For those of you that consider yourself Hardcore Gnomies, you probably
remember an
article I did on using a Knoppix CD for data recovery a while back. I
explained how you can use a Knoppix CD, a blank CDR, and your CD burner to
recover data on a Windows installation that has gone down the tubes. Well, =
what
happens when the troubled PC is a laptop? Unlike a standard desktop, you ca=
nnot
simply remove the hard drive and slave it to another PC for data extraction,
right? You would have to have an adapter to do this. Well, I am going show =
you
how to use Knoppix on a laptop to recover important data via only your LAN.=
Now before we get started, we are going to need a few things:
- A Knoppix CD (this is pre=
tty
obvious, I would hope).
- A laptop in dire need of =
some
of that Linux lovin' that Knoppix does so well (in English, a laptop t=
hat
needs to have data recovered from it).
- Network card. I have had =
the
best luck with laptops that have onboard LAN. Realistically, this is n=
ot
always available to us, though. In cases like these, make sure the PC =
card
you will be using for networking is in the PCMCIA slot with the cable
plugged in. You will want to have this done before booting into Knoppi=
x.
- A networked workstation. =
This
needs to be a machine that you can safely upload possibly infected fil=
es
to for "cleaning" without being concerned about damaging your
own personal system.
- A shared folder on your
desktop machine to receive uploaded data.
All righty, let's get started, shall we? After you have set your BIOS to
boot from CD and booted into Knoppix, you are ready to begin. Once you have
verified that the Internet connection works from the network card or onboard
LAN, you are ready.
- Click on the big "K&=
quot;
from the lower left corner of your screen to bring up what will be like
your "start menu" would be in Windows. Now you will want to
select the section named Internet and then pick LinNeighborhood from t=
he
programs that you'll see listed.
- After opening the
LinNeighborhood program, select "add machine."
- Now you will need to enter
the IP number for the PC that you will be uploading recovered data to =
and
then press the query button. Once the PC that you want has been locate=
d,
press OK.
- Great job, so far! At this
point you will need to right click on the newly added machine, then ch=
oose
"scan as user." Enter the user name and password for your own
desktop PC that the data is going to be uploaded to. (Side note here, I
have found that this works best if the machine that data will be uploa=
ded
to has a password. It just works better this way, trust me) After user=
and
password are entered, click OK.
- Select the shared folder =
on
the desktop machine. Now double click it. The user name and password
should already be entered and ready to go for ya. All you will need to=
do
it click on "mount."
- Now click on the little b=
lue
house icon at the lower left of your screen where the quick launch wou=
ld
be in Windows. After opening this, look for a folder called
"mnt." Inside this folder you will see the folder with the n=
ame
of the PC that you are networked with - ain't this cool? Inside of that
folder is the folder named after the shared folder from your Windows b=
ox.
- Now browse to the hard dr=
ive
from your desktop on the machine running Knoppix to locate the
folders/files you want to recover from the damaged Windows install. Now
copy them (like you would in Windows) to the machine you are uploading=
the
recovered files to. It is just that easy!
If you follow these instructions to the letter, you should be able to do
this with no problem at all. Also, understand that this is not the only met=
hod
for doing this with Knoppix, but it is the most reliable that I have found =
in
my experience. Enjoy! I hope that this proves as useful for you as it has f=
or
me. ;o)