Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!umd5!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!osiris.cso.uiuc.edu!hoctor
From: hoctor@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Hard Disk Format Recovery (How?)
Message-ID: <7700057@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 18 Apr 88 14:23:00 GMT
References: <5442@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Lines: 21
Nf-ID: #R:sigi.Colorado.EDU:5442:osiris.cso.uiuc.edu:7700057:000:1095
Nf-From: osiris.cso.uiuc.edu!hoctor    Apr 18 08:23:00 1988


>A friend has done the unthinkable... she formatted her entire hard disk.
>I am familiar with the Norton Utility-type programs that allow format
>recovery, IF AND ONLY IF you store the original FAT data prior to
>the format.  Well, the question is this:  is there any way to recover
>from a total format if the FAT has not been backed up?  Any help
>will be appreciated.  Thanks.

As I understand it, the disk can be recovered (excluding the root
direcory) by using a fairly simple algorithm.  A program will scan
the entire disk looking for sectors with the tell-tale directory
entries of "." and "..".  When these sectors are found, they are
converted into directories and the information that is contained there
is used to locate the files associated with it.  Since the root
directory does not have the "." and ".." entries, the root directory
cannot be recovered in this manner.  I believe, also, that this
process is much more reliable if the files are not fragmented.  So
there; two good arguments for keeping few files in the root directory
and keeping the disk defraged.

hoctor@osiris