Using Knoppix to save my data

[johnryan07]

I've had some data corruption and whatnot so my computer will not boot windows. I Had 2 partitions one being ~10gb the other being ~188gb. I'm trying to use Knoppix to boot with so I can then copy and backup all my data before i reformatt and fix it. Knoppiz boots fine, but the only problem i am having is copy data to another hd. This is my first time using knoppix and the first using linux too.

I've turned on sharing, and i've tried putting the data in my "home folder" folder and then tried to copy the data to another hd but nothing works. I have no idea as to what the problem could be, I'm sure it's just something I'm doing wrong, or doing it the wrong way. If anyone could shed some light on this for me it would be greatly appreciated :]

 

[n0cmonkey]

Are you getting any errors?

 

[johnryan07]

yeah, but it just says "could not copy 'name of file'" and thats it, nothing else

 

[Praetor]

You probably don't have write permissions to the partition/drive you are trying to copy the data to.

 

[johnryan07]

i have my thumb drive and an external drive and neither will copy. I checked the permissions and they both had sharing enabled and both had "can view and modify content."

Also, i noticed you liked Calvin and Hobbes. You should check out www.clubjohnny.com/calvin1.htm

 

[gaidin123]

Hi there,

With knoppix you shouldn't be having any problems mounting your windows partitions. Also you have no problems mounting an external hard drive. This is where you want to copy all the data from the internal boot drive right?

What were you trying to use to copy the files from one place to the other? If you are using the terminal window that pops up when knoppix boots, make sure you are root if you are trying to copy the files. Type "su -" without the quotes and the terminal will make you root (note: I don't remember if knoppix gives you a root terminal by default. You can tell you are root if there is a # sign at the beginning of the command line).

Once you are root make sure you can write files to the external hard drive which is probably mounted as /mnt/sda1 (or something similar). Try "touch /mnt/sda1/testfile". Then ls -al /mnt/sda1 and you should see your file with size 0 bytes. If you get this far you know you can write files to the external drive. Then you should just copy whatever files you need..."cp -r /source/files /mnt/sda1/destination" should recursively copy whatever directory you choose.

Gaidin

 

[johnryan07]

ooh ok i sorta feel like an idiot now. I was using "konqueror" to try and click, drag, and drop the data onto the drive. I'm a virgin when it comes to moving data around in that way, but i bet i could figure out enough to get me through. Thanks a lot gaidin123 for that reply.

 

[gaidin123]

Well see I think using Konqueror should work and knoppix really should have a functional GUI way of copying files over. I was listing all the command line tools because they should give you a little more feedback and you can break everything down into little steps to see exactly where your problem lies.

Good luck, I'm interested in hearing what the issue was (even if you think it's dumb 🙂). I use knoppix and some of its variants for data recovery/imaging.

Gaidin