mandriva re-install: can i save my data before re-installing

[cheese on toast2]

hello all

my HD recently messed up due to a forced shutdown and a damaged filesystem, so im gonna have to re-install mandriva on my laptop. my system will not boot, does anyone know if i can save any of my v. important files? if i do a re-install without backing up my files in the /home directory, is it definate that i will loose everything? or will it be saved? (like windows does if you have to re-install, by creating a file called windows.old)
I have vista installed on a different partition, is there any way i can transfer stuff from my home folder into the vista partition? the system doesnt get past the booting stage, but if i press esc during boot up, i enter verbose mode, so i can type any commands there.

any replies are much appreciated, and a very well done if u understood what i just said, coz i seem to have complicating things down to a fine art now lol.

[dougal2]

Can you boot a live CD and run fsck on your HD ?

[cheese on toast2]

im not sure, i dont know a lot about linux, could you explain what that means and how i do it? also, here's the actual error message i get when i try to boot if this helps anything

setting hostname homewireless: [ok]
setting up logical volume management: no volume groups found
[ok]

cheking root filesystem
/dev/sda5 contains a filesystem with errors, check forced
Error reading block 33150 (attempt to read block from filesystem resulted in short read while getting next inode from scan

/dev/sda5: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY: RUN fsck manually. (i.e. without -a or -p options)

***An error occoured during filesystem check.
***Dropping you into a shell.

enter root password for maintenence or press Control+D to continue

[dougal2]

OK, so can you enter the root pasword to get into a shell.


Then you need to run

Code: Select all

fsck /dev/sda5

This is the equivalent of windows chkdsk, with the added bonus that it's better

[cheese on toast2]

ok thanks! will this completely solve the problem?

[dougal2]

Depends if fsck can repair the disk.
Either way, you probably still need to think of a way to backup your data.

[cheese on toast2]

ok. do you know of any ways to back up data when the system doesnt boot? is there any way i can use things like the ch, ls and mv commands to move stuff to my vista partition? also, a website about this problem says to run e2fsck, so which one do i do? do i run fsck /dev/sda5 or do i run e2fsck??

[dougal2]

as far as i know e2fsck is a variant of fsck for a particular file system, however fsck should detect the filesystem type and run the appropriate variant itself.
However, if you've seen instructions that suggest e2fsck, then try that first.

[cheese on toast2]

okey dokey, thanks! i'll try it after ive found a way to backup my files.. if i ever do..

[BigSean]

An external HD would be an easy and cheap solution. That's what I did. I know that there are several back up services out there but I really like the idea of the external HD better.