0

I have a messed up hard drive that, when I boot it, just drops to initramfs. I am a newbie to ubuntu, and I think the hard drive is failing. Is there any way to "take my files and run", per say? Like, on a disk or a flash drive, or even just from my livecd? Thanks

user130607
  • 1

2 Answers2

2

Yes, you can. It does not matter if it is a livecd or a bootable flash drive. You just mount your partitions in the live session and then you can start copy the files.

To mount a disk from a livecd you to know 3 commands.

List your partitions, you need to know the device names, like /dev/sda1.

sudo fdisk -l

Mount the disk, lets say that you want to mount /dev/sda1. You dont need to specify filesystem if you use ext file systems.

 sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Now you can copy your files from /mnt with the filemanager.

And you might need to unmount the disk

sudo umount /mnt
McNisse
  • 1,863
0

You can use live Ubuntu CD and go to root access ($ sudo su) to remove what packages you have installed. Second option, you can recover all your data.

You can get all require information from below website link. I also faced same problem after smart command failed, and I recover each and every single piece of file from my unbootable Ubuntu desktop by a Live CD. After boot your system with Ubuntu Live CD, open your terminal and type following command with realizing.

Step:1

$ df -h

Filesystem                     Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/cow                           976M  947M     0 100% /
none                           4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev                           2.0G  4.0K  2.0G   1% /dev
tmpfs                          393M  1.2M  392M   1% /run
none                           5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none                           2.0G  156K  2.0G   1% /run/shm
none                           100M   40K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root    1.8T  1.4T  340G  81% /media/ubuntu/02b97ef7-48ed...
/dev/sdb1                      932G  746G  186G  81% /media/prasenjit/ PRASENJIT EXT

Don't analyse this filesystem they may not match with your system. I edited little bit, but you should know in which drive you have the desire data, like /media drive.

  <p>So, you able to read all device at your terminal, where unbootable system file and personal data in /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root and a external hard drive at /dev/sdb1 which I used for copy purpose for my system.</p>
</blockquote>

Step: 2

$sudo su

  <p>It will give you to access root, pretty cool. You don't need passwd for a Ubuntu Live CD.</p>
</blockquote>

Step: 3

~# mkdir /mnt/ubuntu--vg-root

  <p>Create a mount point directory at /mnt </p>
</blockquote>

step: 4

~# mount /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root /mnt/ubuntu--vg-root

  <p>Mount the partition /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root on mounting point /mnt/ubuntu--vg-root</p>
</blockquote>

Step: 5

~# cd /mnt/ubuntu--vg-root/home/"user name of unbootable ubuntu system"

  <p>Now you can access some of your unbootable system's file but not all, anyway you have root access on terminal, so you can change the permission of file on terminal. </p>
</blockquote>

step: 6

~# chmod 777 "name of the file/folder you want to access" -R

  <p>Now you can graphically click ---file directory >> Computer >> mnt >> ubuntu--vg-root >> home >> "your user id of unbootable system" >> your desire file/folder.</p>
</blockquote>

Step: 7

~# umount /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root

  <p>Now you can unmount the drive which you mounted.</p>
</blockquote>

We are done!

Thanks.

Here's a link!