Thread: Recovering Windows Files (with Linux)?

My windows has a virus and I cant get access to it. (I can't use safe mode).Ubuntu cannot mount it because the drive is seriously damaged (this is what i hear from people on the IRC channel).I tried burning Ultimate Boot CD and Minixp or something like that, but each time i try to burn, it give me an error in the end. I can boot from the cds, but they don't seem to help me.Are there any other ways?

If you can't mount the drive using Ubuntu because the drive is damaged, then you're running out of luck and will need a new drive. Run:sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sda(or whatever your drive device is)This will ask the drive to perform a short self test. Use smartctl -a to check the test results. This will tell you if the drive has actually failed, or if it is just filesystem corruption.You can use dd_rescue to attempt recovery from a failed drive.