[nfbcs] access hard drive

Sat Apr 3 02:00:30 UTC 2010

Ah! cool.  I actually didn't know about grml at all.

Bryan, this is a text based (think dos like) linux boot environment
that you can download from grml.org

they'll still have to burn it to a cd, learn how to use a linux shell,
learn how to turn on speakup, and learn how to use parted.

We've avoided needing to learn how to use the GNOME windowing
environment, which is a big step forward.

Thanks Kelly,

Jim

On Fri, Apr 02, 2010 at 08:30:28PM -0400, Kelly Prescott wrote:
> Roger that....
> One other thingthough, the grml has support for a hardware synthesizer out
> of the box so if you use that and have a supported synthesizer you don't
> need to use orca  as all the tools have a command-line interface and speakup
> is the console screen reader much like the "asap" of dos days.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Jim Barbour
> Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 7:48 PM
> To: NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] access hard drive
> 
> Kelly, I totally agree that a linux solution can fix the partition
> table. We'll just have to agree to disagree about fsck.vfat doing as
> good a job as available microsoft tools.
> 
> Bryan,
> 
> If your friend decides to go with a linux solution (which is
> free and accessible, but has a steeper learning curve), then they
> should look for a live CD with the orca screen reader on it.  Googling
> for "orca linux live CD" will help you find one.
> 
> Another way to resize the partition is to use something like "parition
> magic", which will be more friendly, since it's a task oriented
> approach rather than starting with a linux shell.  However, I suspect
> that partition magic is not free, and it is certainly not accessible.
> Googling for "partition magic" will take you to the right place to
> download the software.
> 
> Regardless of whether they go with linux or partition magic, they'll
> need to download an ISO image and burn it to a CD, which is something
> I don't know how to do on a windows machine. I'm sure it's doable, I
> just don't know how.
> 
> If they decide to go with partition magic, they'll need a sighted
> assistant to drive the computer.  They start by putting the partition
> magic cd they just created into the drive, and booting the machine.
> After that, they should just poke around until they find the correct
> item for resizing the partition.  I have high confidence that this
> will be fairly easy to do.
> 
> For linux, your friend should spend a bit of time reading docs about
> how orca works.  Further, they'll want to read docs about parted which
> is aprogram that will do partition management on hard drives.  Again,
> it's important to remember what Kelly says.  There are no safety rails
> here.  If they aren't sure what they're doing, they can completely
> ruin any data on the disk.  (sorry, I know it's dramatic)
> 
> They'll boot their computer off the live CD, start
> orca, start a terminal, and then run parted.
> 
> I can get into more specifics if you'd like, but start with this and
> see how it goes.
> 
> Jim
> 
> On Fri, Apr 02, 2010 at 06:37:35PM -0400, Kelly Prescott wrote:
> > I think the linux tools could just resize the partition to fix it.
> > and yes linux can repair the filesystem with just as much reliability as a
> > ms tool.
> > the failing is not with the linux tools, but rather the knowledge of who
> is
> > using them.
> > Linux has no fail-safes so if you nuke it, you own all the parts.
> > I have repaired many disks/filesystems that commercial and ms tools said
> > were toast!
> > If you want to discuss it voice, you can call me at 419.909.0550 and I
> will
> > be happy to chat about it.
> > The key is more information.
> > at this point we are making a lot of asumptions and that can be where our
> > logic falls apart.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> > Of Bryan Schulz
> > Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 11:19 AM
> > To: NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List
> > Subject: Re: [nfbcs] access hard drive
> > 
> > hi,
> > 
> > the problem was the main drive was 500gb and the spare drive is only
> 250gb.
> > the purpose was to reduce the size so the main drive could be copied to
> the 
> > spare drive so the spare drive could be used in another tower.
> > i think the entire partition was resized instead of making another
> partition
> > 
> > and now it can't be accessed.
> > 
> > Bryan Schulz
> > 
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Jim Barbour" <jbar at barcore.com>
> > To: "NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> > Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 10:00 AM
> > Subject: Re: [nfbcs] access hard drive
> > 
> > 
> > > The point is that they boot off the live linux CD.  This gives them an
> > > environment to work in that isn't making use of their windows boot disk
> > >
> > > If they aren't a linux user, this does have a rather high learning
> curve.
> > >
> > > However, I'm not really sure that this solution meets the needs of
> > > Bryan's friend.  If I understand correctly, this friend has a
> > > corrupted mbr and possibly a corrupted filesystem they want to repair,
> > > so they can copy files from the disk.
> > >
> > > Linux can rewrite the MBR, but probably not repair the vfat table.
> > > My experience is that LInux's tools for repairing vfat filesystems are
> > > not as reliable as the ones MS provides.
> > >
> > > Bryan, can you explain further what the exact problem is?
> > >
> > > Jim
> > >
> > > On Fri, Apr 02, 2010 at 09:32:41AM -0500, Bryan Schulz wrote:
> > >> as most, he doesn't use linux.
> > >> how is that supposed to work with windows machines?
> > >>
> > >> Bryan Schulz
> > >>
> > >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kelly Prescott"
> > >> <prescott at deltav.org>
> > >> To: "'NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> > >> Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 9:00 AM
> > >> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] access hard drive
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> >use a linux rescue disk and you can do it with that.
> > >> >you can also copy and resize partitions with it.
> > >> >so you could take all data from one partition and put it on the new 
> > >> >drive
> > >> >and resize the new partition.
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >> >2 choices are:
> > >> >grml http://www.grml.org and system rescue cd
> > >> >http://www.sysrescd.org
> > >> >the grml is probably better as if you have a hardware synthesizer it 
> > >> >will
> > >> >most likely be able to speak from boot.
> > >> >
> > >> >the best thing about these solutions is they are free!
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >> >-----Original Message-----
> > >> >From: nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On 
> > >> >Behalf
> > >> >Of Bryan Schulz
> > >> >Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 2:11 AM
> > >> >To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> > >> >Subject: [nfbcs] access hard drive
> > >> >
> > >> >hi,
> > >> >
> > >> >a friend wants to know if there are programs that will recreate the
> mbr
> > >> >master boot record and fat file allocation table so files can be
> > >> >copied from
> > >> >a hard drive that has not been reformatted yet.
> > >> >
> > >> >Bryan Schulz
> > >> >_______________________________________________
> > >> >nfbcs mailing list
> > >> >nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> > >> >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
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> > >> >for nfbcs:
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> >
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> > g
> > >> >
> > >> >
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> > >>
> > >>
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