Hey everyone, my laptop crashed and won't boot up anymore. I decided to try out Linux Mint on a USB stick to see if I can access my files and back them up to an external hard drive before I send it off for repairs. I've run 'lsblk' and can see my main hard drive listed, but I'm not seeing it in the Linux file system. Is it because Windows isn't booting up? Any advice on how I can access my files would be super helpful. Also, when I boot into Linux Mint, there's a CD icon on the desktop that says 'Install Linux Mint'—should I click that to install it? Thanks so much for your help, I've definitely learned the importance of regular backups!
3 Answers
You'll need the NTFS driver to access your Windows files. Once you have that, you can mount your Windows drive and start saving the files you need.
You should open the little folder icon in the panel or go to 'Places' from the menu. On the left side, you might see your Windows drive listed but grayed out. Click on it to mount it, and you should be able to browse your files. Let me know if you need more help!
I can't see it in the file explorer though, just my external hard drive.
Is your drive formatted as NTFS? If so, Mint's NTFS driver (ntfs3) can be a bit buggy. You might want to give Ubuntu 22.04 a shot instead; it includes ntfs-3g, which handles NTFS drives better. Boot with an Ubuntu USB and see if your Windows files show up there.
So, you're suggesting I download Ubuntu 22.04 and give it a try? I still can't see my main hard drive in Mint; is it because Mint has issues?
Is there a simple way to get the NTFS driver on Linux Mint? I'm using the Cinnamon edition.