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From: greg@mobius.Viewlogic.COM (Gregory Larkin)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re:  Help for trashed DOS disk
Message-ID: <1990Aug22.100053@mobius.Viewlogic.COM>
Date: 22 Aug 90 14:00:53 GMT
References: <1990Aug21.094541@mobius.Viewlogic.COM>
Sender: news@viewlogic.com (News Administrator)
Reply-To: greg@mobius.Viewlogic.COM (Gregory Larkin)
Organization: Viewlogic Systems, Inc., Marlboro, MA
Lines: 36


Hello again,

I thought I would post my experiences with reviving a DOS partition that
has been overwritten by the Minix "mkfs" command for any unlucky souls
who did the same in the future.
	
Two software packages are needed. First, get a copy of Norton Utilities
(with Norton Disk Doctor) and a copy of "hd_fdisk.exe" from the hd_minix
package which is available from the net.  FDISK from standard DOS
distribution may also work, but I'm not sure.  MKFS overwrote my boot
sector, FATs, etc. on my C: drive.  I booted from floppy and loaded Norton's
Disk Doctor.  It proceeded to ask me if I wanted to make the first hard
drive bootable.  I answered YES and it worked some magic.  

The only problem after this is that MKFS must have erased the DOS 
partition information, so NDD could not restore the files or
subdirectories.  To get around this, I used hd_fdisk to create a DOS
partition and wrote the information to the partition table. (Dangerous,
I know, but at this point....)  So now when I boot from floppy, I have
a C: drive which claims to be completely empty (although we know
differently) and a D: drive which has been OK thoughout.  I now try to run
NDD so I can repair the boot sector on C:, write the system files to C:,
etc.  NDD reports that the CMOS settings do not match the drive type.  I
had to muck around with SETUP to force the PC to recognize the C: drive as
even present at one point.  Apparently, there is some option in NDD that
allows you to force the drive type to a value, if you are definitely sure
that it is correct.  

I haven't tried that yet, but I will...

Ever optimistic....
--
Greg Larkin (ASIC Engineer)
Viewlogic Systems, Inc. (The CAE Company)
Marlboro, MA 01752