Need Help Using Knoppix to Recover Data From Crashed Windows Computer

[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!

[krishna.murphy]

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!

I missed the part about German; you'll need to use the following at boot to switch to English:

knoppix lang=us

I'm not sure if that takes care of the keyboard difference as well - you may need

 xkeyboard=us

at the end of the knoppix line - see the documentation.

Cheers!
Krishna

[Tattered Phoenix]

Thanks Krishna andCapricorny for the help, I have just made a new cd with the english version of Knoppix- KNOPPIX-ADRIANE_V6.2CD-2009-11-18-EN.iso, when I downloaded it the first time there was a whole bunch of downloads to choose from and I wasn't sure what one to choose, I have yet to try and use it, I am afraid of messing up my computer more than it already is but typing something wrong.
Also I have another question, I bought one of those external hard drives that backs up computers, but windows vista isn't working on my computer I can not log in and tell it to starting backing files up, is there any way I could use either knoppix, or the Adriane to program to tell my computer to copy files to the external hard drive with out major writing to the hard drive?
Thanks so much for all of your help.

[krishna.murphy]

If you are now able to boot to the GUI desktop, you should be able to access the external drive with no trouble. Getting to the data on the Windows drive can be a little more trouble, since Windows could have messed up the filesystem on that internal drive. I suggest booting the CD, starting the file manager, and then clicking the drive icon for the internal drive.

If you see the folders for the Windows partition, go ahead and plug in the new drive, click its' icon when it shows up, and then proceed to drag-and-drop some useful files to the new drive. Once you've backed up the goodies (My Documents, email, etc.) you can then try your hand at repairing the broken Windows stuff. If it's too big a job, I'd say at that point that it's time to use a (blow the data away) Windows "rescue" disk or boot-option.

Cheers!
Krishna