Boot Fedora Core 14 on HP compaq nc6000 using USB Drive
Plus: A little Mac file and folder recovery from a 'spiked USB drive'
Keywords: boot, USB Drive, hp, compaq, nc6000, Fedora 14, success

For Information Purposes Only:

Early 2008, 17" MacBook Pro, OS X 10.5.8 (booted via USB Hard Drive) backed up by Time Machine on another USB Hard Drive.

boot selection

Spent two and a half weeks scanning photograph negatives and slides.

Backed up work on Time Machine.

Spent one day batch editing all scanned images and started new backup.

During backup there was a huge electrical spike rendering both USB hard drives useless, which could not be recovered using DiskWarrior (4.2).

A (spare) new USB drive was installed on the MacBook Pro.

Removed (Newer Technology 500 GB) USB boot drive from USB case and installed drive in old Dual G4, 500 Mhz, Mac.

Was able to recover major folders containing negatives and slides, plus other important folders, using Darwin (fdisk, etc.) first and an older version of DiskWarrior last.

Attempted to reformat (repaired) USB drive and got error message.

Removed USB drive from G4, reinstalled it in USB case, and set it aside.

Recovering the USB Time Machine WD My Passport 071A Media 500 GB USB hard drive (not the one above):

Attached USB Time Machine hard drive to HP compaq nc6000, running XP Pro, and did low level (NTFS) format.

Attached USB Time Machine hard drive to MacBook Pro, used Disk Utility to reformat drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), used SpeedTools utility, Media Scanner, to detect and map-out defective sectors, and used Time Machine to set up drive for backup use on the MacBook Pro.

Success!

After doing the above, I attempted to update XP Pro on the compaq nc6000, and in the process, the nc6000 internal hard disk started making 'I am going to die noises', resulting in a BSOD (no disk/operating system).

A quick scan of Internet showed me nc6000 hard drives were prone to failure and that there was little one could do. (fwiw) I did try several suggestions, but none of them worked, and ... finding an 'exact' replacement drive was a problem.

I reinstalled XP on the (repaired) USB drive. When it booted, it got as far as the opening screen and then went BSOD (failure). [Note, SVP 2 was not on recovery CD = was not tried.]

I downloaded a DVD image of Fedora Core 14, on the MacBook Pro, and burned it to disk using Disk Utility.

I inserted Fedora 14 DVD into nc6000, with (repaired) USB drive attached, the drive was recognized, and Fedora system installed.

The nc6000 now boots Fedora 14 from an USB external hard drive and (it) has been working, without fail, for over a month.

Newer Technology USB 500 GB drive - compaq nc6000 - Dead 40 GB Toshiba - Fedora 14

uname -a

This entire procedure took a little over 3 months, ;-) a little bit at a time, and some of the attempts, under DiskWarrior and fdisk, took over 24 hours.

Success!

(fwiw) The nc6000 will boot OS X from USB ;-) but that is another story.

Dated: 201012.18, ~@~

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