On Dell Latitude: unable to mount windows partition because windows is hibernated, but can't boot into windows either

Asked by davw710

Hi,

I have had a problem with my work laptop (Dell Latitude with Windows XP) after the computer got a virus which erased some system files and messed up my startup process. Somehow when I shut down it went into hibernation mode. When I reboot I get "Disk Read Error - Please restart" error message. So of course, restarting does nothing. I've tested the hard-drive using a diagnostic CD and it's fine. I just need to get a few files off the Windows operating system and then I plan to move to Ubuntu so as not to have the constant threat of viruses.

I am now using a Ubuntu 12.04 Live CD in "Test Ubuntu" mode to try and mount the XP drive and email the files to myself. However, the system says that I cannot mount the volume /dev/sda1 as it is in hibernation mode. Specifically, here is the message I get when I try to mount my 160GB hard-drive:

"Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 14: Windows is hibernated, refused to mount.
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Operation not permitted
The NTFS partition is hibernated. Please resume and shutdown Windows
properly, or mount the volume read-only with the 'ro' mount option, or
mount the volume read-write with the 'remove_hiberfile' mount option.
For example type on the command line:

            mount -t ntfs-3g -o remove_hiberfile /dev/sda1 /media/52ACEE3AACEE17ED"

Where am I supposed to type this command? If I do it in the Ubuntu terminal it tells me that "only root can do that." Should I change directory somehow? When I type

sudo mount -t ntfs-3g -o remove_hiberfile /dev/sda1 /media/52ACEE3AACEE17ED

It tells me "fuse: failed to access mountpoint /media/52ACEE3AACEE17ED: No such file or directory"

Is there some way to make this command work while staying in the Ubuntu shell? Or do I need to solve this problem on the Windows side without using the Ubuntu test mode. Should I try to get a Windows recovery CD and boot into safe mode there? The problem I have had is that the anti-virus CDs I've used have not been able to recognize my hard-drive as a hard-drive, so the virus is still on it and it's not clear to me that I'd even be able to boot into Safe Mode. I'd really like to resolve this with Ubuntu test mode if possible. Thanks!

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