Problem occurred when plugging in floppy drive.

[eyeCpc]

With the very announced short seen the surge from the supply msy just have slammed the drive good along with the floppy drive. But before giving up totally one idea would be leaving the drive slaved in the way it is now but trying a different method for data recovery.

The partition may be simply unaccessible to the Windows installation on the second machine. To get around Windows altogether one method is booting up with a live for cd Linux distro like the latest ubuntu 7.10. To see how easy that is to use once the iso disk image is burned onto a cd-r the image shows how easy it is to copy files even from an external usb drive to one of two internal sata drives.



Sometimes one small bit of partition information corrupted or lost will prevent Windows from seeing onto an otherwise intact partition on a drive from another case. A live distro can access Fat16/32 and NTFS partition types alike. The 7.10 is supported until 2009 by then already seeing the 8.04 release finished. Download Ubuntu | Ubuntu

Hopefully the drive heads are still good where you can use something like a live distro or data recovery software(some free, some retail). The alternative is the far more costly data recovery services where you bring a spare drive or blank media along with you for someone else to see what can be saved when reading directly off of the drive's platters for a large fee!

 

[WasTech]

I already have Ubuntu 7.10 on the computer I'm using now. I have it setup as dual boot. Can I do it this way? If so how?

Thanks

 

[eyeCpc]

You boot up with a live cd not from any distro installed already onto a drive. A good article referring to Knoppix seen in 2004 can be applied to ubuntu with the title "Computer First Aid using Knoppix" seen at Computer First Aid Using Knoppix

The screenshot there was while booted up with the latest release for ubuntu live to show how easy it was to grab files even from an external usb drive and save them to folders on a Vista or XP primary.

The live cd installation option to a drive won't detect the other OSs installed on other drives while the install only download to install might. For some reason other drives are not seen. The live cd generally works best since that's a self contained OS for cross platform access like some releases of GParted seem to be.

 

[WasTech]

Ok, This is the one I downloaded and installed on my 2nd computer that I'm using now. So if I put this (ubuntu-7.10-desktop-i386 - Ubuntu~1.iso) on a cd. This should have LIVE on it, right? Then I just follow directs from link you gave, right?

 

[eyeCpc]

The live for cd distro is a separate iso file you download completely separate from the full install to disk version. The one you will want is the "Gutsy Gibbon" desktop release also found at Index of /ubuntu-releases/gutsy

Once there you choose between the all pc or 32/64bit AMD type cpu for the correct download. Once saved to a folder a good free version of one problem always seems to see good burn with any Linux downloads whether a distro or simply the live for cd drive tool GParted.

The free version of BurnOn will see that burned to a cd-r easily. BurnOn CD & DVD - Free DVD Burning Software - Freeware CD burner Windows XP & Vista Despite Roxio, B's Recorder and other programs that little free version always works well.

Another free one often used for iso images is called Deep Burner found at http://www.deepburner.com/?r=download

I've been giving StarBurn a try but I won't recommend that one for this at the present time. That is made by the same company as BurnOn but seems to lack with iso images for some reason.

Once you see a good burn to disk you simply boot up with it and look in the menu bar for system. When you simply click on any drive a desktop icon for that particular drive will appear. You simply click on the source and destination drive and later perform copy + paste operations.

First make sure you have enough drive space and even one or more temp folders if you are going to be copying any large files or any large number of the same type like a folder of jpegs, photos, etc. to keep things somewhat organized. Also browse under your user acount for files tucked away in MyPhotos Application Data and other hidden sub folders.

 

[WasTech]

Thanks I'll check back with you.

 

[WasTech]

Yea, It ain't happening. The HD is shot. It doesn't do anything, no noises at all. Looks like I killed it. Dam

I already ordered a new one. It's a WD 640GB 7200 3.0gb 16mb. Newegg has a great deal on it. $109.99 free ship. It had real good reviews. I was going to get the Seagate 500GB 7200 3.0gb 32mb but the reviews were pretty bad for it. Alot of failures within the first couple days, months. What do ya think?

I also found a good deal at Fry's on RAM. OCZ 2 X 1 GB = 2GB DDR 3200 400mhz 184 pin RAM. $81.31 shipped with a $30 rebate, after rebate $51.31 Wow!

I got my new PSU at Newegg. Thermaltake TR2 ATX 430W $39.99 free ship - $10 rebate = $29.99

 

[eyeCpc]

The new 640gb sata model by WD was interesting to consider since I had pondered on that or buying a 750gb model for a primary storage device. I ended up however simply grabbing an external 500gb model to supplement the pair of 500gb sataa already in the case. At the time the 500s each saw the $104.99 price when ordered.

The price on memory for DDR2 667 laptop memory was surprisingly cheaper at newegg when looking at prices for a friend who wants to upgrade a used portable then see for DDR400 memory even while OCZ is one of the top few brands. Newegg won't help you much for OCZ seeing only 2gb of value ram for $60.99 at Newegg.com - OCZ Value Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

 

[WasTech]

I already bought the RAM at Fry's.

I couldn't tell if you like the WD 640GB from what you said.

How would you set the partitions on the WD 640 for best performance? Should I just give windows 11GB and leave the rest for storage? Meaning WinXP PRO C: - Then rest D:? Or should I just split the partitions in half?

 

[eyeCpc]

I was saying that you wouldn't have ended up with a better deal at newegg since FRYs had the rebate offer going. Plus that was only value ram not knowing if you caught a deal on performance memory.

I run strictly WD drives here and had noticed the 640gb model when first seen. I was considering adding one or two 750gb drives to create a large storage array but ended up simply going for a smaller external drive to allow transferring a large amount of files between systems. After partitioning that should give you right up close to 600gb available while a 500gb model will see 465gb.

11gb even for XP is rather cramped especially if you plan to run any number of programs. Softwares will chew drive space as well as any amount of files like mp3s or video files you want to have onhand.

A good 80gb primary or even larger with a second storage partition works for most if you plan to split the drive. Vista presently shares one drive with a Linus distro while XP sees a full 465gb single primary for working with video which eats drive space right up.