Hard drive on the way out

[Tiletim]

I am working on my sisters biz comp that has some files & programs that need to be copied off a dying hard drive also with a corrupted OS (windows 2k pro)
won't boot at all - gets to the splash screen and stalls

I have tried everything:
did a full hardware scan & test - results say HD confidence test failed

so now I know it's the HD

tried the recovery console - no go - won't recognize the OS - just says 37.4 GB on drive c.

Did a little digging on the interwebs and find out I can get to the files and programs I need with Puppy Linux booted from the CD drive bay.

Way scary how easy it was to get in with Linux - anyway I can see the files but it is copying to a 500 GB usb hard drive at a rate of about 1mb an hour.

besides knowing that the HD is failing ( I can hear it humming) am I missing something in the way I am transferring that is making it so slow?

or any other ideas?

the are critical files and a proprietary biz management software written and tweaked specifically for her.

so she needs the program to open the files I am trying to copy.
software co. no longer supports her biz software.

It's a Dell 4300 tower
also I tried slaveing it to several other comps , none saw it even with revised bios settings

[JTile]

It should be found as a slave... you double check jumper config? IDE? SATA?

[Saldibs]

are you sure that the usb conection is a usb 2 and not a usb 1. If it is the old one standard it will take forever.

[Tiletim]

IDE

yep tried all configs of the jumpers

[Tiletim]

ahhhh

I bet that's what it is

10 yr old tower - so it has to be 1.1 usb

so maybe I should get a sleeve and usb up to the new 2.0 usb for faster transfer- less chance of losing info B4 the HD dies

Thanks Sal !!

[davem]

You could network copy faster than usb 1.

[Tiletim]

Dave, learn me on the network thing.

how can I network when I don't have a windows OS , can I use the Linux software for that too?

[JTile]

You could clone the xp drive using the Linux live cd.... if the data is still valid of course.

Kinda old, but this walkthrough should still work:

http://63.236.73.208/forum/showthread.php?t=134457

Also, when you said you tried to slave it and it didn't work, what drive were you using for the master?

[davem]

Yes, linux can do network. Puppy has an autoconfigure tool to sense the network card and configure it if I remember right. Just checked their site and found this for wireless setup. For some reason I didn't see wired network setup, but the steps should be nearly identical. Once online you could upload to a website if you have access somewhere, or you should be able to find a windows share from the puppy machine.

Wireless LAN

To connect your Puppy to a wireless network take the following steps: Step 1

Click on the "connect" icon on your Desktop, then click "Connect to the Internet by network interface"

.....OR.......

Click on Menu / Setup / Network Wizard

If Puppy recognizes your interface, it will be displayed in the upper portion of the box.

Just click the button for your interface and see step 2 below.

If puppy does not see your interface you will have to load the appropriate module with the Load Module button

If you are unsure, click the "more" tab to Auto-probe drivers, or to install a Windows driver.

After you have loaded the correct module for your interface, it will show up in the first box seen above.

Click on it and proceed to step 2

Step 2

Configuring Network Interface

Click the Wireless button

Click Scan ( Or enter the information for your interface if you know it)

Click on your Network from the list that appears . Click Save. Enter your WEP / WPA key if on a secured network.

Then click Use This Profile. Click the Test button to see if Puppy see`s a "live" connection. If it does, then click

Auto DHCP. If successful Puppy will ask you if you want to save the configuration for next boot. Choose yes or no.

Click Done on the box that appears, and you`re all set!

[tilingjay]

Linux is interoperable with Windows. Put a Linux distribution on a machine, install and start Samba and you can see the Windows machine and its folders and assuming you have the rights set to do so, you can copy them over to the Linux machine. Each machine needs a network card connected with a cross over cable. Assign an IP address ... like 192.168.0.1 to one, and 192.168.0.2 to the other with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 to both..Simple as pie.

[oakview]

What Justin said - burn a LiveCD of the latest Ubuntu distro, boot to the CD, mount the drive in question (if it doesn't automount), copy the file(s) over the Network (Ubuntu should automatically find the wireless), done.

Done this many a time without any issues. Onliest thing you might have to do extra is add support for reading NTFS partitions, which you can do with the LiveCD.

[Tiletim]

You guys make it sound easy - still trying to wrap my head round this jargon.

I tried Ubuntu - her comp only has 128 mb of RAM and would not load that's why I went with Puppy.

Her comp has never been hooked to the internet - so it has no updates at all on anything - bone stock

it does have a NIC card - so I have to hook a cat5 cable to that then to a router? I don't have a router only a modem (1 cat5 port)

then I can copy the hard drive to a known good comp? (if I find a router)

Can I hook a cat5 (nic to nic)from her comp to mine and transfer?

I'm confused I think

[Saldibs]

If you are still having this problem, why don't you just pull the hard drive out of the computer, put it in a external enclosure and just copy what you need.

[davem]

Tim, what you said is right.

There is a way to avoid the router, it's called a "crossover" cable. It's a cat 5 ethernet cable with a couple of wires switched. It's a way to hook two computers together without a router.

But then you still need to configure sharing and get puppy to recognize the share. It might be easier to do as Sal suggests and get an external enclosure or adapter to hook the drive to a known good computer.

Here's an adapter at newegg that will allow you to connect any of the following drives to usb2:

Drive Type:
IDE -- 2.5" or 3.5" or 5.25" Optical Device
SATA -- 2.5" or 3.5" Optical Device

[Tiletim]

Thanks for the help guys.

I ended up just loading puppy and transferring what I could to a toshiba 2.5" usb external 500 GB HD before the old HD died - it would not transfer any more

Took me all day (8 hours) to transfer 48 mb of the files she needed.

never got the program she needed out of it - but puppy may work for that too - we'll see.

Gotta say I kind of like Linux - runs really lite and fast.