Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version P 1.00 3/01/86; site pucc.BITNET
Path: utzoo!decvax!bellcore!ulysses!allegra!princeton!puvax2!pucc.BITNET!6080733
From: 6080733@pucc.BITNET (Gavin Bell)
Newsgroups: net.micro.cbm
Subject: Re: Lost file recovery
Message-ID: <534@pucc.BITNET>
Date: Fri, 9-May-86 13:35:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: pucc.534
Posted: Fri May  9 13:35:37 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 18-May-86 15:28:28 EDT
References: <312@tekcae.UUCP>
Reply-To: 6080733@pucc.BITNET
Distribution: na
Organization: Princeton University Computing Center
Lines: 22

>     A friend called me the other night having just initialized one of his
>system disks.  He wanted to know if I could help him recover his files.
>I have heard of programs that do this but do not have one and don't know
>where to get one.  Can anyone point me in the right direction of a program ?
>Is there a way I can edit back in whatever was taken out of the directory
>track to reach the files ?
--------------
Well, it depends.  If your friend did a 'long new' (n0:diskname,id) then there
is no chance of recovery, since the drive writes over every track on the disk
while initializing it.  If he did a 'short new' (n0:diskname) then only the
disk directory is wiped.  It is still tough to get the files back, however.
Inside the 1541 by Datamost describes the technique for recovering files
from a short new-- it basically consists of guessing where the file starts
by using a disk editor and looking for information that looks like the start
of the program (not too tough if it's in Basic-- almost impossible if it
was machine language) and creating a directory entry with the proper track/
sector links.  I don't think there are any programs smart enough to do this
automatically, although I may be wrong...
Frederick J. Bear  (I have too much hair-- SCARE Fred Bear!)
 
UUCP: ...allegra!psuvax1!pucc.bitnet!6080733
BITNET: 6080733@PUCC