2/23 Hi, my girlfriend's mom is in Taiwan. Her computer stopped booting;
it shows BIOS, but it won't show the WinXP screen. So, it sounds like
a virus (less likely, partial drive failure / OS corruption, but let's
assume it's a virus).
She is concerned about recovering her files.
Normally if I were on-site I'd just pull out the drive, put it in an
enclosure, and bam.
Is there any convenient way for her to recover her files without my
being on-site? I am thinking something along the lines of a bootable
CD-ROM I can mail her that could mount an NTFS partition and also a
USB memory key. It would show an easy Explorer-like tree with which
she can explore the C: drive and copy files over.
\_ The only convenient way I can think of is for her to buy a new
computer, then open up the old computer, take the disk out and
put it in the new computer as a secondary drive. Even this is
not "easy", but it is relatively straightforward for a non-
technical user. Can you trust her to be able to operate a
screwdriver? If not, she needs to bring it in to a data
recovery service, which will be much more expensive.
\_ have somebody in Taiwan make a KNOPPIX CD.
You make the same knoppix CD here and talk her through it.
She copies the files from HDD to the USB key.
In these situations avoid the screwdriver if you can.
\_ Thanks, I'm downloading KNOPPIX 3.7 English now and will try it
out. I'll let motd know how it goes.
\_ Also, if you could get remote access to her computer,
that would probably make things easy for you. You might try
setting up a remote access tunnel. Have her run (as root)
\_ Also, if you get remote access to her computer,
that would probably make things go faster.
You might try setting up a ssh tunnel like this:
Have her type:
(at the boot: prompt) knoppix 2 vga=normal
# passwd (to set the root password)
# /etc/init.d/ssh start
# ssh -R 2222:localhost:22 account@yourserver
then you ssh to you@yourserver and run
$ ssh -p 2222 root@yourserver
This should give you root on her server. I haven't tried
this specificaly but I'll test it out later tonight.
Then you ssh to yourserver like normal and run
$ ssh -p 2222 root@localhost
at the password prompt, type her new root password.
This should give you knoppix root on her computer.
I just tested it and it works. -brett
\_ Sounds cool. She gets net via PPPoE, though. So I guess
I will need to fish for the PPPoE settings in KNOPPIX and
tell her how to do that?
\_ D'oh. She doesn't she have a firewall/router device?
That could explain how her computer got comprimised.
\_ That's what I told my gf. But my gf does Windows
Remote Assistance all the time with her family and
didn't want to mess with unblocking ports.
...
"It ain't broke, so why fix it?"
"Because you might get p0wn3d one day"
"But I have everyone on Windows Automatic Update"
"Okay"
"Dang, I got p0wn3d!"
The real answer is that we need to test the port
unblocking in the U.S., and move them to the
D-Link gateway next time we visit Taiwan.
\_ Your girlfriend should either:
1) fix it herself now (or)
2) follow your advice ahead of time.
3) Get Macs for her parents.
Your gf doesn't understand inbound/outbound rules:
"If you are using Network Address Translation (NAT) in a
home environment, you can use Remote Assistance without
any special configurations."
\_ You have never had a girlfriend, have you?
\_ Doesn't she have any computer savvy acquaintances in Taiwan?
Isn't Taiwan a high tech island?
\_ Friends we used to ask are in gr4d sk00l in the U.S. |
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