After system didaster how to prepare / save most important data ?

[SYNass IT Ubuntu / Linux]

Hi Mike
Thanks for your feedback and warning intervention ! 
I do not neglect: If it ain't broken, don't fix it !! 


On Wed, 2008-05-21 at 18:14 -0700, Mike Bird wrote:
> On Wed May 21 2008 17:55:45 SYNass IT Ubuntu / Linux wrote:
> > I would appreciate an additional effort and help ...
> > ... to avoid resp. block the quite regular system fsck at boot time,
> > coz I fear that the fsck may bring my system into real troubles !?
> 
> Unless you clearly understand how e2fs and fsck work and why running
> fsck is a bad idea in your case, not running fsck is more likely to
> make things worse than if you just allowed fsck to run.

I really appreciate your warning and aware of it !
As an avid long years OS/2 user I know this too good because M$ Windoof
always wants / wanted to repair what isn't to their likes and accepting
their offers to repair always made things either worse or UN-usable !!

Here:
No system tool like fdisk nor GParted recognizes any partitions on this
HDD anymore, 
however and luckily, the two OS'es are still bootable and working in
their usual way !

I am in a very troublesome preparation to get my important data (/home
under Ubuntu and 
Documents and Settings under WinXPP) extracted fast and proofed reliable
soonest !!

That's my argument here to have absolutely NO interfering from 3rd party
functions !!! ;-D


> > Why:
> > My systems HDD has 120GB !
> > Another source means the HDD to have 2249,08 GB !?
> > HOOH ???
> 
> What is the source of the bad size and what exactly does it say?

Must be seen in M$ WinXPP Disk Management !? ;-((


> > So I would like to have all automatic checks stopped ...
> > ... until I have backup my /home/svobi and the Documents and Settings in
> > WinXPP !!!
> 
> Usually issuing "sudo touch /fastboot" EVERY TIME before shutting down
> or rebooting is enough to prevent fsck on the next boot.  However, you're
> more likely to make things worse than if you let fsck run, unless you
> clearly understand how e2fs and fsck work and why running fsck is a bad
> idea in your case.
> 
> If you have serious HDD problems, you'd be better off booting from a
> Live CD and using the HDD as little as possible.

You are 101% correct ! ;-D

How can a LiveCD help if tools like RescueCD 1.0.2 and its GParted 0.3.6
or 
fdisk do not see the HDD partitions ?? ;-|

And please do not forget:
Here is no Linux / Ubuntu system expert nor a Linux / Ubuntu power user:
Here is a deep jungle green newbie / greenhorn with its first steps to 
get rid of these system troubles. ;-D

I hope and wish: Murphy's law doesn't show up here !!!

Once again: Thank you and cheers, 
svobi