Hello guys,
I have got from a friend a hard disk which was used in the SCO OpenServer. He needs some data from it. I have no clue how to copy its content with Linux or Windows-I have tried few Linux distros but the result is always the same-the file system is not recognized so can't be mounted.
Any suggestion please, how it can be done in the easy way?
TIA

The filesystem used in SCO Openserver is HTFS (sometimes Xenix, but not by default... if the xenix filesystem is the one that was used, Linux should be able to read that using just the "standard" kernel). I have looked all over for an app to run in Windows and/or Linux, and have not had much luck. There are a few commercial apps that will allow you to see the data on the disk, but the ones I have used are limited to viewing the data only and they are old and no longer supported by the developers. Some sites have references to HTFS support in Linux kernel modules, but there is always argument as to whether such a thing even exists. I have not been able to find any kind of walkthrough telling me how to install that kind of support.

http://aplawrence.com/SCOFAQ/FAQ_scotec1linuxfs.html

has some information that may be helpful. You can also go through the hassle of reading all the links after doing a Google search of Linux HTFS. I was not able to find any of these to help me, and I have not been able to mount an HTFS partition in Linux.

My recommendation would be simply to find a copy of SCO Openserver, install it on a system and mount the drive under the SCO OS.

If you do find a way to mount the SCO FS, let me know on this thread since it is something I have tried on a few occasions and not gotten to work.

ps. one of the google sites i found even told me to simply try mount -t htfs /dev/hda1 /htfs. If it was that easy I wouldn't have spent hours trying to figure it out. My theory on that one is that either the person writing that was wrong, SCO has changed how the filesystem works, or anything related to SCO has been removed from the newer kernels.

Thx for the answer phatpenguin

Yeah, it has been my first step before posting.
I had no luck finding something useful and practical

A bit of reading-thanx very much for this link.
Although everything there seems to be a it complicated.
Anyway I will just try

Hmm, I will check things out. It is easy enough even for me
And sure-I'll post here about any success

It has been my first idea. But I am afraid, my skills are too small.
I'll try to find somewhere VMWare image of SCO.

Again-thanx for the answer

Phatpenguin,

Your post brought back a number of ugly memories. My own experiences in attempting to mount a Xenix hard drive were similar to yours. There are many Linux documents that state the possibility, but if you follow link after link you eventually arrive at one that says the capability is not by default compiled into the kernel, but that there is a module that you can find to give you the capability. After more extensive searching I finally found the module, only to discover that it only allows access to a Xenix formatted FLOPPY disk.

Biting the bullet, I called SCO who of course advised I buy the latest OpenServer to solve all of my problems. I was fortunate to speak with a person who told me about a 30 day time limited evaluation version that was avialable for a fraction of what it would cost to buy the complete distribution.

I installed OpenServer, which I might mention was not a trivial undertaking by the time I had finished wiht all of the patches and configuration options, only to find that I could still not mount my Xenix drive. Now I knew that the drive was good because I could boot it, but no matter what I did it wouldn't mount. I called the sales person who recommended I purchase Open Server to see if I could get some help. In a word, they weren't interested. I reminded them that it was because of their recommendation that I buy the thing in the first place, but none of that matter to them. My only option would be to contract with SCO at the cost of a small fortune, and they would then provide technical support, but with no guarentee that my drive would ultimately be mounted. I declined.

The only viable solution to this problem of which I am presently aware is to construct a serial port connection between a computer with the Xenix drive (assuming a person has that option) and another computer--Windows or Linux, and see if you can configure the two to talk with each other. This also is not nececssarily an easy thing to accomplish, but compared to the supposed "alternatives", it's a walk in the park. If you're lucky enough to have a xenix computer equipped with networking you might be able to use FTP, by connecting that computer to another with a network crossover cable. That would be much easier, but mine didn't have networking so I looked no further at that option.

Good luck, everyone.

Thanx for your post

i searched such a solution in the UNIX and UBUNTU world without success

finally I can access to the data in a read only mode via Paragon's Rescue Kit
and via explorer

unfortunately this is not a free solution but it costs a quarter than any other recovery solutions I found