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From: wfp@dasys1.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: UNFORMATTING formated PC floppies
Message-ID: <427@dasys1.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-May-87 23:51:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: dasys1.427
Posted: Mon May 18 23:51:44 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 21-May-87 06:58:29 EDT
References: <4327@nsc.nsc.com> <3156@ecsvax.UUCP>
Organization: The Big Electric Cat
Lines: 20
Summary: Not necessarily

In article <3156@ecsvax.UUCP>, phco@ecsvax.UUCP (John Miller) writes:
> You're out of luck.  Files that have been deleted can frequently be
> restored by programs such as Norton's Utilities or PC-Tools, but formatting
> destroys all data on a disk.

That is not necessarily true...  Under PC-DOS and most versions of MS-DOS
(except, I believe, AT&T and one or two others), all FORMAT does is to
trash the FAT.  The Mace Utilities are capable of restoring, at least
partially, your FAT
(it depends on how fragmented the file allocations
are, among other things).  This applies only to the usual DOS FORMAT.  A
low-level format is another story entirely, of course.  Incidentally, if
you apply Mace Utilities *before* you accidentally format your disk, there
will be an extra FAT in a protected area, and you will get full restoration
of your disk.
(All based on hearsay and magazine articles.  I've never used Mace myself.)
-- 
William Phillips                 {allegra,philabs,cmcl2}!phri\
Big Electric Cat Public Unix           {bellcore,cmcl2}!cucard!dasys1!wfp
New York, NY, USA                                {philabs}!tg/