XP desktop HD problem

[ChrisH Kerry]

My youngest son has been using an old XP desktop PC which has died a death, and of course he has some photos/music not backed up (despite having several external HDs and a NAS around the house ) I managed to get the PC fired up using an Ubuntu 10 CD I had lying around and I can see all the files, open them etc. but I can't mount any kind of external storage - it doesn't show up USB sticks or external HDs so I can't get the files off the HD. Thought about installing Ubuntu but it wants to use the whole partition, even had a look at re-installing XP but that's going to wipe everything too. Any ideas? Not the end of the world but would be nice to retrieve the files if poss.

 

[IainMac]

Take the drive out of the laptop and fit to a suitable caddy (will need to match the drive connecter type) then connect that as an external drive to another PC and pull off the files as needed. Note this assumes the drive is working enough to be read from.

 

[Dansin]

Ubuntu doesn't need the whole drive. You can partition the disk during the setup process from the livecd. Pretty straightforward but there are tons of guides online if you need help. Just look for a dual booting guide for xp and Ubuntu.

 

[rodders]

Remove the hard drive from the XP pc and connect it to the spare / slave Hard drive and power lead of whatever other pc you have.. then boot that PC as normal and you will see the xp drive as just another disc.. then all you have to do is drag the files across ...

 

[ChrisH Kerry]

Thanks for replies/ideas....
Can't partition disk to install Ubuntu as presumably (IIRC) the Windows swap file needs to be moved - it just shows Windows using whole drive and doesn't seem to want to shrink the partition unless I'm missing something.
Tried putting the connector from one of my 2.5" caddies but don't think there's enough power to spin up the 3.5" drive - didn't work, but drive is basically ok as I can access all files in Ubuntu live cd mode.
....and I only have one SATA data cable so can't mount it as what used to be Slave.

I think what I must do is get Ubuntu onto a USB stick and run it from that then hopefully the USB ports will work. The USB keyboard and mouse work with live cd but it just wont read any external drive which seems strange, but maybe it just wont mount external drives. Oh well the search continues.

 

[rodders]

Sata cable usually has connector at the end and another half way along.
Have you not got a CD drive that you can disconnect just to put h/drive on whilst you sort problem.

 

[rce]

If you have a NAS drive then boot the pc with your live cd connecting the ethernet port by a cable to your router. Browse for your NAS and copy the files to there.