[nfbcs] access hard drive

Wed Apr 7 14:54:05 UTC 2010

hi,

i'm not aware of the benefits of using linux.
will this cd gain access to a drive with a destroyed partition?

Bryan Schulz

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John G. Heim" <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
To: "NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 9:36 AM
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] access hard drive

> It depends on how much you value the data you lost and how much time 
> you're willing to spend learning some new tricks. And even if it doesn't 
> answer the original poster's question, there are a lot of people on this 
> list who may at some point need this kind of information.  It might take 
> some work to acquire these skills but they would be valuable skills to 
> have.
>
> Learning how to make a live linux CD would be a good thing for almost 
> everybody to know no matter their skill level. If you do on-line banking, 
> the best, most secure way to do it is to boot a live linux CD and use 
> firefox.  I would think that just about anybody capable of doing their 
> banking on-line could also figure out how to download ubuntu and burn it 
> to a CD if given a pointer or 2.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kelly Prescott" <prescott at deltav.org>
> To: "'NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 2:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] access hard drive
>
>
>>I have also used methods similar, but I think this goes way beyond what 
>>most
>> users are willing/able to do.
>> just use something like carbonite.com and restore from there when you 
>> nuke
>> your windows drive.
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On 
>> Behalf
>> Of John G. Heim
>> Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 10:29 AM
>> To: NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] access hard drive
>>
>> Here is a link to an accessible, free tool to burn iso images in Windows:
>> http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm
>>
>> I've been using IsoRecorder for years but I am a Windows XP user. I don't
>> know about the Windows Vista or Windows 7 versions.
>>
>> Also, there are many more tools than fsck-fat and parted for restoring 
>> file
>> systems in linux. Here is a link to an article about how to use PhotoRec 
>> to
>> restore files using linux:
>> http://www.linux.com/news/enterprise/storage/8257-how-to-recover-lost-files-
>> after-you-accidentally-wipe-your-hard-drive
>>
>> I once re-installed linux on a computer so the HD was repartitioned and
>> reformatted. Still I was able to get some files back. I used dd to make 
>> an
>> image of the disk and then I worked from that. These tools allow you to 
>> get
>> files back from a disk even if you've repartitioned and reformatted as 
>> long
>> as the files you want haven't been over written with new files. It takes
>> some luck and it takes a very long time.
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Jim Barbour" <jbar at barcore.com>; <0 at barcore.com>; 
>> <215 at barcore.com>;
>> <0c at barcore.com>
>> To: "NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 6:48 PM
>> 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
>>>> >> >To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info
>>>> >> >for nfbcs:
>>>> >>
>>>>
>>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/prescott%40deltav.or
>>>> g
>>>> >> >
>>>> >> >
>>>> >> >_______________________________________________
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>>>> .net
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
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>>>> >
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>>>
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