Live CD that can read OSX partitions

[b0redom]

Hi,
Does such a thing exist? My iMac is very poorly, and I want to get some data off before I get the drive replaced. It can be Linux/Windows/OSX anything I just need to be able to mount the drive and copy off the data (preferably over the network, although locally mounted USB is fine at a push too).

Regards...

b0redom

[b0redom]

I should add that I tried Mint and Centos, but neither seem to want to mount HFSPlus formatted partitions.

[Jonj1611]

Ubuntu should do mate

[b0redom]

From the live cd without installing anything else? Just checking as mint is derived from Ubuntu.

[Biscuit]

I actually thought the Ubuntu live CD could do it aswell. If you have access to a windows installation then you could run HFSExplorer (Java but free), Macdrive (free trial) or Paragon (free trial)?

[b0redom]

Well I do have access to a windows install, but the drive is still in the iMac. Is it part of hirens boot cd or something?

[Biscuit]

Perhaps... but if you used a tool that could copy/clone the partition with your data on onto an external, you could perhaps get what you need off it that way?

[Splash]

According to http://jclark.org/weblog/2005/05/24/ubuntumount/ you should be fine. Granted, that's nigh on 10 years old, but it would seem to be an odd functionality to remove...

[b0redom]

Hmmm. Doesn't work. Looks like some additional packages may be required.

[b0redom]

Perhaps... but if you used a tool that could copy/clone the partition with your data on onto an external, you could perhaps get what you need off it that way?

The problem is that after an indeterminate period of time the drive locks up and the iMac crashes horribly. Prior to that it hangs for a few seconds. I'm not sure exactly what is causing it, but I'm hoping that by running the OS on another disk, it will at least stop the crashing, even if I can't get all the data off.

[peterb]

Can you create OSX on an external drive, boot off that and then mount the internal drive to get the day off it?

[Splash]

make a live USB key with persistent storage, boot from that and then install the required additional packages if that's an option?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD/Persistence

[DanceswithUnix]

Am downloading Fedora Workstation live DVD atm, will have a look when it is down. Centos was never likely to work given the server bias of it, Fedora is the RedHat platform for this sort of stuff.

However, have you checked the SMART data for the drive that is playing up? Might want to check that the hanging for a few seconds isn't the drive.

[Biscuit]

There is a shortcut you can hold down during boot up that made the mac act like a big external hard drive, then you could connect to it via firewire to get files off it.

http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT1661

Looks like you can do the same thing with Thunderbolt, do you have another Mac in the house.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10725

[peterb]

hfsplus-tools is the linux package, and is supported by Fedora

https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgd...hfsplus-tools/

[b0redom]

So looks like Linux is a nogo - here's Ubuntu Live with hfstool and hfsplus installed:

root@ubuntu:~# mount -t hfsplus /dev/sda3 /mnt/osx
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda3,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error

In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so.

and in dmesg:

[ 7908.609778] hfs: can't find a HFS filesystem on dev sda3
[ 7911.226782] hfsplus: unable to find HFS+ superblock

Strangely I AM able to mount the recovery partition (which is also HFS+ formatted). It seems from what I've read like partitions over 2TB aren't supported, which is a bit of a PITA.