Re: Seeking assistance to preserve memories

Will a "Live CD boot" make sense of a RAIDed set-up? RAID-1, RAID-5 ...?
 
Jean-Francois Messier wrote:
> Unless the partitions were encrypted, there is a way to get access to
> the files. This can access the files without having to alter anything on
> the system configuration.
>
> Basically, you boot the computer using a live CD, such as the one from
> Ubuntu. Start browsing for files, and you should see some disks that can
> be mounted by clicking on them. This will give you access to all files
> in all partitions of you internal hard disk(s), one by one.
>
> The harder thing here is to understand what the different partitions
> were meant to. By mounting them under a LIVE distro, those are not
> mounted at the original mounting point. But if you mount them one by one
> and find a file named fstab, under a directory named etc, you can read
> this file and see how each partition is mounted. If this is a shared
> server containing thousands of photos, as well as a MythTV box, chances
> are that there is more than one partition.
>
> Once you know you can mount those partitions, look for files with the
> .jpg or .jpeg extension. This will likely give you the location of all
> you photos, which is, I understand, the most important part. Once you
> find those, copy them on a USB hard disk, twice, not only once, and save
> one of those hard disk in an external location, like your office, or a
> safety deposit box, or a friend.
>
> Once your pictures are all safe, then you can try resetting either the
> root or your husband's password using a method explained previously.
>
> All this can be time-consuming, So I recommend that you hire someone to
> do this, or ask for help on the list. I cannot help very much, as I just
> arrived in Vancouver for LinuxCon 2011.
>
> JF
> ---
> I am Linux,
> And Windows 7 was NOT my idea !.......
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [oclug] Seeking assistance to preserve memories
> From: Kimberly Charette <[email protected]>
> Date: Sat, August 13, 2011 10:34 pm
> To: [email protected]
>
> My spouse was the Linux person of the house, sadly with his passing in
> June most
> of that knowledge passed with him. All of the systems in the house run
> Ubuntu.
>  I have no concerns using my personal system or losing data on it but
> our server
> is s different story. It houses thousands of photographs and given
> recent
> circumstances those pictures are irreplaceable to me.
> This machine was also my husbands Mythbuntu box and it's raided. I know
> the
> Myth software on this machine was having glitches before June. My
> husband being
> the eternal procrastinator was going to fix everything eventually. I
> also have
> no idea what his password is and my account has absolutely no access to
> anything.
> My father in law tried to fix a few things but I think just made them
> worse. 
>
> I would like the system to be operational with Ubuntu, Mythbuntu
> optional but
> not necessary. I of course have no idea how to accomplish this task and
> require
> the services of a knowledgeable and reliable Linux person in this
> matter. 
>
> Thank you in advance.
>
> Kimberly Charette
>
>
>   
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