linux - How to recover lost partitions using a bootable pen drive?

I have lost all partitions in my laptop's hard disk recently and its now showing as a raw disk.

I have made a bootable pen drive using Ubuntu-12.04 and trying to recover the lost data using TestDisk.

I have successfully installed the software and now when I'm running it, am getting this error.

testdisk: error while loading shared libraries: libntfs-3g.so.835:
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

State of my System Partitions

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes 255 heads, 63
sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors Units =
sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512
bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0 GB, 16005464064 bytes 64 heads, 32 sectors/track,
15264 cylinders, total 31260672 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 =
512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O
size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier:
0x000789f1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 32 31260671 15630320 c W95 FAT32
(LBA)

Answer

You need to install the ntfs-3g package, as in sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g.

windows 10 - AltGr button seems to be disabled

I'm working with a Windows 10 machine.

I'm using quite some keyboard shortcuts so my problem can be related with a wrong key combination: since this morning my keyboard button AltGr does not work anymore, I need to type Ctrl+Alt+key in order to type something like (@-sign in e-mail addresses, backticks,...).

Does anybody know how to enable this keyboard button again?

service pack - Why wouldn't Windows 7 have a "Repair your Computer" mode on F8?

I'm trying to follow the instructions here.

1. Restart your computer and start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard.
   You have to press F8 before the Windows logo appears. If the Windows
   logo appears, you have to try again by waiting until the Windows logon
   prompt appears and then shutting down and restarting your computer.
   Note: On a computer that is configured to boot to multiple operating
   systems, you can press the F8 key when the Boot Menu appears.


2. Use the
   arrow keys to select Repair your Computer in the Advanced Boot Options
   area, and then press Enter. If you are prompted, select the Windows 7
   installation to be repaired, and then click Next.

But I don't have any "Repair your Computer" option or anything like it. All I have is:

Safe Mode

Safe Mode with Networking

Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Enable Boot Logging

Enable low resolution video (640x480)

Last Known Good Configuration (advanced)

Directory Services Restore Mode

Debugging Mode

Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure

Disable Driver Signature Enforcement

Start Windows Normally

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate (in the middle of installing SP1, but upon reboot my system is not bootable - keep getting C0000032 error in linked post). I cannot boot into Safe Mode in any of its forms, and for whatever reason, in the past I have never been able to get my system to boot from a USB key (tried multiple bootable images, formatted them in FAT and FAT32, but always just get a black screen with a blinking cursor).

All I have is the Windows 7 Ultimate disc I used for installation, but when I boot to it and try to run the repair option, it says that it cannot repair the version of Windows that is installed (perhaps because SP1 is installed?).

Is there any other way that I can get to the repair mode on Windows 7?

hard drive - Are SSDs better than HDDs for long term idle storage?

I want to back up some files on an external disk. I won't be accessing the files as often, but I want them to be secure and private. It goes without saying that I don't want to upload them on the cloud, I want them offline.

So my question is, are HDDs suitable for long term storage, or are SSDs better in this regard? What are the variables that I need to consider?

Issues installing Kali Linux alongside Windows 8

I am running Windows 8 64-bit with an i3-3230m with 750GB HDD and 8GB RAM.

I installed Kali onto a 40GB unallocated partition.
(Note: I had to change to Legacy mode in BIOS or my computer would not be able to recognize and boot from the disc.)

FIRST ISSUE: After completing installation and rebooting my computer, GRUB would not show so I could only boot into Windows.

I attempted to fix this by booting again from the Live CD (computer is still in Legacy mode) and using boot-repair.

(Note: I encountered many issues while trying to run boot-repair but I found fixes for all of them so I am not sure if including them will be of importance.)

But after boot-repair, GRUB would still not show, even though boot-repair said the repair was successful.
I did boot-repair multiple times but still no difference.
I even deleted the Kali partition and reinstalled it, but GRUB still didn't show.

The last boot-repair gave the message that if problems persisted, I should provide this link as reference.
http://paste.ubuntu.com/6979965/

NEXT ISSUE: Now when I turn on my computer, it gives me this message with a blue screen for Windows:

The Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.

File: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
Error code:0xc000000f

I created my Windows 8 installation media but when I try to refresh the PC through troubleshoot, it says my drive is locked.

What has happened and what can I do to fix this?

installation - Cannot install windows. Compaq Presario CQ62

I bought a used Compaq Presario CQ62 for cheap, and went to install windows on it. I formatted the partition and went to install when I got this error....

Windows cannot install required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070017

I have used this disk before with no problems, but internet searching suggested I burn one at 2x speed because that helps for some reason... I'm burning one now, but my question is, why would I get this error, OTHER than the disc being bad? I'm pretty certain this one isn't as I have used it before...

(ok so the slowly burned cd (using imgburn) didn't work either so it's DEFINITELY not the disc)

Here is what I have tried to do:

• I took one stick of ram out because internet searching also suggested that, but it didn't make a difference.




• I ran memory and hard drive checks and they passed fine.




• I reset the motherboard options to default

What could it be?

How to stop the Windows Update process when Windows refuses to stop it?

Many websites, including SuperUser, recommend restarting the Windows Update service in order to fix the common problem of Windows Update getting stuck at 0% downloading.

When I try to stop the Windows Update service (via services.msc), Windows 7 SP1 attempts to stop it, but then after waiting a few minutes, reports that it cannot stop the process.

How can I stop the Windows Update process so I can restart it?

Answer

When you attempt to stop a service but after a while it reports back with an error and either it is stopped and doesn't start anymore, or it is still running and you just can't stop it, then the software of the service crashed and Windows is unable to stop it normally.

What I mean with software part of the service is the following. Like a driver for your computer, a service is just a program that runs on your computer. When a program is installed as a service, it runs invisibly and it can be configured to automatically start when Windows starts. To interact with the service, you have to go to the services tab and you can start/stop the program there, or disable it.

When you choose to stop a service, the service program is interacted with, sending a request to stop it. This allows the service program to stop normally, executing some pre-shutdown commands, and then terminate.

Now, if you attempt to stop the service, but the service is not responding, it is waiting for the service to shutdown. Normally, when a service does not respond, it is automatically stopped by Windows. But there is the rare chance, that the service is running, but for some unknown reason, the shutdown command is queued and its waiting for another task to complete first. If this is the case, the service could have crashed.

If you use software like Process Hacker, you can manually terminate the process that is responsible for the service and refreshing the services list should now list the service as stopped and it can be started normally again.

If you don't want to use additional software, simply reboot the computer, and after a complete reboot, the first thing you want to do is stop that service, though rebooting may fix the issue you are trying to solve in the first place.