Help - I broke my Netbook and only back up drive

[jopedder]

Hello,

A couple of nights ago I updated Mint XFCE with the latest updates (not to the latest version, I was running the previous - XFCE ?10?). I then set up my external drive to back up all my photos etc.

By the morning the note book (AAO) and drive were dead. The external drive gets a power surge error (on my windows laptop) and the AAO goes to an odd xfce login page (i never needed to log in before) without the Mint colours etc. When I enter my password correctly the screen goes blank flashes some text and then returns to the login screen. I know I enter the correct pswd as it prompts when I enter it incorrectly.

I once managed to get it to hang on the text that flashes up. Amongst other things I get errors like cp. writing '/use/share/icons.......start-here.png' no space left on device [errno 28] no space left on device.

I used to be able to run live USBs and have installed a few times this way on this machine, but now these don't work either. After selecting the pen drive to boot from in BIOS the machine hangs on the SYSLINUK copyright line with a blinking cursor.

I've tried three different ISOs (the last and the latest Mint XFCE and latest Ubuntu) and two installation methods (UNETBOOTIN and Linux live USB Creator) and have formatted the pen to FAT32. The Pen boots the windows laptop just fine. I have also flash updated the BIOS.

I'm hoping that I can get a live USB working, mount a second external drive, copy all the data then do a fresh install.

the AAO’s model is ZG5.

[wyrdoak]

All I can think of with your external HD getting a power surge in Window$ try a new USB cable it may be bad.

Do you have more than one USB port on the NetBook? It may be a bad port try I different one if you can.

I installed Mint in mine with a external DVD player, but with my player took 2 USB ports to run it. I wouldn't even work with a powered USB hub , had to be 2 USB hubs direct from the motherboard.


http://www.linurs.org/pdf/Aspire%20one.pdf

[jopedder]

UI'll try another cable for the HDD - works fine for my camera though, but could be the cause.

I've tried all three USBs - it clearly starts working as I get the copyright screen for linux, which I assume it is reading from the USB?

[jopedder]

just had a thought - can I boot from an external HDD - if it works from this rather than a USB stick I could solve my problem? could I use UNETbooting for this?

[jopedder]

unetbooting doesn't seem to want to work on my hdd, wont find it. So no joy there. Looks like I'll have to remove the hard drive and take it to a shop to get the data off. I'm concerned though that the AAO is totally dead now as I can't see how I'll get an operating OS on it again.

[jopedder]

nearly got puppy loading from another USB - so I think the usb stick may have been the problem even though it worked on another machine. unfortunatly the only spare USB i have is 250 meg. Puppy gets a bit further but is still hanging. I've made a bootable memtest and that has passed.

stil no nearer to saving my photos !

[Beardedragon]

Try RIP: http://freshmeat.net/projects/recoveryispossible/

[jopedder]

fortunatly my brother took the netbook apart and saved the HDD - no corruption. He also managed to install Mint 10 while the drive was attached to his computer. However, I still can't boot from USB (which I still need to do, as the install isn't how I'd have liked it and it now duel boots to the broken mint xfce and the working 10. I'd like to loose both and try other distros.

[wyrdoak]

I don't know how large your HDD is but if you have 1-2gbs to spare have a look at this:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 92#p449192