Midnight Commander (linux)

charliechan

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hi folks,

i had a hard disk die on me a while back and im trying to recover some data on the drive.

to do this, im using this freeware......

http://www.sysresccd.org/index.en.php

basically, the end result is a cd, and linux and various tools run off the cd rather than the hard drive (which dont work anyhow!!)

the cd also contains quite a few tools that can help me do this. one of this is called midnight commander. it seems to be the simplest as im no techie.

from what i can see, it is simply a command line that allows you to do simple unix like commands to find, move copy etc files.

here is my question:

the command line starts in the cd rom directory. what are the unix (linux) commands to move from the cd rom, to the hard drive (device??), find my files, and copy them to a floppy drive?

thanks for any help.
 
Was your PC running Linux or Windows?

Midnight Commander is a Linux file manager dating from way back.

If you were running Linux then I would think that you may have to mount the Hard Disk using the mount command. (Assuming the CD is a Linux live CD)

If you were running Windows then SuperWinPE is the CD you need.

HTH

JonnyT
 
the pc was running windows xp

so im trying to get the linux os on the cdrom/memory to see the xp hard drive files.

am i barking up the wrong tree with this tool?

cheers.
 
Yes you are.

Linux uses different file systems to XP's Fat32 and NTFS and is somewhat dodgy when accessing XP file systems.

What you need is a WinPE disk which effectively boots a mini version of XP from CD and may allow you to access the hard disk.

I have a CD called Super Win PE which also has accessories that could allow you to recover data, or repair the hard disk etc. It is available via emule etc ;o)

JonnyT
 
Linux can read NTFS filesystems reliably. I'm not familiar with the particular recovery CD you have, but you will need a sequence of commands something like this:

1. Create a mount point where you can mount the partition eg

mkdir /mnt/mydisk

2. If the drive is not too badly damaged you can hopefully mount it:

mount -t NTFS /dev/hda1 /mnt/mydisk

(NTFS might be in lower case)

3. /mnt/mydisk is your C: drive. You can now use Linux commands eg

cd - change directory

ls - list contents of directory

cp - copy file(s)

cp -r - recursively copy files including all subdirectories

cat - send file to standard output (typically the terminal)

find - find file(s)

Read the manual pages for the commands for more info eg

man ls

If the filesystem is too badly damaged to mount it, there are NTFS repair tools for Linux. I havn't used them so I can't help.
 
I should have added that if you can get the NTFS partition mounted and have another Windows box connected by ethernet, you should be able to mount a share on the Windows box and copy whetever you need to the working machine. Ask if you need help with this.
 
cheers everyone - much appreciated.

dcraig1 - i have found a list of unix commands on the web, but i couldnt find out the one to copy the files from hard drive to my floppy

once i am in the right directory on the hard drive, i assume it would be

cp 'file name.ext' to...yikes, havent got a clue!!! how do i specify the floppy as the destination???


ta
 
Make sure the floppy is (DOS) formatted. You will probably have to mount the floppy. Create a mount point if it doesn't already exist. eg

mkdir /mnt/floppy

then mount it

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

/mnt/floppy is your A: drive.

You can use Linux commands such as mkdir, cp etc to manage files on the floppy eg

cp * /mnt/floppy

will copy all files in current working directory to the floppy.
 
dcraig1 said:
Make sure the floppy is (DOS) formatted. You will probably have to mount the floppy. Create a mount point if it doesn't already exist. eg

mkdir /mnt/floppy

then mount it

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

/mnt/floppy is your A: drive.

You can use Linux commands such as mkdir, cp etc to manage files on the floppy eg

cp * /mnt/floppy

will copy all files in current working directory to the floppy.

hero!!
 
theknifemac said:
Or you can build your own using BartsPE, assuming you have access to the XP master disk and a working PC http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/


hey knife - thanks a load for this.

the linux stuff didnt work - probably because it cant read xp data??

anyway, i managed to cut myself a bartpe cd and got all my data back.

thanks a million!!
 
Linux can read the XP data, you just have to mount the partitions correctly!

I also used BartPE rather a lot in my old professional life.

JonnyT
 
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