Recover data and stuff from a corrupted OS

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Hi Guys,

My friends pc with xp has got corrupted. It is not even booting up properly. He has few important files on the desktop, how to retrieve them if we boot using HBCD or Ubuntu? I mean IDK how to open desktop once we boot via them. Also he needs the history of his sites visited in Firefox and IE as he is not able to find the links for the same. Which folders/file do we need to copy from Firefox and IE folders so that we can copy paste them in a different pc and check the sites visited.

Thanks

Ubuntu live CD (or USB) should mount all partitions automatically and you should be able to access them via the file browser utility, you can open them one by one and identify the partitions by looking at the folder structure in them. That way you should be able to access your Windows and other partitions and backup data from them to another hard drive.

As for Firefox, you can make a copy of the profile data localted at C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows login/user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile folder> and save your bookmarks, settings, preferences, etc. However I doubt you would be able to recover history that way since Firefox stores browser history in a Sqlite database.

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Desmond David said:
Ubuntu live CD (or USB) should mount all partitions automatically and you should be able to access them via the file browser utility, you can open them one by one and identify the partitions by looking at the folder structure in them. That way you should be able to access your Windows and other partitions and backup data from them to another hard drive.

As for Firefox, you can make a copy of the profile data localted at C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows login/user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile folder> and save your bookmarks, settings, preferences, etc. However I doubt you would be able to recover history that way since Firefox stores browser history in a Sqlite database.

Thanks for replying. So, after booting via Ubuntu where exactly do I need to look into to save the files on the desktop?
Regarding Firefox and IE, can't we save that Sqlite database in a pendrive and then open it on a different system? Also which folder/files to copy for IE?

You should be able to access the file browser from the Applications menu after Ubuntu boots. In the file browser, there should be a number of drives visible on the left side pane which may or may not be named in the same way as in Windows. You will have to open each of them and determine which partition those are by looking at their content.

As for Firefox, the only easiest way to backup the history that I know is by using Firefox sync. But you should have done that before such a problem occured. Now there is no way that I know that you can recover your history. You could try backing up your profile as I mentioned earlier, I am not sure whether it has the browser history or not.

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Desmond David said:
You should be able to access the file browser from the Applications menu after Ubuntu boots. In the file browser, there should be a number of drives visible on the left side pane which may or may not be named in the same way as in Windows. You will have to open each of them and determine which partition those are by looking at their content.

As for Firefox, the only easiest way to backup the history that I know is by using Firefox sync. But you should have done that before such a problem occured. Now there is no way that I know that you can recover your history. You could try backing up your profile as I mentioned earlier, I am not sure whether it has the browser history or not.

Actually I am getting all the names of the drives, all that I am looking for is where to find desktop files in c drive?

Firefox sync was not done dear. Profile has browsing history-

Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data | Firefox Hel

I will copy the profiles folder from C:\Documents and Settings\ABCD\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles and I guess this is the file that we need to copy places.sqlite to a different computer-

Recovering important data from an old profile | Firefox Hel

Should I copy paste history "all" the files from the history folder of IE too?

Where does XP store the Browser History Folder? - Microsoft Communit

*answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/for...d-in-ie8/f33e2108-e883-4232-830f-c54952c4650f

Just use Ubuntu CD, get into the HDD and look for " Users " ( or something similar ) in what used to be the C drive before. You will find a folder with your friend's user name. Browse through it and you can they find a folder named " desktop " which will have the files you are looking for.