Howdy - Need a little assistance, believe I came to the right spot..

[Tactics]

Hi folks,

I have a project to find a way to access files on a HDD via USB drive. I made a bootable USB device but that does not get me access to the C:/ drive. I’ve been all over Google all day and I see a lot of info. What I’m asking is if a HDD crashes say here at work where I’m doing the project and we need to access some files /data can we get it through somehow connecting a USB device and a program which could bring up a menu allowing that? I know there are other ways to recover data from a crashed drive but I have to find this method. I do see listed below some options that I’ve read about for 5 hours but I’m not 100% which one to use. Do you know what I need or is it even possible?

What I have read - UNetbootin, Live CD / USB, PCLinuxOS, BartPE

Here’s a link I’m going to attempt: seems like a winner but not sure never had to use any of this stuff.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-5928902.html
Thanks, appreciate it

[menotu]

Hi Tactics - welcome to the forum.

Is it just a matter of getting to the "C:/" HDD? I'm assuming the C:/ area is on a hard drive located in the PC you are booting your USB stick on?

The USB stick you are booting - does that have PCLinuxOS on it?

If so, it may be that your C:/ HDD isn't mounted, thus you can't see or access it.

After you've booted the USB stick, try going to:

PCC (Configure Your Computer)  >> Local Disks > Manage Disk Partitions > and that should then show you your drive(s) They may be named sda or sdb (possibly hd1, hd2)

By selecting one and choosing "mount" that should then give you access to it.

Alternatively, booting with the actual LiveCD should mount your HDD automatically - if not do the same as above.

[Tactics]

Hi thx!

yes just a matter of getting to the C: if a HDD was to crash...

Nothing on the stick now hence my original message. I'm not sure what to use

Mounted? - what do you mean after you booted the USB? do you mean if I put PCLinuxOS on it? if so can you tell which one I need and a link for instructions?

http://www.pclinuxos.com/?page_id=10

KDE Desktop
Gnome Desktop
Gnome ZenMini Desktop
LXDE Desktop
XFCE Desktop
Enlightenment Desktop
OpenBox Desktop

??

thx appreciate your time.

[menotu]

Hi thx!

yes just a matter of getting to the C: if a HDD was to crash...
thx appreciate your time.

Hi Tactics

Okay, my own preference - and the one I know best - is KDE 4.5x which you can download here (note its the Full Version not the Minime one)

http://www.pclinuxos.com/?page_id=180

The file will be pclinuxos-kde-2010.07.iso and is approx 689MB in size.

yes just a matter of getting to the C: if a HDD was to crash...

If's just a matter of getting to the files on the C drive you don't really need to create an USB Stick to boot from - a LiveCD maybe a tad better as that way it will give you access to your  C Drive AND your USB Stick which can be used to hold the files copied from your HD.

BUT if you want to do it the USB way (ie. boot from a PCLinuxOS USB stick) we can do that too.

If we do the LiveCD first we can then do the USB if necessary. First thing is to download the iso from the link above.

What operating system are you running at present as that will guide me on what instructions are required.

Post back what OS you will be using and we can proceed from there.

[Tactics]

Hi ok great. 

Yea lets do the USB because that's the project I was given. I followed this link:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/all-in-one-usb-pclinuxos-minimezip/

Seems to be pretty straight forward but it doesn't tell me what to do with the ISO now that I have it lol (meaning just copy on to the stick or extract the files to the stick) Does it matter if I use the Full or Minime? I went and DL'd the the version you mentioned earlier but it was the D/L KDE MiniMe 2010.07

I'll give it shot. I won't break anything i'm working on a test PC

I'm using XP Pro. on it.

Thank you

PS this stuff is pretty cool! i'm a techie but mainly PC hardware, switches, routers. Fun stuff

[menotu]

Hi,

Minime will be fine - no problems. The "core" systems of the main KDE system and Minime  are more or less the same with the main difference being that in Minime the user installs the apps after the install whereas the "main" KDE iso comes pre-loaded with them.

Okay, if you follow the link below, it gives you the instructions needed to create a bootable USB stick using unetbootin on Windows.

Link: http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/unetbootin/wiki/guide

First, format your USB stick and then run unetbootin.

What you are basically doing is pointing unetbootin to the location of your minime.iso, the programme then takes over and does all the hard work of installing the iso to create a bootable OS.

