Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!yale!mintaka!ogicse!ucsd!nosc!crash!pro-graphics.cts.com!elund
From: elund@pro-graphics.cts.com (Eric Lund)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Problem with CHKDSK
Message-ID: <1427@crash.cts.com>
Date: 10 Feb 90 09:17:57 GMT
Sender: bblue@crash.cts.com
Lines: 22

In-Reply-To: message from ECONO@latvax8.lat.oz

According to the Paul Mace Guide to Data Recovery, something has "twiddled"
with your File Allocation Table.  The first value of the FAT is the Media
Descriptor byte.  For a fixed disk (what you have), it should contain the hex
value F8.  Something changed that.  What you could do is run Norton Utilities
or Master Key and change it back yourself. PCTools will also do the job. 
Also, Mace Utilities comes with a program NONDOS which does this for you.  As
for reformatting, as long as you put F8 in the FAT, it's not necessary. 
However, something wrote to the disk when it shouldn't have, and whatever it
was could do it again.  I suggest you examine all (most) of your files, to see
if there's other damage.  Then try to figure out what changed your disk.  It
could be a problem with conflicting memory resident routines or CONFIG.SYS. 
Whatever it is, backup your data after you've "validated" it.  You never can
tell.

Eric

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