Re: [gentoo-user] [OT]: Powering off Windows XP, crashing NTFS with a Live CD.

[Mick]

On Monday 04 Jul 2011 17:15:55 Joshua Murphy wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 12:00 PM, Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com> wrote:
> > On Monday 04 Jul 2011 15:48:06 Joshua Murphy wrote:
> >> On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 9:15 AM, Neil Bothwick <neil@××××××××××.uk> wrote:
> >> > On Mon, 4 Jul 2011 12:12:03 +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> >> >> > > o - Do live CDs actually mount filesystems on HDDs?
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Only when you ask them to.
> >> >>
> >> >> I'm stupid.  Of _course_ a live CD can't mount HDD filesystems at
> >> >> boot. To do this it would need /etc/fstab, for which it would need
> >> >> to be told the root partition.  A live CD doesn't get this.
> >> >
> >> > A live CD can mount partitions automatically at boot, some do. all it
> >> > needs to do is scan the disk partition tables, create the mount points
> >> > and mount them.
> >> >
> >> > Knoppix has been doing the first two for years, and writing the
> >> > details to /etc/fstab to allow the user to mount them easily.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > Neil Bothwick
> >> >
> >> > A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.
> >>
> >> And to further complicate it, many also use a similar technique for
> >> finding themselves, mounting one filesystem after another until they
> >> find some distinct marker file to identify where to find the rest of
> >> their data. Others auto-mount and poke around for auto-loading of
> >> extensions unless such features are disabled by a boot-time option.
> >
> > I've only come across LiveCDs which scan the drive and create mount
> > points - but not mount any device unless explicitly asked to do so by
> > the user.
> >
> > However, I wouldn't be surprised if some more recent installation CDs go
> > further than that, as Joshua claims.
> >
> > Joshua, which LiveCDs behave in the way you describe by automounting
> > partitions and searching fs?
> >
> > --
> > Regards,
> > Mick
>
> I haven't seen any install cds that do that, but DSL and, if I recall,
> TinyCore/MicroCore look for extensions in a default path on the local
> filesystems.

I had to look again at DSL because last time I used it a couple of years ago 
it definitely did not automount anything - unless ... you had set up a 
persistent /home or settings directory.  In that case it would mount the 
device in which you saved your settings, but this would be something the user 
would set up and run consciously at boot time.


> One thing I'm fairly sure on, though, is that without the
> "-f" flag, mount won't take the risk on an unclean NTFS, and instead
> just tosses an "are you sure?" message, which would make me presume
> even those livecds that do look for extensions wouldn't risk the
> damage there.

From what I recall the Linux kernel NTFS driver will mount a unclean NTFS 
partition regardless (can't recall for sure though), but the ntfs-3g will 
behave as you describe above.

So in answer to the OP questions, the only way I can think that a Linux LiveCD 
would corrupt a NTFS partition is to mount it with the Linux Kernel driver as 
rw and then create or edit a file.

If this was not the case and fs corruption ensued, then it would be just a 
coincidence that the drive had some bad blocks and they decided to play up at 
the time the MSWindows fs was being booted into.
-- 
Regards,
Mick