recovering files from windows vista to usb Live pendrive

I failed to mention that my Vista 64 bit system will not boot. Seems that there is a problem with the operating system or something. Not sure what the problem is but it just hangs forever on the loading screen. I planned on reformatting and re-installing anyway. there are however some text files that I really need to recover before I do this. I tried running a different version of linux under something called ophcrack as suggested by a friend. i could see and select the files but it would not allow me to save to the usb pen drive because it said it was a read only device. Any suggestions or help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Unless you have made a 'persistent' version on your pendrive it will only act like a LiveCd and you will not be able to save to it. If you have made a 'persistent' version it will accept changes.

It might be easier to use a LiveCd of the distro called Knoppix, which will 'see' Windows right off and for you to format your pendrive to fat32. You will need to set the boot order int the BIOS to boot from the CD first. You can then save stuff onto your pendrive.

Yes, if the machine has a cd/dvd-drive or if you could attach an external cd/dvd-drive then a LiveCd would be great. Otherwise you need to setup a LiveUsb stick using another machine
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download-netbook

Runnnig a LiveUsb is much the same as a LiveCd
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

I think Knoppix can make a good LiveCd or LiveUsb session
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=knoppix
SliTaz can be good because it's LiveCd loads entirely into Ram which leaves the boot device free. So with a sliTaz LiveCd you can take the Cd out once you get to the desktop gui
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slitaz

Does the machine have a cd/dvd-drive?
Regards from
Tom :)

Hi, now i have re-read your question i think you might be able to fix the Windows without having to reinstall Windows. If the machine can run a LiveCd session then Trinity Rescue Kit
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=trinity
might be able to help but it runs entirely from a linux command-line. Luckily their forums seem quite friendly and i think they do have some good documentation too.

Quite oftn simply installing a gnu&linux distro such as Ubuntu is enough to fix the Windows boot process by installing the grub (GRand Unified Boot-loader) to the distro and into the MBR so the Windows one gets bypassed. The Windows boot-loaders are quite often a bit flakey. I know of some people that replace the Windows boot-loader even without installing a linux distro on the machine just to stop problems from affecting the machine :)

Please let us know which way you want to try and how it goes
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Does the Vista report give error message? If you Google the error message you may be able to fix things.

If I burn the iso image to a cd and run it as a live cd. can i then insert a usb pendrive and format it in FAT32 from within the linux environment and then copy windows files or save to the usb drive. is that what you are saying arochester

and yes Tom. there is a cdrom/dvd drive on the laptop.

Hi :)

Yes the newly updated but not quite finished guide
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD
also just happens to have a screenshot (figure 3) showing where to find the program to format partitions and Usb-sticks. When you have opened the Partition Editor, usually GPartEd, look up at the button on the top right-hand corner that says something like "/dev/sda 45.3 Gib Media" and click on that. Hopefully that should give a list of all the different hard-drives and Usb-sticks on your machine. Just click on the usb one and you will probably find it's already filled a green box. Green is for Windows compatible, blue & red is for Linux only. The yellow filling shows how much data is already on the drive. Any grey space doesn't already have a partition. If you right-click an area then you should get the option to format it to quite a range of different formats, for a Usb-stick Fat32 seems probably the easiest and most useful.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

I burnt the ISO file to a cd. now I was able to run the version of live cd off of the drive and after plugging in my USB drive I was able to transfer the files I needed. All is good.

Thanks Bhavani Shankar, that solved my question.

Brilliant, nicely done :))
Regards from
Tom :)