URGENT: Best livecd/pe disk image

[ZeroHour]

Hi

Our cash server has died and since it was managed exclusively by the cash office we dont control the backups. The hd appears to be toast but we are not sure yet and I was wondering if anyone knew of any livecd's which contain a shed load of drivers and possibly some tape drive support so I can try to get the database off the server asap?

The server is old, really old (Win 2000) so I hope newer livecd's would have drivers for it.

We are supposed to be paid this week and we have to get the pay out by tomorrow lunch so I need a livecd tool to copy the db to the network asap.

 

Cheers

[somabc]

UBCD for Windows

[kestrel1]

If you want to try & get data back you could try using a Ubuntu live CD

[SYNACK]

++ for UBCD4Win, it is probably the safest easiest way as it is less likely to kill ntfs than a linux one. If it will not mount with windows though you may need to resort to Ubuntu live CD but have a backup medium handy as it may only come up once before it kills the filesystem totally.

[Ric_]

Have you tried sticking the drive in your box? DBs tend just to be files after all so the drive might be usable in a different machine. I've also had success using OnTrack Easy Recovery pro (I think that's what it's called) after installing the disk in something else.

[ZeroHour]

Have you tried sticking the drive in your box? DBs tend just to be files after all so the drive might be usable in a different machine. I've also had success using OnTrack Easy Recovery pro (I think that's what it's called) after installing the disk in something else.

 

Its part of a raid set and old scsi so I have nothing to connect it too. I am going to have a crack at getting the files but it should be fun. Accessing the tape drive on the livecd would be awesome but unlikely.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions so far

[ZeroHour]

UBCD4Win BSOD when I tried it with nfts.sys so I am going to try an nother now.

[Ric_]

Ahhhh... dodgy old RAID cards tend to require exotic drivers. Personally, I'd have a bash with Knoppix (make sure you don't get the Adrianne version - it speaks everything at you and makes you want to chuck the machine out the nearest closed window!). Knoppix generally has good driver support and by default won't write to an NTFS volume (it will read mind) so it's a little safer.

[matt40k]

You given bartpe a go? Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD

 

Far few drivers you could try: Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD, remember a XP cd will include a few more then 2000.

[SYNACK]

Here is something that I should have remembered right off the bat, why not give Windows PE2 (windows vista AIK) a go. It is easy to integrate drivers and comes with stacks of them already. Full USB and NTFS support to.

Download details: Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008

they have even released the one for windows 7 which may have a few more drivers still.

Download details: Windows® AIK for Windows ® 7 RC

 

EDIT: You could also try the slightly less than legal Diamond BootCD v1 04 that contains stacks of recovery tools, google and a friendly water related download client can provide it with minimal effort.

Edited July 20, 2009 by SYNACK

[Theblacksheep]

Heres a few others that may help, not all are legal to distribute:

 

HawkPE

USBCD4WIN

HirensBootCD9.9

TRK

 

Ubuntu saved a friends drive that could not longer be seen by windows (at all) last week. Ubuntu VM with vmware tools installed in workstation 6.5.2 and folder sharing made it easy to pull out and immediatly test in windows (drive in caddy via USB).

Edited July 20, 2009 by Theblacksheep

[ZeroHour]

I tried Knoppix but I have no idea how to mount the raid controller hard disk.

 

SYNACK: I have the 7 x64 AIK but I have no idea how to burn a PE from it. Tips?

 

EDIT: found this:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749311(WS.10).aspx

its made an iso at least.

Edited July 20, 2009 by ZeroHour

[SYNACK]

This may help, production values are a bit iffy but it seems to have the info:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R8vicCSTsE]YouTube - Make Your Own Windows 7 live Cd! 100% FREE AND LEGAL[/ame]

 

and this is the procedure in a quicker text form:

PE 3.0 Building Instructions - The CD Forum

 

Are you sure that your server has an x64 chip also as you may need a x32 AIK image to boot it otherwise. Also if you know what RAID card it has you could integrate the drivers first just to make sure

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Deploying-Windows-7-Part2.html

 

You can even use 2003 or XP ones if later ones do not exist.

 

Edit2: There is a script here to add the drivers to:

http://themudcrab.com/vistapeguide_drivers.php

 

Edit3: Ah, I see that you found the instructions anyhow ZH

Edited July 20, 2009 by SYNACK

[ZeroHour]

Cheers for that, just tried a basic PE image using the guide I linked but no hard disks were shown.

I am hunting for drivers now for a Acceleraid 160 (god what a name lol) to see if I can integrate them.

[SYNACK]

Oooh, windows 2000 drivers seem to be the latest... classy

ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/controller/mylex/swk5/w2k_510.exe

 

wait found XP ones on the windows update catalogue which should be the best avalible:

Microsoft Update Catalog

[mrtechsystems]

Yeah I remember them

 

LSI Logic

 

http://www.lsi.com/cm/DownloadSearch.do?locale=EN

 

Good Luck

[SYNACK]

x86 drivers so they may not work with a 64 bit image but here they are

Mylex Corporation - Storage - Mylex Acceleraid 160 Disk Array Controller.zip

[PiqueABoo]

I always vote for BartPE but it can take a little while getting your head around making one.

 

However there is a BartPE friendly mass storage driver pack available from driverpacks.net, which integrates itself into your bartPE automagically, and because it contains drivers for pretty much every mass storage gadget that wasn't released recently (including the ones linked above) it makes that bit simple. In the unlikely event that a driver isn't in the driver pack you can also do the traditional F6 thing when booting a bartPE.

[box_l]

acronis also has very good raid drivers, could you boot it far enough to maybe take an image?

 

and then restore to dissimilar hardware, or a vm!

 

there are discs out there that do contain all you need "for testing purposes"

 

"acronis-all-bootcd" googled might produce results.

 

box

[ZeroHour]

An update for you all, ubutuntu could see the raid set and I tried a ntfsmount (no force) and it failed saying there was errors after a few mins (and a lot of nasty HD grinding noises)

Ubuntu can see the tape drive but I have no idea how to access it or extract the windows backup from it.

[IT_Guy]

An update for you all, ubutuntu could see the raid set and I tried a ntfsmount (no force) and it failed saying there was errors after a few mins (and a lot of nasty HD grinding noises)

Ubuntu can see the tape drive but I have no idea how to access it or extract the windows backup from it.

 

You could try removing the grinding HD assuming you can work out which one it is, the whole point of RAID 5 is that it can rebuild itself if you loose a drive. Its worked for me before, I'm assuming you have a spare drive to replace it with of course.

[SYNACK]

Not sure about mounting of the tape in ubuntu. Depending on the system it may require the original backup software to read out the contents of the tape. Only way foward would be to have that software integrated onto a live cd or yank the drive and chuck it in a different system that you can install compatible backup software on for a restore.

 

The only other think that I can think of is to attempt a raw image of the virtual drive from the RAID Array and then use a tool like testdick on the result in an attempt to recover as many files as possible from the damaged filesystem. You can try this on the system itself but this is not the safest way to go about it.