Need Help Using Knoppix to Recover Data From Crashed Windows Computer

[Harry Kuhman]

Yea, Knoppix 6.x hides the handy drive icons. They can be found in a file manager, but unfortunately I don't have a copy of Knoppix running and can't run it at the moment, so I can't give you detailed instructions. But I figured that I should at least let you know that in versions 6.x you can find the drives if you start up a file manager. Hopefully some one else may join in and give you more detailed info.

Alternately, if you can download a 5,x version, it will have the icons, and also a lot more that has vanisged from the disc.

As to writing to CD, that may be a problem. If you have one drive it my be tied up with the Knoppix disc. You may be able to get past this if you use the "toram" cheat code if you have enough RAM memory to copy all of the CD to RAM. This will require about a gig with a CD and I don't know if it can even be done with the DVD version. In addition to that, I have heard talk that the CD writing software may be missing from 6.x versions.

An alternative that I use to CD writing to to transfer files to another computer across a network.

[Tattered Phoenix]

Hi, thanks so much for your reply, this is very useful info.
Do you know how one who start up a file manager? I am not sure how to do that. Or would it be better to download a different version of Knoppix and burn it to cd then switch the CD with the other one and reboot my computer? I have the v6.2 version. again, thanks so much.

[Capricorny]

As you have got this up and running, I would have tried to mounbt the Windoes disk partition manually if I were you.
Assuming you have got Knoppix 6.X with the LXDE interface up and running, you have a screen icon as #3 from left on the bottom status line. Click that, and issue fdisk -l on the command line to find out what disk partitions Linux can see.
Often the main partition will be listed as /dev/sda1 (first partition on first drive), and you can try to mount it read-only with the mount command, using the sudo prefix to take on super user privileges for the occasion, check available space with df, go to the root directory of the volume with cd, then use the directory command ls to see files:

sudo mount -o ro /dev/sda1 /media/sda1
df
cd /media/sda1
ls -al

If this doesn't work, the drive problems may be more serious, and Knoppix might not be the right tool.
If you can get so far, you can use the cd command to move to the directories of interest. Having found the files, you can connect USB media (sticks or hard disks) for backup, mount them and copy over to them with the cp -a command. (Don't bother if the -a option gives you some warnings.) Assuming the USB storage is recognised as /dev/sdb1

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1
sudo cp -a * /media/sdb1

Afterwards, you can unmount the partitions (sudo umount /media/sda1; sudo umount /media/sdb1) and halt the system.

Good luck!

[Tattered Phoenix]

Hi,
How would I mount windows disk, do I select something off the list menu and it will lead to a place to type the command code.....I am sorry to sound so dumb...but I've never used Knoppix and I am a bit confused, but a have a vague idea of what your saying, but I don't know when or where someone would type the command code. Thanks so much for your help.

[krishna.murphy]

Hi,
How would I mount windows disk, do I select something off the list menu and it will lead to a place to type the command code.....I am sorry to sound so dumb...but I've never used Knoppix and I am a bit confused, but a have a vague idea of what your saying, but I don't know when or where someone would type the command code. Thanks so much for your help.

Knoppix features the PCman file manager, prominent on the toolbar as a file folder icon. You can also find it on the "System Tools" menu. Note that Windows is often installed using the NTFS filesystem, which can be risky to write with Knoppix.

Once the file manager is running, you'll have some icons for various things that it recognizes, hopefully including your Windows hard drive partition. It's a click-to-mount interface, but again, it's best to be very cautious when dealing with Windows. If you run the GParted program on the Preferences menu it will enable you to determine the type of filesystem before mounting.

Cheers!
Krishna

[Tattered Phoenix]

Knoppix features the PCman file manager, prominent on the toolbar as a file folder icon. You can also find it on the "System Tools" menu. Note that Windows is often installed using the NTFS filesystem, which can be risky to write with Knoppix.

