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General discussion

Transferring files to an external hard drive...

May 11, 2005 10:34AM PDT

I got hit by a nasty virus a few days ago and my windows folder got deleted on my main computer, so I came to the forums here and I was told to use knoppix (linux that boots entirely from a CD), and luckily I found that all my important files were still on my hard drive even though the windows folder was empty.

Now I just got an external hard drive (been planning to get one for a while) and I want to transfer most of my stuff (videos and music, specifically) to the new hard drive. Since I'll be using it mainly for my laptop, I formatted the external hard drive to windows. Yet, when I plugged it into my main desktop running knoppix, I could view the hard drive and the files on it but I couldn't put anything on it. Mainly I want to get everything I want off of my desktop so I can reinstall windows without losing everything.

Any solutions? Please help

Discussion is locked

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Explain More
May 11, 2005 10:50AM PDT

Whoever told you to use linux was right. It was a good choice.

First, tell me if you plan to install Linux as your primary OS (if at all) on your hard drive.

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Keeping windows on my laptop
May 11, 2005 10:55AM PDT

I plan to keep using windows xp for my laptop, and the main reason I got the external hard drive was to be extra storage for my laptop since I'll be going abroad in a few months and won't be able to take my desktop with me (I'll be gone for about 1 1/2 years, so in theory, I'm trying to turn my laptop into my main computer)

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Ok
May 11, 2005 11:02AM PDT

This shouldn't be hard.

I know it is possible to read NTFS and FAT filesystems, but not writing (NTFS Is Read Only For Sure).

Do you know if your Windows Filesystem type?

Do you have another NETWORKED computer runnnin Windows?

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NTFS
May 11, 2005 11:12AM PDT

I'm pretty sure it's NTFS (at least that's what the C: says). And I don't have any other computers networked either

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Fine
May 11, 2005 11:16AM PDT

My idea was to use linux to move it over from one computer with a network with samba.

That would work with both NTFS and FAT. You probably can't move anything because the inability to write to NTFS.

I will try to think something up. But for now, I must leave.

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just an idea
May 11, 2005 5:29PM PDT

why don't you just repair the windows OS on your desktop?

get it up and running, sort out your files, set up the external HD the way you want it....

jonah "been there, done that" jones

.

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repairing windows
May 12, 2005 3:24AM PDT

How would I go about doing that in Knoppix?

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Any other suggestions?
May 11, 2005 11:54AM PDT

I'm unable to write to an NTFS external hard drive from knoppix. Anybody know how to make it so I can move my files to the hard drive?

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Read item 6 at
May 11, 2005 12:05PM PDT
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Go simpler...
May 11, 2005 12:06PM PDT

Just make the external drive... FAT32.

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formatting to fat32...
May 11, 2005 12:28PM PDT

When trying to format the hard drive in Windows XP on my laptop, I only have the option of formatting it as NTFS... is there another way I can make it fat32?

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It's in the ...
May 11, 2005 12:45PM PDT

Disk Management tool. When you create the partition, the choice is made. Not during "format".

Bob

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I got a fat32 partition...
May 11, 2005 1:10PM PDT

But knoppix still won't copy the files to it... damn...

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A long proccess
May 11, 2005 3:54PM PDT

Is your external hard-drive bootable.

(Can you run an OS off of it.)

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Not sure...
May 12, 2005 3:23AM PDT

I'm not quite sure if the external hard drive is bootable or not

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Sorry, I can only work with what you write.
May 11, 2005 9:31PM PDT

You wrote " I got a fat32 partition... "

-> But is it formatted? I can't tell.

You write "But knoppix still won't copy the files to it... damn..."

-> Did you right click on it (the Knoppix desktop) and mount it read/write? On boot it should be readonly on some distros.

Bob

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Yeah I made it read/write
May 12, 2005 3:22AM PDT

I formatted a partition (can only go up to 32gb with fat32) as fat32 and I right clicked and made it read/write in knoppix but it still didn't work

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Now that is truly ODD.
May 12, 2005 5:30AM PDT

I've done this and it just works. Any more clues?

Bob

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format FAT32 workaround
May 11, 2005 5:36PM PDT

disconnect your C: drive
plug your external HD in as C:
boot up with a win98 boot disk in A:
do Fdisk and format C: as FAT32

.

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Got it to work!
May 12, 2005 5:03AM PDT

Thanks for everyone's help! I don't know what I did different but I re-formatted the hard-drive as fat32 but didn't click "quick format"... maybe that was the difference? anyway all I know is that it works...

Thanks again!