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<p>Hi, Stephen,</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>If that $35 thumb drive is bootable, that would still be a good
option for me.</p>
<p>My 2¢</p>
<p>Phil in TX<br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/16/2020 5:44 AM, Stephen Offiler
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAP6upcjWQXWr5caONMWsa9wUWT9wjPc2oPtm7-+ECevjix3s6w@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">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?
<div><br>
</div>
<div>SO</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Feb 15, 2020 at 10:39
PM Indiana Robinson <<a
href="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com" moz-do-not-send="true">robinson46176@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>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.</div>
<div>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.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>.<br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Feb 15, 2020 at
9:33 AM cgs <<a href="mailto:oxygenfarm@gmail.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">oxygenfarm@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div> <font size="+1">Look at <u><a
href="http://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/5-best-data-recovery-tools-for-linux-to-recover-data-or-deleted-partitions"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/5-best-data-recovery-tools-for-linux-to-recover-data-or-deleted-partitions</a></u></font><br>
<br>
<div>On 2/15/20 7:12 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">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.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>SO</div>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre cols="72">--
Charlie</pre>
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-- <br>
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>-- <br>
<br>
Francis Robinson<br>
aka "farmer"<br>
Central Indiana USA<br>
<a href="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">robinson46176@gmail.com</a><br>
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