10 replies to this topic

[hog]

Okay... I was downloading/installing packages for Java compilation (for my programmation class again) on my Aspire One when my battery got down to 5% and the machine put itself in sleep mode. When I got back, installation had of course failed, but everything stopped working also. Couldn't click on anything, open a terminal, nothing. My taskbar had disappeared and no command would work so I couldn't properly turn off the thing, so I did it the raw way and pushed on the power button. Now, when I try to boot, I see the "Aspire One" splash screen for a second then everything turns to black and I have an X cursor. Can't do anything.

I tried to install Windows XP on my mp3 player using it as a USB storage device, but it doesn't want to boot from it. Even on my desktop, if I try to boot from it I get a BSOD telling me to do a CHKDSK...

Now, I don't care if my OS install is screwed, I can reinstall it, but the thing is I want (need) to recover my data : school work and class notes... So I'm wondering if there wouldn't be some kind of safe mode for Linux that I could try.

My last resort would be to open that thing and plug the SDD directly into my desktop to get that data, but I would like to do without an extreme solution like that...



Why didn't I simply plug it instead of working on the battery...

[m.oreilly]

might try redoing the boot loader. which loader did you use? being the noob i am, i use the mandriva install disk to fix goofed up linux grub/windows boot situations.

[hog]

m.oreilly, on Mar 20 2009, 01:50 PM, said:

might try redoing the boot loader. which loader did you use? being the noob i am, i use the mandriva install disk to fix goofed up linux grub/windows boot situations.

The thing is it's Linpus Linux, some kind of Acer-customized Fedora 6.

I found someone on a forum with the same problem and it seems he used an external device to boot and backup his stuff, not much to do to recover the OS it seems...

I tried using Damn Small Linux (with my mp3 player again) but no luck. I'm gonna stop by Staples on the way to work to get both an SD card and a USB key (both are stuff I need anyways) and try DSL again tonight on those.

[Nvyseal]

What about System Restore? Oh wait, you're running Linux, That's too bad.

[Camaro]

in order to boot from a usb stick windows xp you really have to hack it, there is a how to out there, I can not remember where atm though,
and in order to boot linux from usb you also have to hack it but its way easier.
your other option would be to install dsl linux onto the usb and then load that it would require some knowledge of which drive to install it too so you dont end up installing to your internal drives.

Edited by Camaro, 20 March 2009 - 09:14 PM.

[brewin]

When you see the cursor, hit CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE a few times to kill the X server. That should drop you to a command line. From there maybe you can figure out the problem.

If that doesn't work, I'd install Linux to a USB drive using UNetbootin. Boot it and copy your Home directory and anything else you need to it.

[hog]

I got DSL working on a USB thumbdrive using UNetBootin, but now I don't know how to go get my files on my local drive... Actually I don't know haw to get access to that drive, all I see are the files that are on the thumbdrive. Any clue?

[brewin]

hog, on Mar 20 2009, 10:30 PM, said:

I got DSL working on a USB thumbdrive using UNetBootin, but now I don't know how to go get my files on my local drive... Actually I don't know haw to get access to that drive, all I see are the files that are on the thumbdrive. Any clue?

You need to mount the partition.

In a terminal:

sudo mkdir /mnt/backup
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/backup

Assuming all your stuff is on the /dev/sda1 partition, it should now show up in /mnt/backup. But I don't know how the partitions are set up. It might be on /dev/sda2 or /dev/sda3.

To copy your home directory:

mkdir ~/backup
cd ~/backup
sudo cp -r /mnt/backup/home/ .

To unmount:

umount /mnt/backup

[m.oreilly]

oh f*ch brew, you are F*ckin" awesome...

[hog]

GOT IT!


Loaded Linux Mint on the USB drive with UNetBootin but I couldn't get the transfer to work using the terminal. But Mint Linux's GUI allowed me to mount the drive and simply copy-paste what I needed. Backed this up on my SD card to put it on my desktop. I was afraid I'd have trouble with files access rights but I can open them on my PC so I guess everything is fine.

Thanks a lot Brew for saving my schoolwork!

[brewin]

m.oreilly, on Mar 21 2009, 12:10 AM, said:

oh f*ch brew, you are F*ckin" awesome...

Maybe I should start showing girls my Bash scripts on the first date. Maybe the second date?

hog, on Mar 21 2009, 01:01 AM, said:

GOT IT!
Loaded Linux Mint on the USB drive with UNetBootin but I couldn't get the transfer to work using the terminal. But Mint Linux's GUI allowed me to mount the drive and simply copy-paste what I needed. Backed this up on my SD card to put it on my desktop. I was afraid I'd have trouble with files access rights but I can open them on my PC so I guess everything is fine.

Thanks a lot Brew for saving my schoolwork!

GUI is cheating.

Glad you got it.