2

I was using Fedora 18 until this morning when I accidently wiped some system files while make a live USB, I cannot load Fedora or get into the system. Now I am running Ubuntu 12.04 on a live USB. I have some important documents, some photos and music. I attempted to access the files through nautilus, and I was told I did not have permission. I also attempted to access through terminal, with sudo it told me cd was not a command, without sudo it said access denied.

I have an external harddrive ready to copy the files, and I am hoping that its not a total loss.

Improve this question
0

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

Ubuntu does not mount your real hard disk but you should be able to copy your data to an external hard easily enough.

First Boot from the USB and select try Ubuntu

I'm using the 12.04 CD to do this

Now press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a termininal

In the terminal enter the following command

sudo -i

Then

nautilus

enter image description here

This opens nautilus (the file manager) as root. Do not close the terminal.

enter image description here

Note: In the section down the left hand side of nautilus "File System" is the virtual file system of the live session not a real file system you real hard drives are shown as devices. In my case the device was "959cf23..."

As you are root you can now copy and paste any data you want to keep to external storage.

You can change ownership and permissions of the files by selecting properties enter image description here

enter image description here

Alternatively don't worry about permissions for now as you can always change the permissions again from the other OS or you can make them all accessible to every one with

sudo chmod -R 777 /path/to/external/drive

Replacing /path/to/external/drive with the correct path. Warning: Make sure you type this correcly as sudo chmod -R 777 / path/to/external/drive for example will change permissions for the entire file system.

Then you can re-install the OS you want and restore your data from the backup.

Improve this answer
2
  • Hey, this turned out to be the only thing I can do. I am moving the data now but there is still protections on it when I move it. Any ideas of how to remove the permissions?
    – mungostrap
    Apr 12, 2014 at 20:37
  • I've edited my answer to include permissions. But, presumably you will be able to log on as root (or are an Administrator) in the other OS so can fix permissions from there.
    – Warren Hill
    Apr 13, 2014 at 7:36
0

You can't use sudo cd usb_dir and keep the root privileges. Try instead to open a real root session to access your files:

sudo -i

And don’t forget to type exit to switch back to your normal user when you are done.

Improve this answer
8
  • Thanks you for your answer. When I navigate /dev/fedoradhcp/ i get to a file in skyblue colour called home. From what I understand this is a linked file? Is there somewhere else I should navigate to get into the old home folder?
    – mungostrap
    Apr 12, 2014 at 17:50
  • Usually you'll find your old home directory in /home/your_old_login_name
    – Sylvain Pineau
    Apr 12, 2014 at 17:52
  • The only thing in /home/ is /it/ which is for the live USB session.
    – mungostrap
    Apr 12, 2014 at 18:03
  • Your fedora installation should be mounted somewhere in /media/, try to navigate first with Files (aka Nautilus) to find your old home and then open a terminal to go in the /media tree.
    – Sylvain Pineau
    Apr 12, 2014 at 18:13
  • Sorry to keep troubling you, when I go through /media/ from the live usb home there is a shortcut to cdrom and a folder it(which I think is the live usb), inside it there are two folders with hex file names. The first one brings me to the 949gb volume(the one with all the files I want), inside this there is a 300gb folder of my old user name. I open this and its empty. I was previously told I do not have permission to open it.
    – mungostrap
    Apr 12, 2014 at 18:31

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .