What I love about sharing my computer knowledge to everyone is, I get back even more without asking. For example, few days ago I’ve written about a post on how to backup files from dead Windows to FTP. I got a few suggestions asking me to try using Linux Live CD to do that. There are advantages of using Linux Live CD to boot up dead Windows system and backup files compared to Windows PE.

I had a few hours of free time today and I’ve decided to check out a few Linux Live CD. There are so many types of Linux CDs and I don’t know which to start. I head on to The LiveCD List which contains hundreds of Live CDs and I chose SLAX, Knoppix and Ubuntu because I’ve heard of them plus all 3 has quite high votes.

Here is how you can backup files from dead Windows using either SLAX, Knoppix and Ubuntu.

1. SLAX Standard Edition Live CD (192MB)
[ Download SLAX Live CD ]
Download SLAX ISO file, burn it to CD and boot up with the CD. After the startup screen, your screen will be presented like the image below.

Type the login as: root
Password as: toor
Once logged in, type startx to run Xwindow.

Good thing about SLAX is, it will automatically mount windows partition. To access the mounted windows partition, double click the System icon on desktop, and then access Storage Media. Next, you can either backup your files to FTP or Windows Share.

To backup to FTP, run Konqueror, and type ftp://XX.XX.XX.XX at the location bar. Replace the XX with the FTP server’s IP address.

If you prefer to copy your files to a Windows computer on the same LAN, also from Konqueror, type smb://XX.XX.XX.XX at the location bar. Replace XX with the computer’s IP address.

2. Knoppix (696MB)
[ Download Knoppix Live CD ]
Download KNOPPIX ISO file, burn it to CD and boot up with the CD. It will automatically load X-Windows.

Knoppix automatically mounts windows partition and places a shortcut of your windows partition on desktop for easy access. To backup files to FTP and windows share, you can use the same method as SLAX. Run Konqueror and type ftp://xx.xx.xx.xx at location bar for FTP and smb://xx.xx.xx.xx at location bar for windows share.

3. Ubuntu Live CD (698MB)
[ Download Ubuntu Live CD ]
I bet most of you heard of Ubuntu before because of Dell. That’s why I decided to give it a try. Same thing, download Ubuntu Live CD ISO, burn it to CD and boot up with the CD.

Ubuntu will automatically boot in to X-Windows. Unfortunately for security reasons, Ubuntu doesn’t automatically mount Windows partition. From the top bar, click Places -> Computer, you can see the hard drive.
Ubuntu don't recognize windows partition
But when you try to access, it’ll give you the error message “Unable to mount the selected volume. error: device /dev/sda1 is not removable error: could not execute pmount”
Unable to mount the selected volume

You CAN mount windows partition but you got to do it manually. Psychocats has very good instructions on how to mount Windows partition in Ubuntu. I’ve tested the steps and it worked perfectly.

Once you’ve mounted Windows partition to /windows, you can either backup the windows partition files to FTP or a Windows computer on the same LAN. From the top bar, click Places -> Connect to Server. A connect to server window will appear.
Ubuntu Connect to Server
From the service type, you can select FTP or Windows Share. Enter the necessary information and click Connect. You’ll notice a new mount icon appear at desktop.

Compare backing up files from dead Windows using Linux Live CD and Windows PE, using Linux Live CD is much better. Reason is:
1. Linux ignores NTFS permission
2. Don’t need to create PE image.
3. Don’t need Windows CD
4. FREE

For me, I prefer SLAX because it’s faster and auto mounts Windows partition. Leave a comment if I forgot to add any important information to this article. Thanks for your comments on previous article. Without it, I wouldn’t have discovered this method.

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