[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux to the rescue - again

[Leroy Tennison]

Greg Edwards wrote:
> Need to get a second opinion if this plan would work.
>
> History:
>
> I have a windows box that the CPU finally died in.  I've re-built the 
> box and installed the HD from the old box.  It's a Windows XP install 
> so, of course bringing it up was a miserable failure.  OBTW, the same 
> problem happened a few months ago with my Linux box and I was able to 
> rebuild without any headaches.
>
> Unfortunately my backup is a couple months old so I need to recover 
> the data files from this box.  I have been able to get winders to run 
> (limp along) enough to confirm that the file system is still in tact.  
> But, I am not about to risk using windows to get the data off the box.
>
> One plan is to attach a USB drive to the box and do an install of 
> Mandriva on the USB drive.  Mount the windows HD and copy all of my 
> files to the USB drive.  Rebuild the winders box, and restore the files.
>
> Another plan would be to boot into rescue mode from the Linux install 
> disk, mount both the USB drive and the winders drive and copy.
>
> Anyone gone down this road before?  Have any gotcha warnings for 
> either plan?
>
> TIA,
Depending on the amount of data, the two-hard-drive option is a good 
one.  I used it to rescue what i could (that was Linux to Linux when my 
MB decided to flake out).  The live CD option isn't bad either.  
Depending on the hardware I've seen a Live CD be a little less stable.  
However, for copying files it should be fine.  If it becomes unstable 
then reboot.