One other thing you'll need to do (if you haven't already done so   ) is go into your PC's bios and set the boot sequence so the USB drive is first in the list.

Another couple of links are:

http://www.mytechguide.org/2010/04/11/create-linux-live-bootable-usb-stick-using-unetbootin/

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

[Tactics]

ok thanks! i'll try the link you posted also and let you know.

One quick question is when the USB boots does a menu come up where I can point it to different parts of the OS installed so I can grab files, documents, etc. (hypothetically speaking from my original post if we had a system crash but needed to recover some info off the HDD)

I understand about the iso image and making it bootable - actually I use .rar / 7-zip a lot for games I download using the .bin and .iso to create the install.

So i'm half way there! this is all new.

Thanks again! 

[menotu]

One quick question is when the USB boots does a menu come up where I can point it to different parts of the OS installed  so I can grab files, documents, etc. (hypothetically speaking from my original post if we had a system crash but needed to recover some info off the HDD

It will boot you to the desktop (part way through booting you may be prompted for which keyboard country you want to use - it defaults to USA - the UK option is the one next to so just choose that)

You'll then be taken to a login screen - with 2 user accounts - one is guest and the other is root.

Choose the guest one and enter the password which is guest (in lowercase)

When you've logged in you'll be at the Main desktop with your panel (taskbar   ) and your main "Start" menu (which is the left-most icon with PC written in the centre)

If you select the "Start" menu and go to File Tools and then choose Dolphin (which is the Default File Manager)

You will then be shown the all the "local" folders with Home being the "Daddy "  

In the left panel, if you can't already see your "C HD" select the icon called "Root"

After selecting Root, you'll see a long list of folders, one of which will be called Media

After pressing Media you should then see your "C HD"

If you still can't see it, it means it hasn't "mounted" (i.e. it hasn't become active - or loaded is another term for it - which means its not accessible.

You will then need to "mount" it. (very simple to do) but for the time being let's run with this and see how you progress.

[Tactics]

  ok i'll keep ya posted!

Thanks again!

[Tactics]

Hi there,

Was out sick yesterday so today i'm back at it. Followed the instructins and checked out those links and all went well. From the top 'Distribution' I selected PSLinuxOS and selected minine 2010 and then loaded the .iso but seem to have a problem getting here:



"It will boot you to the desktop (part way through booting you may be prompted for which keyboard country you want to use - it defaults to USA - the UK option is the one next to so just choose that)" You'll then be taken to a login screen - with 2 user accounts - one is guest and the other is root.


I get to a splash page with a list of selections:

-default
-LiveCD
-Live CD no boot splash
-video safemode
-safeboot
-console
-copy to ram
-media check

I just select enter (assume its default) then it comes to this nice PCLinuxOS screen with the Bull - then another cmd screen but it just flashes and at the bottom I do see for a second 2 or 3 green [ok] on the screen then it goes to a black screen and thats where i'm stuck. Nothing else ever pops up. I have to hard reset the machine.

What am I missing?
 
PS I created this USB on my main machine and i'm plugging it in to another machine. I don't think that matters though.

thanks! 

[Tactics]

I also did format the USB drive to FAT32 per instructions..

[Tactics]

UPDATE: 

Looks like it just took a while to load after the black screen. I'm in now at the desktop and will follow the above instructions and post back.

[Tactics]

menotu thanks for all your help! it worked like a charm and I have access to what I needed. Very cool desktop / interface.

The whole process was pretty easy thank to your help.

Appreciate it.. 

[Tactics]

ok back again haha

why when booting from the USB and now I burned the .iso to a CD and it boots the same way as the USB but it sits at the black screen for hours?

I restarted the PC and booted to the USB again but its been sitting here for 6 hours but hasn't gone into the OS

Do I need to select something else at the splash screen?

thx

[pags]

Can you post the hardware details of the PC you're trying to boot this on?

While Linux (in general, and PCLinuxOS, specifically) is usually very good at properly identifying and handling hardware, no OS is perfect.  There will always be a small subset of hardware that is problematic, or requires extra effort to work properly.  This can be (sometimes) very old hardware, or - more commonly - very new hardware for which there may not be published specs for (or, not widely available yet to the programmers who might reverse engineer the functionality)...