need help accessing my HD from Live CD boot

[slapee]

First off, I'd like to say thanks to the community here for making such an amazing product and then giving it away for free. I've been messing around with BT3 on and off for a few months now, and while I've got a lot to learn it has definitely helped secure and streamline our wireless internet.

Anyways, here's the problem. My computer is a 1 year-old Macbook and I cannot log into it. What happened was that I went to install a security update and it has yet to install after running all night, instead it just stays at the startup screen. My guess is that I need to delete some stuff from the harddrive (I only had about 500 MB worth of space before installation so I think that's the problem) but I can't log in directly to delete files. Right now I'm using a BT3 Live CD which is fine for the short term, but I really would like to be able to access my HD again and not lose all of my files.

If anyone knows how to access and delete files from the HD (specifically from the desktop) I would be forever grateful. Thanks again and keep up the great work

[imported_cybrsnpr]

Anyways, here's the problem. My computer is a 1 year-old Macbook and I cannot log into it. What happened was that I went to install a security update and it has yet to install after running all night, instead it just stays at the startup screen. My guess is that I need to delete some stuff from the harddrive (I only had about 500 MB worth of space before installation so I think that's the problem) but I can't log in directly to delete files. Right now I'm using a BT3 Live CD which is fine for the short term, but I really would like to be able to access my HD again and not lose all of my files.

If anyone knows how to access and delete files from the HD (specifically from the desktop) I would be forever grateful. Thanks again and keep up the great work

I hate to sound snotty, but have you checked a Mac forum? I had a problem with my powerbook last year where things were locking up and I couldn't log in and found the answer in Mac forums, not BT3 forums, after googling. There is a way to boot up using your Mac disks and getting into the box that way...you do have your Mac disks don't you?

[slapee]

I hate to sound snotty, but have you checked a Mac forum? I had a problem with my powerbook last year where things were locking up and I couldn't log in and found the answer in Mac forums, not BT3 forums, after googling. There is a way to boot up using your Mac disks and getting into the box that way...you do have your Mac disks don't you?

thanks for the reply, and no worries about sounding snotty. I checked a few Mac forums and posted on the Apple discussion page but so far I haven't been able to find anyone with similar problems and you're the first person I've heard back from.

The reason I believe it has to do with HD space is because before I had restarted I noticed that a lot of my programs were eating up space on the harddrive (firefox took up like 1 GB worth of space on it's own). I don't know if that's normal or not but I thought it might need more space to install the update properly. However I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to all the linux commands plus I wasn't sure if accessing the harddrive from a live CD boot was even possible so I thought I'd ask here since any solution I find will most likely be done in Backtrack 3.

To answer your second question, unfortunately I'm pretty sure the Mac disks that came with my computer are back with my family and they recently moved so I'd imagine they are in a box in storage somewhere. If I can't find another workaround however do you have any idea how I'd access my harddrive with the disks or where I could find out? I really don't want to reformat and lose all my files and music so if there's any way to access my files I'd be forever in your debt.

[-URIX-]

You should be able to see your hard disk in Konqueror under 'storage media'
as hda* or sda*, if the hard disk is mounted you should be able to access it
and just copy your files to an external medium such as an external hdd or usb stick.

Then delete the files after you have backed them up to make the free space your after.

If it doesnt get you booted at least you will have your files and music.

[imported_cybrsnpr]

To answer your second question, unfortunately I'm pretty sure the Mac disks that came with my computer are back with my family and they recently moved so I'd imagine they are in a box in storage somewhere. If I can't find another workaround however do you have any idea how I'd access my harddrive with the disks or where I could find out? I really don't want to reformat and lose all my files and music so if there's any way to access my files I'd be forever in your debt.

Worst case scenario, since you say you are not familiar with linux commands, you could take it to a local Mac Store's Genius Bar...they'll have disks and should get you logged in. If it is under warranty, they should fix it free.

[slapee]

You should be able to see your hard disk in Konqueror under 'storage media'
as hda* or sda*, if the hard disk is mounted you should be able to access it
and just copy your files to an external medium such as an external hdd or usb stick.

Then delete the files after you have backed them up to make the free space your after.

I'm not seeing anything under storage media at the moment. Is there a way to mount my HD if it's not already there?

Also I found my Mac installation disks thankfully, so I'll see if I can find a way to use those like cybrsnpr suggested.

EDIT: I found a successful workaround on a different site. It takes two different Apple computers but I'll see if I can't get a friend or someone at the local Apple Store to help. Thanks anyways guys, especially cybrsnpr for pointing me in the obvious direction.

[ronzo]

For me, whenever I have to pull anything off of a dead / dying drive, I load up a Ubuntu disk. In theory, they would do the same thing. If your using Ubuntu, go to places, and it should display the drive. Just click it, and it will automatically mount. (you may have to

sudo apt-get install hfsutils hfsplus

to get it to work, though) Also, make sure that its not using journaled. For using the BT3 CD,

mkdir /mnt/backup

to make a directory in /mnt/ called backup, which will be used for it. Once that is done, you need to see where the drive is. The easiest way is to

ls /dev/sd* or ls /dev/hd*

to find out where the device is. Once you know the device, say, /dev/sda1, then you will

mount -t hfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/backup

to mount /dev/sda1 to /mnt/backup, as the hfs file system (may need to use hfsplus)

Once its mounted, you should be able to browse to /mnt/backup, and see your files like normal. For macs, you would have to browse to Users/<user>/Desktop to get the information from the desktop. And once you have grabbed the information, you are free to wipe it off of there and reinstall. Hope this helped, and best of luck!!

Also, if the drive is corrupted (which, I'm assuming it isn't) you can use a program called DiskWarrior to get the data off of it. It is tailored specifically to the mac file system.