Dead windows OS, need to retrieve files from drives

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bhruss
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Dead windows OS, need to retrieve files from drives

#1 Post by bhruss »

I have a Dell XPS Gen 5 that has a corrupt OS, can not be booted. I have been looking for a way to access the files and save them onto a CD to transfer to a new system.

I was referred to Puppy from a user on the Geeks forum. I was told Puppy might be able to help with my problem and allow me to save my files before I trash the system.

Can anyone help me with this? Is it possible to do?

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Flash
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#2 Post by Flash »

Do you know if the machine will boot from a CD?

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rcrsn51
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#3 Post by rcrsn51 »

You are going to need a working Windows computer to set this up along with some CD burning software that can work with "images".

Then download a Puppy ISO file. A basic one would be Wary Puppy.

bhruss
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#4 Post by bhruss »

rcrsn51 wrote:You are going to need a working Windows computer to set this up along with some CD burning software that can work with "images".

Then download a Puppy ISO file. A basic one would be Wary Puppy.
I have another computer with CD RW that is working. I was going to download the software Barry specifies for doing ISO on cd's. Just wanted to verify it would work and maybe how to go about it after I download Puppy??

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#5 Post by bhruss »

Flash wrote:Do you know if the machine will boot from a CD?
Yes, I can boot the windows cd, but it is a cheap Dell restore cd, and I don't want to wipe out my files. So I should be able to boot Puppy on a cd.

I want to remove the files and then new hard drive and re-install OS. It is actually my wifes system, she has a lot of family pics she doesn't want to lose.

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#6 Post by Bligh »

Put the hdd in an external drive enclosure and access it from any working computer. preferably linux.
Cheers

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Flash
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#7 Post by Flash »

Yes, if you're going to replace the hard disk drive anyway, you could go ahead and do it now. That way, there'd be no danger of destroying data on it as you learn how to use Puppy.

Having said that, it would be perfectly safe to boot Puppy from a live CD and have a look in the drive while it's still in the computer.

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#8 Post by bhruss »

Flash wrote:Yes, if you're going to replace the hard disk drive anyway, you could go ahead and do it now. That way, there'd be no danger of destroying data on it as you learn how to use Puppy.

Having said that, it would be perfectly safe to boot Puppy from a live CD and have a look in the drive while it's still in the computer.
I installed puppy on a cd, and booted it from the cd rom. I then moved all of my files from the Raid array to my bigger storage drive in the old system.

Now all my wifes pictures are stored on the good drive,

It appears the computer suffered hard drive failure, because both hard drives in the raid array are 160 GB drives, Drive 1 shows up as 47 mb (yes, mb not gb), drive 2 shows up as 128 gb, and the other storage drive shows up as 749 gb.

So much for the raid configuration allowing you to boot the computer in the event of hard drive failure. The dang thing copied the errors onto both drives, Windows XP was corrupt on both of the raid drives.

Now, how do you change the screen resolution in puppy? The icons are huge and I can not see some of the items on the desktop because they are outside the viewing area of the screen.

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#9 Post by Flash »

Which version of Puppy did you try? Newer versions seem to do a very good job of automatically configuring for the hardware.

By the way, just to be sure, is this a laptop we're talking about, or a desktop? And how much RAM is in it?

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#10 Post by Atle »

I got a second hand laptop with two HD and raid. It was just impossible to install anything to this machine as the driver for the raid was not present under even Puppy Linux 5.2.8 or Linux Mint 13 for that sake.

Taking the disk out and installing Windows did not work neither, as the drivers for the raid needed the hardware present to be installed.

I think, when I booted this machine from a Puppy 5.2.8 from USB, Puppy accepted the drives and I could actually install it. That said... It was Grub4dos that did not recognize the drives due to the "funny" RAID...

Since then I run Puppy on this machine as a home entertainment center, as it has a nice large 17 inch screen.

The reason i write this is that you might want to just try to install Puppy to a bootable USB flash drive and either install Puppy to one of your drives or simply run the machine from the USB and automount the disks so you can use it for storage...

There is many ways to go about this, but as for me... Puppy Linux 5.2.8.005, was the solution and it also might be that for your wife.

I suggest yuu make the desktop a bit more "feminine" for here and make it personal before presenting it.

The Windows files can just rest where they are until she has figured out what she wants to save and you shall live happily :D ever after

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#11 Post by bhruss »

Flash wrote:Which version of Puppy did you try? Newer versions seem to do a very good job of automatically configuring for the hardware.

By the way, just to be sure, is this a laptop we're talking about, or a desktop? And how much RAM is in it?
Dell XPS desktop, 4 GB ram.

