Live Boot CD doesn't see hard drive running Windows XP Pro

[Dirtbiker]

I'm attempting to use Knoppix v6.4.4, which I just found out about. I'm a total newbie to Knoppix and the forum, but this is a really cool tool. I've searched the forum and haven't found an answer, so I apologize in advance if I'm asking something already on the forum.

I have (had) a machine running Windows XP Pro. It worked one day, and then wouldn't boot the next time it was powered on and is saying the boot sector is bad. So, I created a Live Boot CD to see if I could fix the hard drive. The Live Boot CD works fine, but the computer/knoppix doesn't show the hard drive when Knoppix is loaded.

So, does that mean the Hard drive is toast and a reformat/reinstall is my only option? While the critical stuff is backed up, there are a few things I'd like to retrieve if possible.

Thanks a million if anyone has a magic bullet!

[Forester]

Hi Dirtbiker and welcome to the Knoppix forums.

So you're new to Knoppix. Are you new to Linux as well ?

Can you open a terminal emulator (third icon from the left on the panel at the bottom of the Knoppix desktop) and type in the following:

cat /proc/partitions

This should print out four columns of information. The fourth column is name. The first entry should be named cloop0 (that's the Knoppix on the CD) and the second should be named sda. That's your hard drive. If there is only the cloop0 entry then your hard drive is toast (but I don't think it will be).

If the sda entry is there the next entry should be sda1. If it isn't there, the partition table is gone and I think you'll have to kiss your files good bye and reinstall.

If there are more sdan entries then we've got to figure out which is your C: drive. If there is just one other entry, it is probably a hidden rescue partition. The third column gives you an idea of how big each entry is. Your C: drive will be the bigger one (almost the same size the sda entry.

You've a choice here. You could try mounting your C: drive and rescuing files you want to keep (where are you going to put them - have you a USB stick handy ?) or you could try repairing the boot sector.

Repairing the boot sector is actually a question of writing a new one. There are a number of ways of doing that - you could even install grub. You could go off and find some Windows MBR install kit but I can't really help there - the last time I did that we were still using 3½" diskettes.

Besides, where would the fun be in that ? I'm going to suggest you try to make your hard drive bootable again the same way I'd make a USB stick bootable. If it works, you're home in one, if it doesn't you've lost nothing. At the command prompt in the terminal emulator windows enter:

sudo ms-sys -s /dev/sda

Shutdown Knoppix, remove the CD and reboot. Note down carefully the error message you get and report back.

[krishna.murphy]

Knoppix isn't always the best tool for NTFS recovery, I'm afraid (take a look at some of the posts here about Hiren's BootCD, for instance.) One thing to check is whether you have a BIOS switch for "native-mode" SATA drives. I've experienced that having to be set one way for Windows and another for Knoppix, assuming you have a SATA drive. We'll be able to help much more if you give us more details - brand and model, and output of the "lspci -v" command (start a command prompt window with the black computer-monitor-looking icon on the lower left and type that in with a <return> after, then copy the output to the posting window.)

Cheers!
Krishna