Need Help backing up Pictures and files.

[infuzn]

Hello everyone,

It seems that my computer caught a nasty virus. I cannot copy and paste anything to my external hard drive. I cannot burn a CD or access the web. I need to backup mainly my pictures and files because they are of great importance in my life when I was in Iraq. I have pictures of fellow soldiers I went to war with and a few that died and "other" R rated pictures of war. They are of great importance to me because It was a huge part of my life. Can someone please help me to figure out a way to save those memories? I am running windows XP Home and I tried running through safe mode, I don't have the Windows XP CD and I can't drag, copy, paste anything. It won't even read my external hard drive or USB drive. Please help.

[Flatlands]

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/

[hellnoire]

That would be the simplest route, a Ubuntu liveCD. If it gives you errors, you can always force mount it. To do that:

sudo fdisk -l

This will tell you where your Windows partition is.

sudo mkdir /media/windows
sudo mount /dev/(yourdevice) /media/windows -o force

This makes a directory then mounts Windows to that directory. [Replace (yourdevice) with the partition fdisk told you, so if it comes back with sda1, put that in.]

This is assuming it won't mount by default, and it will force it to work. If it doesn't, report back and we can try something else. Keep in mind fdisk will report the extensions of your hard drive.. meaning NTFS is the Windows one, no doubt! (Linux uses different file types, like EXT2/3/4 etc.)

[infuzn]

Hey guys! Thanks alot for your help. I followed that tutorial using a Linux CD and it worked perfectly. I appreciate the time you took to respond. Thanks again! Quick question.. Since my desktop is done and I am going to throw it out... What brand do you recommend for a desktop. I was looking towards and HP but I would like your input I like for it to have many USB ports in front and back since I always attach my media drives and stuff.

[hellnoire]

Depends on your price range. HP's pretty good, some people have luck with Dell, others with Gateway. (I'm one of Gateway's success stories, had a refurbished PC with a hidden warranty) . Whichever you choose, check out what their warranty covers.

[boz1972]

Compaq are ok, had one with xp for 5 years, still running like clockwork, but maybe consider, if you are in the uk, a medion machine. Aldi do them, good spec and very reasonably priced for the spec. They are award winning, and most pc magazines give them thumbs up.
PS: So glad you salvaged your pics mate. (I back up mine on external drive and onto disk just in case!)

[safeguy]

HP and Sony are pretty and cice...but they are also among the higher-priced (usually) and another thing is they are well known for including the most amount of crapware on their PCs...

I'm using Acer and I must say that their customer service/support s*cks (terrible)...but the best thing about Acer is you get value-for-money in terms of the hardware/specs...you can do a quick comparison among 2-3 similar laptops/desktops with the same specs (or as close as you can) and you will find that Acer's tend to be cheaper...

I've heard that Dell's are good...and Lenovo too. Fujitsu has a split opinions...some say it's good while other swear it's not...

You decide