Wary Puppy 5.3

bhruss
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#12 Post by bhruss »

Atle wrote:I got a second hand laptop with two HD and raid. It was just impossible to install anything to this machine as the driver for the raid was not present under even Puppy Linux 5.2.8 or Linux Mint 13 for that sake.

Taking the disk out and installing Windows did not work neither, as the drivers for the raid needed the hardware present to be installed.

I think, when I booted this machine from a Puppy 5.2.8 from USB, Puppy accepted the drives and I could actually install it. That said... It was Grub4dos that did not recognize the drives due to the "funny" RAID...

Since then I run Puppy on this machine as a home entertainment center, as it has a nice large 17 inch screen.

The reason i write this is that you might want to just try to install Puppy to a bootable USB flash drive and either install Puppy to one of your drives or simply run the machine from the USB and automount the disks so you can use it for storage...

There is many ways to go about this, but as for me... Puppy Linux 5.2.8.005, was the solution and it also might be that for your wife.

I suggest yuu make the desktop a bit more "feminine" for here and make it personal before presenting it.

The Windows files can just rest where they are until she has figured out what she wants to save and you shall live happily :D ever after
I plan on letting her try the Linux and see if she likes it. She is the type of person who will actually try to figure something out and give it a fair try before she says no, so I am pretty sure she can figure it out.

I got her files safely onto the storage drive and now I can mount that drive into another computer I have and she can pull them from there when she wants. Had to order an adapter though, my system is IDE and the drive is SATA. Once I have the adapter I will put the storage drive into my system and then she can access her stuff while she plays with puppy.

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#13 Post by rcrsn51 »

bhruss wrote:Wary Puppy 5.3
When you run Wary, there is an initial screen where you get to choose your resolution. But it may be confused by your particular video card.

Since it sounds like you plan to keep using Puppy, the next one I would try is Slacko Puppy 533.

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#14 Post by Atle »

I can not speak for what choice to make when it comes to Puppy, as for Slacko or what what... Me I stick to what always works... No bla bla bla about PAE or choices to make... Just boot and run. And that is Puppy 5.2.8.

No matter what Puppy i try, its not a cross over one as I have plenty of laptops.
Like the latest Official is just a step backwards to me, as its not a "works everywhere every time" kind of a puppy

The thing here is that once you got one CD or even use a Windows program to create a bootable USB... You do not NEED the converter for SATA drives as the files can just stay on the disks you have present. No need to move or pay anything.

Just boot it up, clean out one drive using Gparted, and then move the files you like to keep from the non deleted drive to the one you just deleted and made into NTFS or whatever, and your clear to go:-)

Adapters from SATA to USB is not for free... Puppy on a USB flash drive that you probably already have, is FREE...

You can also use any device like a Mp3 player, mobile phone with flash memory or even a digital camera, as long as its detected as a drive.-)

Buy your wife flowers in stead and go creative:-)

check this out... Many other program that does the same and will save you a SATA to USB converter and also a CD http://rufus.akeo.ie/

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#15 Post by rcrsn51 »

Atle wrote:check this out... Many other program that does the same and will save you a SATA to USB converter and also a CD http://rufus.akeo.ie/
I looked at Rufus and it's very nice. But it has the same problem as other installers like Unetbootin. If you look on the flash drive at the file syslinux.cfg or isolinux.cfg, there is a reference to "pmedia=cd", even though you are not using a CD.

The flash drive will still boot this way. But for best performance, you should change it to "pmedia=usbflash".

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#16 Post by Atle »

rcrsn51...

I have had some problems some times with this kind of programs that I use only in emergency.

Having a good old Live CD with Puppy is the major tool anyway, and those times I have given away mine, I feel like naked and unable to "just fix things" on the fly or make a bootable USB from a Puppy CD.

That said, the most useful tool is to have your mobile phone(if possible) as a bootable USB device as cables are mostly present everywhere you are and so is then Puppy:-)

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#17 Post by bhruss »

Atle wrote:
The thing here is that once you got one CD or even use a Windows program to create a bootable USB... You do not NEED the converter for SATA drives as the files can just stay on the disks you have present. No need to move or pay anything.

Just boot it up, clean out one drive using Gparted, and then move the files you like to keep from the non deleted drive to the one you just deleted and made into NTFS or whatever, and your clear to go:-)

Adapters from SATA to USB is not for free... Puppy on a USB flash drive that you probably already have, is FREE...
I bought the adapter for $ 11.00. This gives her immediate access to her files while we work out the Puppy thing. I can mount it in another windows computer that is running and has printers, scanners, email, etc already set up. I am going to have to replace the hard drives anyway (except the storage only drive, which is new), so I might just as well do it before I install puppy permanently on it.

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