Trying to rescue a hard disk -- weired feedback??

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

max bianco wrote:
> 
> 
> On Jan 18, 2008 12:12 PM, max bianco <maximilianbianco at gmail.com 
> <mailto:maximilianbianco at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>     On Jan 18, 2008 11:59 AM, William Case <billlinux at rogers.com
>     <mailto:billlinux at rogers.com>> wrote:
> 
>         Hi;
> 
>         I have never been a tech support person.  But I can see why some
>         of them
>         go crazy.
> 
> 
>         My friend just told me that his drive 'broke' while he was trying to
>         increase the size of his WindowXP partition while in Fedora using
>         'parted'.  His description "Everything was working fine then
>         'parted'
>         burped and didn't finish moving files and the disk hasn't worked
>         since".
> 
>         It sounds like he has lost all his partitions.  He can't
>         re-install the
>         Windows part.  He bought his re-furbished computer that included
>         WindowsXP Pro from a reputable dealer.  He failed to get an
>         installation
>         disk.  I assume the .cab files have been stored in the Windows
>         partition.
> 
>         As unlikely as it seems, can anyone suggest a way to find a
>         bootable
>         partition, Fedora or Windows.  If I can get to Fedora, there is
>         a chance
>         I can rescue his Fedora files, and perhaps mount the Windows
>         partition
>         to save some of his Windows files.  If not, I will tell him to
>         phone the
>         dealer and see if they can help.
> 
>         Although the situation is not desperate, desperate (i.e. only
>         personal
>         and household data are on his files) I am regarding this as a
>         learning
>         challenge that contains some bragging rights.  Any suggestions
>         gratefully received.
> 
>         --
> 
> 
>     Assuming you can mount the drive . Try some of the data recovery
>     tools in the repos
>     testdisk has worked for me in the past, dd_rescue is another and 
>     there are more but my experience with data recovery is limited.
>     Always read the man pages before you use the tools.
> 
>     -Max
> 
> I wasn't very clear. Hook the drive up to a working  Linux box. Most of 
> the data recovery tools are there for most of the distributions. There 
> are some live cd's that contain such tools but i can't for the life of 
> me think of one right now.
> 
> -Max
> 
If you don't want to remove the drive, you can try and recover the 
partition table using a bootable CD. I keep a copy of the System 
Rescue CD for tasks like this.

Mikkel
-- 

   Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

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