I've read I need to mount it, then open it? But how do I do this, because as I said ever time I try to mount it I get the errror message. Any help is appreciated. Thank you

Detailed computer hardware information please.

sda is probably your entire hard drive, assuming you have an SATA hard drive. Normally, the individual partitions appear with numbers at the end of the name. For example:

sda1 39MB Dell diagnostic utility partition
sda2 39.96GB Windows NTFS

and you would click on the "sda2" icon in order to mount your MSWindows "C:\" drive and get the files.

If you do not have icons for each data partition, then it probably means one of three things:

1) Your hard drive controller and driver is not being detected/loaded properly.
2) Your hard drive has suffered a catastrophic failure due to stuck head crash / motor bearing failure / controller card failure.
3) Your drive is physically O.K., but your master boot record and partition table has been corrupted.

For #1, particularly if it is an Intel ICH5/6 SATA hard drive controller, the solution is to reboot multiple times and eventually your drive icon will appear. A better solution is to download the previous (bug free) version of KNOPPIX at version 5.01

You could also try a different rescue tool like the "Ultimate Boot CD" for example.

For #2, you can usually tell by going into your computer BIOS. If the drive does not appear on your BIOS device list, then it is probably cooked.

For #3, you can use the Linux partition recovery tool called "Gpart":

http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/user/76201/gpart/

This tool can scan your hard drive and figure out where each of your partitions are located and help you to rebuild a partition table.

And as a last resort, you can use a program called photorec to find many files even if your filesystem is corrupted. See for example:

http://servers.linux.com/servers/06/...tid=119&tid=13

[TopFarmer]

Harry Kuhman- Thanks for the correction and I must remember the commands are case sensitive, the switch should also be a small -l.

[kk39shadow]

When I run fdisk Here is what I get:
Disk /dev/sda:250Gb 250,000,000,000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track/30394 cylinders
Units=cylinders of 16055 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

This is the drive I'm trying to get into, and you're right it is a SATA hard drive
Also, when I look under QtParted, the hard drive is listed. On the bottom under drive info the status is available, but on the right under status it's listed as hidden.
I already went through the BIOS with the DELL tech before . We made sure it was listed in the right order and everything. Also, we did a Drive Diagnostic from the boot menu, and the drive passed. I'm 99% sure the drive is physically OK, because as I said I had 2 computers crash at the same time with the same problem, same error message. The other one didn't have anything important on it, so I re-installed Windows, and it is fine now. Thanks

[cbagger01]

When I run fdisk Here is what I get:
Disk /dev/sda:250Gb 250,000,000,000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track/30394 cylinders
Units=cylinders of 16055 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

This is the drive I'm trying to get into, and you're right it is a SATA hard drive
Also, when I look under QtParted, the hard drive is listed. On the bottom under drive info the status is available, but on the right under status it's listed as hidden.
I already went through the BIOS with the DELL tech before . We made sure it was listed in the right order and everything. Also, we did a Drive Diagnostic from the boot menu, and the drive passed. I'm 99% sure the drive is physically OK, because as I said I had 2 computers crash at the same time with the same problem, same error message. The other one didn't have anything important on it, so I re-installed Windows, and it is fine now. Thanks

If there is nothing listed underneath the

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

line then it appears that you have lost your partition table and probably also your entire master boot record. If so, the "Gpart" partition recovery tool is your best bet to rebuild your partition table.

[kk39shadow]

Ok, here is what gpart says:

Ok.

Guessed Primary Partition Table:
Primary partition(1)
type: 006(0x06)(Primary 'big' DOS (>32MB))
size: 47mb #s (96327) s(63-96389)
chs: (0/1/1)-(5/254/63)d (0/1/1-(5/254/63)r

Primary partition(2)
type: 007(0x07)(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX or Advanced UNIX)
size: 233609mb #s(478431760) s(96390-478528149)
chs: (6/0/1)-(1023/254/63)d (6/0/1)-(29786/254/5r

Primary partition(3)
type: 012(0x0C)(DOS or Windows 95 with 32 bit FAT,
LBA)
size: 4753mb #s(9735390) s(478528155-488263544)
chs: (1023/254/63)-(1023/254/63)d
(29787/0/1)-(30392/254/63)r

Primary partition(4)
type: 000(0x00)(unused)
size: 0mb #s(0) s(0-0)
chs: (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)d (0/0/0)-(0/0/0)r

Now, where do I go from here?
Thanks again