Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ndsuvax!ncsmith
From: ncsmith@ndsuvax.UUCP (Timothy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Can a deleted directory be restored?
Keywords: restore directory
Message-ID: <1297@ndsuvax.UUCP>
Date: 16 Sep 88 05:55:48 GMT
References: <17959@mirror.TMC.COM> <37741@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Reply-To: ncsmith@ndsuvax.UUCP (Timothy Smith)
Organization: North Dakota State University  Fargo, ND
Lines: 38

In article <17959@mirror.TMC.COM> mguyott@prism.TMC.COM (Marc Guyott) writes:
> I know that files can be undeleted using the Norton Utilities.  However,
> I deleted all of the files in a directory and then removed the directory.
> Is there any way that I can restore the directory so that I can then
> undelete the files using the Norton Utilities?  After I removed the directory
> I powered my machine off, so I don't believe I've disturbed the FAT or any
> other file system tables.  Any help will be appreciated.

  You can use Norton to undelete directories but I don't think that you
can use the normal undelete file method.  The method that I use is as 
follows:

       select the directory that used to contain the deleted directory
           as your current file.

       using the feature that allows your to change data in the current
           file reinstate the directory.  This will require the use of
           the 'hex' mode, not the direc. or text mode.  When DOS deletes
           something from a directory it replaces the first character of
           the name of the entry with 'E5'.  What you need to do is replace
           the correct E5 with the first character of the deleted directories
           name.  As a check that you are replacing the correct E5 the 
           ASCII dump on the right of the screen will show the change as 
           you make it.  If you do it right when you toggle back to
           directory mode you will see the entry for the deleted directory
           with a complete name instead of being preceeded by a '?'. 
           After you save the change to the disk Norton's will treat the
           directory like any other directory and allow you to undelete
           your files.

      A word of warning, make sure that do this right before saving the
      changes, if you make a mistake in a directory you stand to lose a
      lot of data.  It would probably be best if you tried this out on
      a different machine and a floppy instead of on your hard disk.

       Tim Smith

PS.  I use nu version 3.10