Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpcc01!hpcuhb!hpda!hpcuhc!mck
From: mck@hpcuhc.HP.COM (Doug McKenzie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: undeleting files....
Message-ID: <530017@hpcuhc.HP.COM>
Date: 24 Jul 90 15:02:29 GMT
References: <23848@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 23

>Are there any unrm or block recover programs for HP-UX 6.5 or some other means
>to recover files marked as deleted, but whose data is still on the disk.

There's nothing very reasonable.  fsdb is the supported, cryptic and
somewhat dangerous method of "file system debugging".  Your HP SE may have
the unsupported "disked" (disk editor), which is a much better interface for
examining the disk.  But even aside from the complexity of finding
unassociated data blocks, the real problem is that unless you stopped file
system activity very soon after the file was removed, the inode and/or
blocks may have already been re-used.  It takes a fair amount of knowledge
of file system structure to attempt file recovery.  It would be hard to
automate because some judgment is needed to recognize the possible pieces of
the file.

By the way, Unix World (7/90) mentions the Norton Utilities will be
available on HP workstations this fall, including "unerase".  U.W. says the
way it works is to place removed files in purgatory for some amount of time,
before they're actually unlinked.  Thus, unerase would only be useful if
invoked in advance of the mistaken remove.

Doug McKenzie
HP-UX Support
mck@hpda OR ...!hplabs!hpda!mck