Hello all,

I am a somewhat newbie/elementary user of the linux OS SUSE version 9.3. I have been using a SUSE server for about 2 years for a small office and the hardware failed. Whether its the memory or motherboard, I do not know at this time.

I put the SATA hard drive with SUSE loaded in it from the old computer into another computer. I keep getting a "can't access tty ; job control turned off" when I boot the system. Then the command prompt comes up but I cant do anything like go into root directory, change directories etc.

My questions are:
1. would it be better to upgrade to a newer version, if it would keep all the data from the office that is currently on the hard drive.

2. Is there a way to retrieve the data on the hard drive if I have reinstall SUSE.

3. Is there a way to configure the existing install to match the new hardware of the new computer I put the drive. The new computer is a compaq model which I had to put a ATA serial card so it would read the hard drive.

The important thing is that I keep the data files from the office. The backup that I have is rather old and I really need the data that is on the hard drive.

Whatever feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

to pull data off a hard drive you can use ghost which will make it so you can see your drive files and pull them off

One thing which makes a difference is which channel the hard drive is attached to, and whether it's master or slave. Usually you'll at least be able to boot up to a text login of some sort, IF the hard drive is attached to the same IDE channel.

In a typical computer, there are two IDE channels. Along with two different possibilities for master/slave, this results in four possible places the hard drive can be attached. Usually, the OS hard drive is the master of the first IDE channel, and the CD drive is the master of the second IDE channel. But it can often be the slave if it's on the same cable as an optical drive.

Try switching which IDE channel the hard drive is plugged into. This may get you to some sort of text login, at least. From there, you may be able to reconfigure your graphics to get to a graphical login. I'm afraid I won't be of much help after that, since I'm not familiar with SUSE.

Oh--some more advice. Get a LiveCD like Knoppix. This is an entire Linux operating system that can boot up and run straight off of a CD. This is awesome for assisting data recovery. Since you probably want this office data right now (if not yesterday), then the first thing you'll want to do is boot up from a LiveCD and use it to copy your important data from that hard drive onto a working computer (e.g. whatever computer you're browsing the Internet on right now).

Thanks Isaac,

The problem is that the hard drive isnt IDE. Im using an ATA and connecting thru a serial ATA card. The machine Im connecting thru doesnt have an ATA connection so I had to buy an ATA serial card to get this drive to work. I have a second hard drive sitting around(which is ATA as well). Do you think its worth installing a fresh suse install onto it and using that as my master and my old hard drive (with the data) as my slave and try to go about it that way? Or will it be more of the same? The serial ATA card says its SUSE compatible and has documentation. Im just curious if I could pull the data if the old drive was used as a slave and have another drive with Suse read it.


Thanks