Hi,
I am not sure how to reach the system tools menu with Knoppix, it brings me to a black screen with a list of things-maybe one of these things listed is System tool, but it is written in german-I have tried to select different ones, and they lead me to more things to select, and i didn't know which one to pick and was afriad I would do something wrong and mess up my computer more than it already is, and there is no back option. Knoppix is the only thing that works on my computer, before changing the boot order to start knoppix, my computer would try to start up, do a disk check and lead to a black screen that said reboot failure, the only way to turn off my computer is by pressing the off button on, which is not good for the computer,

[Capricorny]

Hi,
How would I mount windows disk, do I select something off the list menu and it will lead to a place to type the command code.....I am sorry to sound so dumb...but I've never used Knoppix and I am a bit confused, but a have a vague idea of what your saying, but I don't know when or where someone would type the command code. Thanks so much for your help.

You are NOT dumb at all, just not used to the command line interface - which I prefer to use here, because I don't trust PCman, the built-in point'n-click file manager, fully in emergency cases.
Can you open the terminal window and type the commands, one by one? If you practice a little bit, I think you'll soon get it.

It's not quite necessary any longer to use command line interface in Linux, but it can make many tasks simpler and safer to carry out.

The alternative is to use PCman, as krishna.murphy suggests.
I would NOT recommend Brasero for burning backup CD/DVDs without careful testing first. I have had burning problems with it, but the better (in my experience) alternative k3b is somewhat of a hassle to get installed. It is much safer to write to USB media, preferably more than one.

[Tattered Phoenix]

Can you open the terminal window and type the commands, one by one? If you practice a little bit, I think you'll soon get it.

I am not sure what the terminal window is, I changed the boot on my computer so that when I turn it on Knoppix starts up-shows the Knoppix desktop, then loads to a black page with a number list...I wasn't sure if I was to select one of them to get the desktop icons. Am I to sectect one of these and then use the command code, I am not sure, thanks so much for your help.

[krishna.murphy]

I am not sure what the terminal window is, I changed the boot on my computer so that when I turn it on Knoppix starts up-shows the Knoppix desktop, then loads to a black page with a number list...I wasn't sure if I was to select one of them to get the desktop icons. Am I to sectect one of these and then use the command code, I am not sure, thanks so much for your help.

No wonder it's confusing! This is almost certainly the Adrianne text-reader for visually-impaired folks (like Klaus Knopper's wife Adrianne.) I find it annoying, since I don't need it. To use the disk you have with a true GUI desktop, just type in at the boot prompt (big penguin onscreen before all the numbers show up):

knoppix

That will override the default on the version you have, to use the GUI instead.

As to the terminal, that means you get a command-line-interface, which is all that we who messed with computers before GUIs came along had to work with. It's where you type a command, and whatever you tell it to do, it does (even if you mistype!) But, you can re-read what you type, back up and fix it before hitting Enter, etc. You can start it from the bottom of the GUI (once you have that up!) by clicking the icon that "sort of" looks like a black-and-white TV. The file-folder icon is right there, too, in case you want to see what the file manager can do (or, you can type in the terminal, pcmanfm).

Cheers!
Krishna

[Capricorny]

I am not sure what the terminal window is, I changed the boot on my computer so that when I turn it on Knoppix starts up-shows the Knoppix desktop, then loads to a black page with a number list...I wasn't sure if I was to select one of them to get the desktop icons. Am I to sectect one of these and then use the command code, I am not sure, thanks so much for your help.

It seems that you have got the German version of Adriane downloaded, not the English Knoppix we have as "default" here. Still, for your purpose, you can do what you need with that, I think. At boot, you get a Knoppix prompt for some seconds - there you can type Knoppix, to get the graphical version (Adriane is for visually impaired people) But you have to be quisk at starting typing. I don't think you have seen the ordinary graphics desktop at all - that resembles Windows a bit, with a main menu icon to the left on the bottom status line, and then PCman and Terminal icons, which we have talked about, following.

Edit: Didn't see that krishna.m had already answered!