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Should your PC hard drive ever crash
Jan. 8th, 2009 05:09 pmI was reading the background drama for the snapely holidays fic An Offer She Almost Refused (which was LOVELY.... thanks for tossing this on the SS/HG update list ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mollyssister !). The mods mentioned that cocoachristy 's computer crashed, leaving her fic unrecoverable. This is a sad story I've read before, particularly since exchanges seem to randomly strike computers dead.
Now I feel like a bit of a turd for not sharing this nugget of information before.
A bit of background: Just over the Christmas break, I rescued a whole pile of files from my mom's PC. It refused to boot to Windows XP. Memory error, hard drive error. Whatever it was, it recommended reinstalling Windows XP on the drive which, if memory serves me correctly, usually calls for a reformatting of ye olde hard drive. Maybe it doesn't always, but last time mine crashed 4 years ago, I had to.
Mom was fine with losing the PC (in fact it's sitting next to me right now, waiting for me to figure out how to switch out trade its hard drive with mine), but she really wanted a crapload of files that were saved on it.
The Solution: There is a version of linux that boots and runs entirely off of a CD-R, CD-RW, or DVD-RW... whichever you need. It's called Knoppix and is relatively easy to use (well, except for the fact that the version I downloaded booted to German... which made me cross-eyed until I figured out where to change the settings). It allows read-access to most hard drives. I was able to copy everything she needed onto 3 CD-RWs for transfer to her laptop.
Should you ever find yourself in need of Knoppix and find youself a bit overwhelmed with how to use it, let me know and I'll lend you a hand.
Also, if you knowcocoachristy and she's still faced with the crashed computer of doom, please point her here. I'd barge over to her journal and knock on her door myself, but I'm a bit exhausted from all the socializing I've done this week... need to recharge my batteries before I go around introducing myself again.
mollyssister !). The mods mentioned that cocoachristy 's computer crashed, leaving her fic unrecoverable. This is a sad story I've read before, particularly since exchanges seem to randomly strike computers dead.Now I feel like a bit of a turd for not sharing this nugget of information before.
A bit of background: Just over the Christmas break, I rescued a whole pile of files from my mom's PC. It refused to boot to Windows XP. Memory error, hard drive error. Whatever it was, it recommended reinstalling Windows XP on the drive which, if memory serves me correctly, usually calls for a reformatting of ye olde hard drive. Maybe it doesn't always, but last time mine crashed 4 years ago, I had to.
Mom was fine with losing the PC (in fact it's sitting next to me right now, waiting for me to figure out how to switch out trade its hard drive with mine), but she really wanted a crapload of files that were saved on it.
The Solution: There is a version of linux that boots and runs entirely off of a CD-R, CD-RW, or DVD-RW... whichever you need. It's called Knoppix and is relatively easy to use (well, except for the fact that the version I downloaded booted to German... which made me cross-eyed until I figured out where to change the settings). It allows read-access to most hard drives. I was able to copy everything she needed onto 3 CD-RWs for transfer to her laptop.
Should you ever find yourself in need of Knoppix and find youself a bit overwhelmed with how to use it, let me know and I'll lend you a hand.
Also, if you know
cocoachristy and she's still faced with the crashed computer of doom, please point her here. I'd barge over to her journal and knock on her door myself, but I'm a bit exhausted from all the socializing I've done this week... need to recharge my batteries before I go around introducing myself again.
