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Likewise, if you want to use your original CD-ROM to restore files, be sure the kernel used on your emergency disks has the drivers necessary to access the CD-ROM drive. You can then mount the CD-ROM (remember the mount flags -r -t iso9660) and copy files from there.
The filesystems on your emergency disks should also contain important system files; if you have deleted one of these from your system, it's easy to copy the lost file from the emergency disk to your hard drive filesystem.
For more information, including some scripts, examples, advice about backups in general, and more, take a look at Charles Curley's Linux Complete Backup and Recovery HOWTO, available at: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux-Complete-Backup-and-Recovery-HOWTO.
Chapter 28. Heterogeneous Networking and Running Windows Programs
Linux is a remarkably effective operating system, which in many cases can completely replace MS-DOS/Windows. However, there are always those of us who want to continue to use other operating systems as well as Linux. Enterprises considering Linux as an alternative desktop to Microsoft Windows often believe they have some essential Win32 applications or tools that prevent them from changing over. CIOs often eliminate the Linux option because someone advising them failed to mention that Linux can run Win32 applications.
Linux satisfies such yearnings with internal enhancements that allow it to access foreign filesystems and act on their files. It can mount DOS/Windows partitions on the system's hard disk, or access files and printers shared by Windows servers on the network, as we explored in "Sharing Files with Windows Systems (Samba)" in Chapter 15. Linux can also run DOS and Windows applications, using compatibility utilities that allow it to invoke MS-DOS or Windows. It can also access remote systems and run programs on them, using the local keyboard, mouse, and screen for interaction.
We use the term Windows somewhat generically in this chapter to refer to any of the operating systems coming from Microsoft, or those compatible with them. Although Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP are fundamentally different from the old DOS-based systems (up to and including Windows ME), most of the tools in this chapter can accommodate them all.
One of the most common reasons for needing to run Windows is that it often has better support for new hardware products. If you have installed Windows because you need to use a piece of hardware that is supported by Windows but for which there is no Linux driver, do not despair. Although you may have to wait a while for it, most mainstream hardware devices that are supported by Windows will eventually be supported by Linux, too. For example, Linux drivers for USB devices used to be rare and flaky, but now many common USB devices work just fine on Linux. You can get updated information about which USB devices work on Linux at http://www.linux-usb.org.
You may also need to run Windows in order to use "standard" applications, such as Photoshop or Microsoft Office. In both of these cases, there are free, open source applications (namely, the GIMP, KOffice, and OpenOffice.org) that can match or even outdo their proprietary, closed-source equivalents. However, it is still sometimes necessary to run Windows to obtain access to software products that have no Linux equivalent, or for which the Linux counterpart is not fully compatible.
There are essentially four ways in which Linux and Windows can cooperate:
Sharing removable media such as USB keys, CDs, and floppy disks ("sneakernet")
Sharing a computer by being installed on separate partitions
Sharing data over