[AT] OT- Computer help please

Spencer Yost spencer at rdfarms.com
Mon Feb 17 06:40:37 PST 2020 

Just some thumb drive ramblings:

Making thumb drives bootable is generally trivial.   Most distributions of Linux have great documentation on this.

As others have mentioned, you need to have/borrow a second machine to create it if you are doing this because your machine is in the fritz.

Setting your bios to boot off the drive and having it actually work can be challenging for some older makes/bios.

To state the obvious:  Bootable thumb drives to rescue files don’t work for ransomware and drive failures.   So no substitute for backups.

micro SD cards  an be handy for this too.   Making your machine boot off them is about the same in terms of difficulty and success rate.  
 
Some retail bootable solutions contain more than an operating system:   Many have scan/repair tools and may be worth the $35.  Replicating those capabilities in your bootable USB drive is not trivial.

To ease some concerns:  Linux is open source and most (all probably??) distributions of Linux have a free open source version in addition to the paid “better” distribution that would include support.   So all of this 100% legal.   Obviously you can steal and install software for any OS so whether your additional installs are legal is up to you.


Spencer

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 17, 2020, at 7:27 AM, cgs <oxygenfarm at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>  Most versions of Linux are free and legal to download; some charge for a prepared thumb drive and/or a phone help service.
> I have several computers that age which will run the lighter Linux versions. A new solid state drive (120 GB) can be found online or at MicroCenter for $25 (be sure your old iron has SATA connectors!)
> 
> On 2/17/20 5:20 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:
>> Hi Phil:
>> 
>> I've got a Dell from about 2009 or so, perhaps a 3000-series (?), running XP.  At the time it was a workstation-class laptop, capable of running 3D CAD software.  I don't use it much anymore, but it definitely comes in handy sometimes.  Nothing important is stored on it.  Hard drive has given me a few scares over the last several years, but it comes back every time (on it's own; I have not done anything heroic).  This bootable thumb drive thing is intriguing because you don't need any hard drive at all with it.   In your scenario, with the hidden partition, you still need a functional hard drive.  Plus, there's been enough discussion of Linux here on ATIS (and elsewhere) that I'm curious.
>> 
>> SO
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 5:08 AM Phil Auten <pga2 at basicisp.net> wrote:
>>> Hi, Stephen,
>>> 
>>> I don't remember what brand of PC you have, but several manufacturers provide a "hidden partition" on the hard drive that can be used to restore the PC back to factory settings. On both of my Acer laptops the <Alt-F10> keys are pressed together during boot. This enables the restore function.  That would, however, wipe out your files. But if there is no other alternative it would be worth a try. The laptop I am using to type this suffered a hard drive crash a couple of years ago. The hard drive was no longer recognized. Using the Acer part number, I was able to find the exact same hard drive on eBay. I had to completely rebuild my setup, but still much less expensive than a new laptop.
>>> 
>>> If that $35 thumb drive is bootable, that would still be a good option for me.
>>> 
>>> My 2¢
>>> 
>>> Phil in TX
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 2/16/2020 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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> 
> -- 
> Charlie
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