Trying to save some files...Midnight Commander Options

[Aaflac]

Would appreciate some help. I’m a newbie to Linux!!

How could one save files from a non-bootable Windows, and mount the Windows partition (source), as well as mount a USB pen drive (destination).

Using Dr.Web LiveCD, Terminal accepted a command to detect the Windows disks: fdisk -l
It shows the Windows partition as /dev/hdc1, and the USB pen drive as /dev/sdb1.
The USB pen drive is FAT32.

Then, issued the following commands (not all together!!):
mkdir /mnt/usbsc /mnt/winhd
mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt/winhd
mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usbsc

However, this is as far as I’ve gone, and would like to know how to use Midnight Commander (MC) to copy and save the files.

MC has not recognized hdc1 or sdc1. What am I doing wrong?

Also, using MC, how would one see the contents of the Windows partition to save some of the files in it?? What is the right command for this, if one wanted to view what is in Documents and Settings?


Thanks again for your help.

[Amazing Andrew]

try

CODE

mount -t ntfs -r /dev/hdc1 /mnt/winhd

to mount the NTFS volume in read-only mode (to prevent further damage)

I've not used MC so I can't offer much help there. I've also never used Dr. Web Live CD, so I'm not sure which filesystems it supports, or if it has the latest NTFS3g driver.

If I were in your shoes (and I HAVE been before), I'd probably be using the Ubuntu Live CD sice I know it can mount USB and NTFS drives easily.

[Aaflac]

Thanks, Amazing Arnold!!

Have seen something like this used:
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/hdc1 /mnt/winhd

…there is no -r, and I understand your rationale for using it
…there is ntfs-3g instead of ntfs

From what I found, ntfs-3g is, a driver (so to speak) that supports all operations for writing files. Files of any size can be created, modified, renamed, moved, or deleted on NTFS partitions. It provides safe and fast handling of the Windows XP, and other file systems.

Is there an advantage to using ntfs-3g instead of ntfs in the command:
mount -t ntfs -r /dev/hdc1 /mnt/winhd


This post has been edited by Aaflac: Jun 22 2009, 02:59 PM

[Amazing Andrew]

Actually, I think I made a type there. use 3g!

[Aaflac]

It worked:

mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/hdc1 /mnt/winhd



Could I have used:

mount -t ntfs-3g -r /dev/hdc1 /mnt/winhd

Or, does the 3g negate the need for the -r?

Thank you very much for your help.

[Amazing Andrew]

The -r option mounts the filesystem as read only. I suggest you use it in this case, and all data recovery cases.

[Aaflac]

So this would be correct:

mount -t ntfs-3g -r /dev/hdc1 /mnt/winhd

[Amazing Andrew]

Yep.

[Aaflac]