[Tennessee Slim]

I’m moving “C:\Program Files” and “C:\Documents and Settings” to another partition (yes, it can be done but my reasons for doing it are very, very geeky ;-) and I’m having problems deleting some DLL files. I even tried booting from a GRUB CD, then mounting the partition and deleting them under Linux but it responded that the file system was read-only.

I suspected a similar problem in advance because the /etc slice is on a CD. That naturally makes it read-only (and /etc/mnt along with it), but I tried mounting it with both “-o rw” and “-n –o rw” switches. No dice. Even though it shows the mounted partition is “rw” when I do a “mount”, it still responds that the file system is read-only when I try to delete the files. I tried to ‘null’ them, too, but got the same response.

I suspect there also is a problem in that the laptop is a Sony Vaio with biometric security. The Vaio has a hidden 10GB partition that can be used to restore the PC to factory-original, but I think the fact that the first partition on the disk is hidden causes some problems. Neither of my customary imaging CDs (Ghost and True Image), for instance, can “see” the HDD.

At this point I’m purely guessing because I’ve never worked with either before, but my hunch is the most likely culprit is either the hidden partition or the biometric security. It stands to reason you’d want to make it hard to deactivate the security application (with an ERD or *NIX boot disk) and the stubborn DLLs happen to belong to the biometric software. Coincidence? I dunno. Maybe, but I doubt it.

That they won’t delete from safe mode, I figure is part of cleverly-done security. That I can’t delete them through Linux I figure is because I’m doing it incorrectly or overlooking something.

So I thought I’d post to our august group to see if anyone had ideas. I know there are apps specifically for deleting stubborn files (gets ‘em on the reboot, IIRC, before the OS loads) but I have zero experience with them. If you think it’ll turn the trick, and especially if it’s freeware, please pass it along. I'm otherwise open to ideas, suggestions, flames, and slings and arrows.

TIA!
Slim

 

[fastvfr]

I'd buy a new HDD for it and install everything to that.

No sense using hardware that's got proprietary firmware running. Too many headaches.

But I have yet to have a file on a PC that I cannot boot Knoppix on, then mount the partition in question, and alter the HDD files as you see fit.

Sure, you need to set a root account (with a good password) before you can have full permissions, but that's no problem.

sudo passwd is your friend.

 

[Tennessee Slim]

Thanks for the suggestion but I fixed it. I used a repair CD that loaded Win2K on top of Bart’s PBE and was able to delete them. It also bypassed the login security.

Earlier this week a friend broke in to my PayPal account (at my request) with a brute force cracker. I guess all this just goes to prove the old adage, the locks only keep out the honest people.

I still wish I could figure out why I couldn’t do it with *NIX.

 

[mfackler]

Originally posted by Tennessee Slim
I still wish I could figure out why I couldn’t do it with *NIX.

Sorry I'm a day late and a $ short. I'll bet your *NIX was mounting the NTFS partition as Read Only. Trying Captive NTFS may have worked also. Glad you got it sorted out.

Mike

 

[Tennessee Slim]

Originally posted by mfackler
Sorry I'm a day late and a $ short. I'll bet your *NIX was mounting the NTFS partition as Read Only. Trying Captive NTFS may have worked also. Glad you got it sorted out.

Mike

I did use 'mount' with the 'rw' switches. And when I entered the command 'mount', it replied that /mnt/sda2 was mounted r-w.

 

[David_G17]

run:
cat /etc/fstab

and post the output.

then run:
df -h

and post the output of it.

 

[Tennessee Slim]

The partition I’m mounting isn’t in /etc/fstab because /etc/fstab is on the CD and isn’t editable.