I already had hdtune on the computer. It would fail to read any smart information off of the drive. and crash. Any other hard drive worked fine.

It was one of the warning signs basically.

And so... night of the long copies begins.

Stage one: Copy every single file on my laptop to a computer downstairs.

- Currently underway using XCopy

Stage two: Burn a recovery disk that will access ntfs dynamic drives.

- To be done.

Stage three: Boot failing computer with recovery cd. Use laptop via crossover cable to copy across data to laptop.

As laptop fills (15gb space..), copy across to downstairs pc using wireless network.

As Downstairs PC fills... burn CDs full of data.

Also burn DVDs full of data using the failing PC providing I can burn dvds using the recovery cd.

Stage four: Low level format the hard drive.

Reinstall windows and Linux (Putting windows on a bloody small partition lol) and start rebuilding everything.

if it starts to die whilst recovering, use the freezer method.

Doh!!!...

Almost backed up all my stuff. Need to know where Evolution stores its emails... as I have a crud load of important emails in there.

Hope I can boot into the thing later.

*/.evolution/mail

Thanks max

Yup any folder or filename starting with a dot (in your home folder) is usually hidden, at least in nautilus and konqueror.

Quote from: skidzillaYup any folder or filename starting with a dot (in your home folder) is usually hidden, at least in nautilus and konqueror.

You just need to cntrl+L to get a location bar then you can type the name of the hidden file while it auto-tab completes.

For serious file management, I prefer the austere Emelfm over the big 2.

Again, Explore2fs can be handy if you need to recover Linux files when running XP.

Ctrl+H displays hidden stuff in your home, but maxs method using the location bar is easier, as you have a LOT more stuff in your home dir than you thought pretty much every app you install has a ~/. folder in there..

and thats what is so blimmin great about linux. I did a clean-install of the latest Flight CD from Ubuntu the other day, and when I installed programs like Azureus, etc etc - no need to configure, its not like a clean install.. they just grabbed their files from the home dir and looked exactly like I had left them in the other O/S.

 

Aye I know about the . files in home just was unsure, as some things are saved in places like /var/usr/lib/ or some random places .

Im struggling to cram stuff onto DVDs.

See its times like these that I need a program that will find the most efficient way of filling dvds with stuff!! Dont care what order they are in, just want to get the data safe!