Ok, Im pretty sure im number 10000000000 to post this, but I couldnt find it. Well I have Windows XP pro...something happened and I received the BSOD with "registry_error". I installed ran knoppix 4.0, because of some reading I did about how I could retreive my information on the HDD this way. I want to copy my HDD onto a USB external HDD. Problem is, I cant get the USB to show up at all on Knoppix. All I see is "cd-rom, floppy, HDA1, & HDA5." My USB HDD does not show up. How do I get it to show up so I can transfer the original HDD onto it? Please help. Very important stuff on old hard drive that I cant afford to lose. Thank You!

I don't know if this applies in knoppix, but

To get to usb drives, just open up a file explorer and type in "/media/" and you should see your usb drive along with any cd and floppy drives.

Remember that you may need to mount it to access it. You can do this (normally) by right clicking on the appropriate icon, and choose "mount". You should also be able to adjust the read/write permissions by right clicking.

Here is a detailed post describing several rescue scenarios in knoppix (one included transferring files from damaged windos system to usb external drive). Take your time reading through it.

http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic....50812033627671

Also wait to get other responses, hopefully from someone who knows exactly what to do, before proceeding.

For future reference, this knoppix book may be very helpful.

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/knoppixhks/

There is also a very helpful community at

http://knoppix.net/

They have forums, where people could help you specifically in using knoppix in this context.

Also, you should change the subject of your post as soon as you can. Some moderators will freeze threads with vague subjects, and this might stop anyone else from helping you here.

Manual way to get your usb-disk to show up:

Start Knoppix
login and open a terminal ( console whatever...)
plug in your usb disc
type "dmesg" at console prompt. If dmesg doesn't show anything try "tail /var/log/messages"
hopefully you see something like registered new high speed usb device and then something like sda1 or if you have sata maybe sdb1 - this is what you need to know to mount the drive
To mount your usb hdd:

assuming it is formatted as ntfs type:
"mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/floppy" (or any other preferable empty directory)

Now you will see your Windows partition with every filebrowser like konqueror under /mnt/floppy ( or whatever directory you used as mountpoint)

I tried what you said vbisis. It didnt work though. It doesnt recognize any USB plugged ins. It recogzines USB ports but nothing plugged into them. All I have is HDA1 and HDA5(im thinking this is a small partition i created on my HDD). When I tried mounting like you said, it said "only root can do this" or something of that sort. Help?

an easy way around would be to use this liveCD. TI has ntfs drivers and will automount all of your drives. Simply put it in yor cd drive and let it do the work for you. THen you might want to use dd inorder to copy all of the files. There is a big post in the newbie forum on using dd. It is about 6 pages long. just sort by length and it should be close to the top.

edit: try to make the subject line more descriptive. People will be more willing to help you if they dont ahve to click on the post inorder to see what it is about.

Remember now, my system runs Windows XP...I burned Knoppix 4.0 onto a CD and thats how I use it...so once its in there, and im using it, I cant pop the CD back out. Im using a laptop too just incase..so no other drives.

i realize. Try booting from the backtrack cd it is a livecd just like what you are using just designed for the purpose of working with windows computers and extracting data. It will do it all for you. I am not sure how up to date ntfs drivers and things are on knoppix. It is a good distro and should be relatively up to date. If someone knows for a fact what the state of ntfs drivers is on knoppix 4.0 i would like to know. But i know for a fact that back track works fine. It will configure everything for you.

Are you using a usb hard drive (aka more than 20 GB) or a usb thumb drive (aka less than 4 GB) to backup on to? Normally if you have the USB device plugged into the computer before you boot into knoppix it will recognize it and add it to your /etc/fstab file. If you read this file it will display all the partitions that it sees. Below is a copy of mine.

/dev/hda1 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/hda2 / reiserfs defaults 1 1 /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb ntfs users,umask=0 0 0 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,owner,ro 0 0 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 On line three is what my usb hard drive looks like on my distro. If you have a line in Knoppix's /etc/fstab that looks similar then it is seeing your drive, and you have to mount it. When I mount my hard drive I do the following:

Using the above will allow you to read and write to the drive if you have and NTFS partition like I do. Knoppix won't issue a /mnt/usb mount point though, it will probably be something more like /mnt/sda1.

Yes, I believe I have a 120 gb hard drive in the USB enclosure (either 120 or 160, cant quite remember). Ive already tried booting up with it connected, and still nothing works. It doesnt show up. Only 2 HDD...which is really one, my laptop HDD, but I made a small 10mg partition.

I might sound like an idiot right now, but whats DD?? I searched it and couldnt find anything on it.

Alright, I was finally able to download the backtrack and i ran it. But once I got it to run...I got stuck. I have no idea how to work it. I got past the user/password...and after that I dont know what else to do. Help?

Ok ok ok...im totally lost now. Once Backtrack starts...i type in the user/password...and then I get stuck at root@slax:~# After that I have no clue what to do. Please help!