Grex Micros Conference

View Responses

Grex Micros Item 204: HELP!! Recovering mistakenly deleted files.
Entered by rickyb on Thu Jun 3 14:52:37 UTC 1999:

I was trying to decide if I could clean up my disk last night and, using XTREE
PRO GOLD tagged files with identical names in multiple directories.  I,
fortunately, printed out a list of these so I could figure out if some might
be redundant and able to be deleted.

AHGGG!  I then tagged all the files I could find which were empty (0kb) and
tagged them.  Then I did a global delete to get rid of those.  Problem was...I
forgot to _untag_ all those duplicate files and so they all got deleted as
well!  (Duuuh).

btw - I'm running Win3.1 under DOS 6.2 on a 486/66 PC.

I then did a DOS "undelete /all" on a directory by directory basis as
recovered quite a few of the blasted files.  Of course I had to replace the
first letter of the file names, but that was a minor hassel.

Next I went to an old 386PC also running DOS6.2 and Win3.1 to look for the
rest of the deleted files and I found only two, which I copied over.

Now, I have a list of files which the DOS UNDELETE command says "Starting
cluster is unavailable.  This file cannot be recovered with the UNDELETE
command.  Press any key to continue." .  There are 8 files in all:
  ?HREED.VBX  64432kb  7/16/93
  ?UARTET.DRV 84192kb  4/20/95
  ?CMD   .386 190611kb 10/12/94
  ?CAD   .386  67361kb 10/12/94
  ?SC0001.WIN    701kb  4/7/95
  ?SC0006.WIN    701kb  4/7/95
  ?CTL   .DLL 100336kb  10/30/95
  ?HOOK  .DLL  11836kb  10/30/95

Two other files are said to be unrecoverable, but I found them in DOS and
copied them from there.  Since the dates are different, I assume DOS is still
able to find the deleted ones and call them unrecoverable even though I copied
them from DOS to the Windows/System directory.  They are:
  ?FINTD.386    5295   5/31/94
  ?HARE .EXE   10912   2/13/94

I ran scandisk and there were no other file problems.  Also ran MSAV to see
if anything could be updated/repaired that way...nothing was found.  that's
about the extent of my utilities at hand.

Any suggestions about revoering these files, or having copies of them obtained
so I don't have to re-install windows (and go through the hassel of
re-configuring all my applications and such).  I'll check for comments here
or, if possible, e-mail me if you prefer.

6 responses total.

#1 of 6 by rickyb on Fri Jun 4 01:02:48 1999:

I checked yet another 386PC I have at the office also running DOS 6.2 and
Win3.1.  Couldn't find any of the deleted files.

Is there a DOS command (or some other way) to copy the 'deleted' files to a
floppy disk and _then_ undelete them?  Or, would the "starting cluster" still
be unavailable?

#2 of 6 by jshafer on Fri Jun 4 08:35:39 1999:

I'm pretty sure if the starting cluster's gone, copying it to a floppy 
(if you could figure out how) isn't going to help you a bit.  If the 
starting cluster is gone, it's gone.

Are any of your applications broken?  I'm guessing, since you can't find 
those files in your other systems that they're parts of other 
applications you have installed.  

Good luck!

#3 of 6 by davel on Fri Jun 4 10:34:05 1999:

When it says that the starting cluster is unavailable, it means that clusters
which were in use in that file, previously, are now used by some other file.
This other file has presumably written data to them, and so the data that was
there previously is now gone.  The kind of operation you describe will get
you only garbage.

#4 of 6 by rickyb on Fri Jun 4 15:38:46 1999:

I was afraid of that.  IAE, most things seem to be working OK.  I have _lots_
of applications installed (most of which wrote something into Windows and/or
Windows\System directories) and I guess I'll just keep plugging along until
I find one that doesn't respond properly...I only hope I can find the original
disks in my piles of floppies (got to get a better filing system for these!).

If anyone has any other thoughts, I'm open...(heard recently of an undelete
utility which is far superior to DOS 6.22 and can recover more files).

#5 of 6 by gull on Wed Jun 30 03:57:35 1999:

If you've written data to the disk since you deleted the files, chances are
you've overwritten parts of them already anyway.  A better utility won't get
back what's not there anymore.

#6 of 6 by rickyb on Thu Jul 1 14:54:11 1999:

Unfortunatly...that's the fact, jack  ;-)

Response not possible - You must register and login before posting.