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S7even0
May 30th, 2009, 02:45 AM
Greetings! Sorry for coming here with my problems.

Basically there is a long story which requires me to do a reformat due to broken OS, the OS is broken in that the language file broke and it had trouble rebuilding it as it just hangs. I was directed to Ubuntu by a friend as the solution of allowing me to access my harddrive through another OS without a reformat/clean install, so I plug in my external harddrive so I can back up important documents before planning to reformat it.

Anyway, what happens is this. When I put in the CD and the computer loads up the CD, then it goes to a black screen with a table in the corner full of numbers and letters which make no sense to me. If I press a key, the numbers/letters in the table change a bit the computer reboots (obviously, ends up running into same situation)

Thought it might have been the CD, so I tried it on my laptop, the CD worked brilliantly, using the try function, was able to use my external harddrive and tested backing up a file. So it seems this is the idea solution to the problem with this in theory.

As it worked, I thought there might be some dirt on the CD or something, so I made sure it was clean and put it in the computer I want to use it on. However, it is the same problem happening as earler. Black screen, half a table or something in the top left corner, some nonsensual numbers and letters in what is visible.

I cleared CMOS and I removed 4 gigs of my ram (was 8gig total) to see if it was any settings or having too much ram being a problem. However, exact same error is occuring.

For computer specification if that assists -
IP35 Pro Motherboard
Q6600 Quad-Core 2.4Ghz
4 gig DDR2 ram
Nvidia GTX8800 Graphics card
On-board Sound

merlinus
May 30th, 2009, 02:49 AM
You might try the Knoppix live cd. It generally is more forgiving of various video and other conflicts, and once running will give access to your drives and data.

S7even0
May 30th, 2009, 03:00 AM
I did a search and from a mirror from the Knoppix website, I choose to download the "KNOPPIX_V6.0.1CD-2009-02-08-EN.iso" presuming that is the latest .iso for the CD. (If not, could you please direct me to the right way?)

I will see how that works and hopefully fairs better.

S7even0
May 30th, 2009, 03:37 AM
Good news and bad news.

Good news, it loaded and even the external harddrive is working, that is great.

However...

I can't access my hard drive. When I click the volume it comes up with "Error org./freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.UnknownFailure"

(apologise if error in above text, the text is small and hard to disguish)

So I am unable to back-up my harddrive as I am not sure how to resolve this.

vpnm_87
May 30th, 2009, 04:04 AM
I think u too cud hav came to the following two conclusion..just thought of givin some suggestion..

1) try to use ur harddisk with some other Desktop PC as a slave drive..
(or)
2) go to ur HD manufacturer site or do some googling with the exact error u get when u try to access ur HD..

also provide some more details about ur HD partition,file system u used before..that might provide some clue for others..

S7even0
May 30th, 2009, 04:21 AM
1) try to use ur harddisk with some other Desktop PC as a slave drive..

Unfortunately, I don't have one and I don't forsee anyone allowing me to rip apart their computer any time soon either.



also provide some more details about ur HD partition,file system u used before..that might provide some clue for others.

Since it is Windows, it uses NTFS. Most the results of google are either from 2005 period, though http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2961 seems to have a solution, however, it speaks about the hard drive having something like sda1, except, all it says in the GUI is "465.5 GB Volume" which isn't very clear at all.

vpnm_87
May 30th, 2009, 04:32 AM
I havent tried Knoppix before..i have used Puppy Linux from my USB Pen Drive to view my entire hard disk..

I dont know how u tried to access ur HD..
In puppy linux i access my HD just by clickin icons on desktop..

But i think u can use QTparted(partition editor) or some other partition editor in knoppix to view ur HD partitons..

S7even0
May 30th, 2009, 04:33 AM
I tried what a post in that link said which allowed me to mount the HDD, I will see if it all works with the copying. Thanks for all the replies though, I am very grateful.