Ubuntu to the rescue!

Some notes about how I rescued data from a broken Windows installation with the help of Ubuntu.

  1. Boot from an Ubuntu CD or USB-memory stick. If you don't have an Ubuntu Live CD you can get the iso from http://www.ubuntu.com and then burn a disc.
  2. Make sure the network is up an running.
  3. Mount the hard drive (see below).
  4. Install an ssh-server (see below).
  5. Create a new user with all privileges.
  6. Now you should be able to login and rescue data with programs like WinSCP from another windows machine.

You can read more about ubuntu stuff on http://www.ubuntuguide.org

Install ssh-server

Open a terminal window and type:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Mount hard drive

First of all you need to check what file system to use. You can do this by using the fdisk command.

sudo fdisk -l

Mount NTFS

sudo mkdir /media/windows
sudo mount /dev/hda1 /media/windows/ -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222

Mount FAT

sudo mkdir /media/windows
sudo mount /dev/hda1 /media/windows/ -t vfat -o iocharset=utf8,umask=000

Unmount drive

sudo umount /media/windows

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Private! (visible for webmaster only)
PyMike 2008-05-31 20:16:27

I did something almost exactly like this when Windows crashed.

1. Blue screen of death!
2. Freaked out
3. Booted up from an ubuntu live cd;
4. Mounted the NTFS drive so I could access my windows files
5. Put my important files on a usb memory card
6. Wiped windows
7. Reinstalled windows

I didn't do the SSH server thing though... I lost some of my original game files too :-(

oOJINxOo 2007-02-09 20:23:46

And the moral of the story is, dont use w1nbl0ws.
if your a windows user that is sick of windows, ubuntu is also one of the best mediums 2 help make the cross over to the world of *nix.

Jeremy 2006-03-20 17:28:51

You are a life saver! My wife's Windows XP computer refused to boot and gave her a blue screen of death. We had no way to access the files on it. I Googled around and found your instructions and they worked perfectly! In a few minutes, I was able to rescue all of her files. A heartfelt thanks!