[AT] OT- Computer help please

[Henry Miller]

You need an empty USB drive to do anything so it isn't free. If you have a drive you don't care about and a working computer, there are hundreds of different Linux "images" that you download and put on the USB drive that will boot and let you recover whatever is on the hardrive. Problem is few people have a USB drive around with nothing on it, and even if they didn't you are in a catch-22 because you need a working computer. 

I can't emphasize empty USB enough here, the process erases whatever was on the drive before.

This is a last resort effort, I urge everybody to have several copies of all their important files on different drives, at least some of which are not at your house. There are online backup programs that work, or you can copy everything to a USB drive and store the drive at your in-laws. If you have this, if your computer fails you buy a new one and continue. This also protects from a virus that can erase your data. (Sometimes a ransom will get it back, but those who collect ransoms are evil enough to collect money and not give you your data back)

-- 
 Henry Miller
 hank at millerfarm.com



On Sun, Feb 16, 2020, at 5:44 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:
> Hi farmer: When you say no reason to buy anything, I assume you refer to that $35 thumb drive device I mentioned. As I understand it, the thumb drive is bootable, circumventing the hard drive and whatever OS is on the machine. The sales pitch is that it will take a machine that's bricked and bring it back to life. Do you have a way to accomplish that for free?
> 
> SO
> 
> 
> On Sat, Feb 15, 2020 at 10:39 PM Indiana Robinson <robinson46176 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> No reason to buy anything, Most distributions of Linux will read Windows files. You can copy, paste move etc. and you can download anything for free. I don't putter with old stuff as much as I used to but I've used Knoppix for such things for many years. I don't know if Windows 10 can read Linux files yet or not but I once read that it was soon to be an option. If you install Linux as a dual boot with Windows you can just access your Windows files without having to reboot back into Windows to find them or work with them.
>> Half of the Linux learning curve is terminology... If you have become comfortable using Android you are half way there. Android is just a mobile (and tablet) version of Linux. Android is built on and running the Linux Kernel but your desktop box won't run Android.
>> 
>> 
>> .
>> 
>> On Sat, Feb 15, 2020 at 9:33 AM cgs <oxygenfarm at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Look at _http://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/5-best-data-recovery-tools-for-linux-to-recover-data-or-deleted-partitions_
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 2/15/20 7:12 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:
>>>> Good to hear it's all set. I've been seeing ad's for a device called "XtraPC" which, it turns out, is some flavor of Linux burned onto a thumb drive for something like $35. You can bring back most troublesome old machines from the grave (assuming the problem is hard drive/boot software, not some hardware failure of course). What I do not know is whether you can access your Windows files under Linux. Curious about that. 
>>>> 
>>>> SO
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
Charlie
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>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> -- 
>> 
>> Francis Robinson
>> aka "farmer"
>> Central Indiana USA
>> robinson46176 at gmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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