LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: MWP <hirm@chariot.net.au>
  To  : linuxsa <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2000 13:49:21 +0930

Re: Unformating a partition

The FAT is just about the only thing that you may be able to get going
again.
Unfortunatly though the MBR, Partition Table and Root Dir are all at the
start of the drive and have no backups.
If these are gone, then getting the orginal partition back up and working is
almost impossible.
If your just after a few important files then you might be able to get them
back (assuming they havnt been overwritten with 0's in the format) using
Norton's DiskEdit using the "Find File" feature.

MWP

> > The formatting wouldn't be the killer - it just erases the table. The
idea
> > that a new filesystem was written over top of existing data (bulldozing)
> is
> > the painful one.
> >
> > Although I agree that the data is likely beyond reasonable means, I'll
ask
> > this as a discussion: Have you tried Norton Disk Doctor (what have you
got
> > to lose?) Just answer "Yes" to the question "Are you unable to access
> > partitions that you were able to access before" and it should try the
> backup
> > FAT (if it exists)
> >
> > The FAT has a backup kept further down the drive. If the drive wasn't
> fully
> > erased (ie zeros written to every byte), then the backup FAT may still
be
> > intact. If so, then the map to retrieve the data would be there too.
> >
> > If a piece of a file thread was missing because of overwriting, then a
> > scandisk or Norton Disk Doctor would declare it truncated and deleted.
If,
> > however, all pieces of the file thread were intact, then it could
probably
> > be retrieved.
> >
> > Make no mistake about it though... You are sailing into uncharted
waters.
> > But since the data is probably gone, go ahead and try it. I may be
totally
> > off the mark, but if I am I hope another member of the group will
correct
> my
> > inaccuracies before anyone else risks data loss as a result.
> >
> > > Adam J. Sulis, MCP, CNA
> > > Workstation Management, Technical Support
> > > Administration des postes de travail, Soutien technique
> > > Tel: (613) 998 0722
> > > sulisa@tc.gc.ca
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ----------
> > > From: Darryl Ross[SMTP:dross@syc.asn.au]
> > > Sent: Friday, April 28, 2000 10:24 AM
> > > To: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
> > > Subject: Unformating a partition
> > >
> > > Hey All,
> > >
> > > I've managed to do something really stupid... (hold the comments!)
> > >
> > > While installing Mandrake 7 the other day, I managed to change the
> > > partition
> > > type of a FAT32 partition to ext2 and format it. I want to know what
> tools
> > > are available to me to recover the data on the drive. If I had just
> > > formatted it, I could use DOS tools, but since I changed the type to
> ext2,
> > > and formated the drive with a different file system, I am not sure if
I
> > > can
> > > recover the data.
> > >
> > > My drives are set up like:
> > >
> > > hda1        ext2        /boot    ~50Mb
> > > hda2        fat32        C:        ~3Gb
> > > hda3        fat32        Z:        ~3Gb    (this is the one I stuffed)
> > > hdb1        ext2        /           ~6Gb
> > > hdb2        swap                  ~100Mb
> > >
> > > Teach me to not pay attention while partitioning drives. Anyway, the
> > > partition I wiped contains (well, did contain) a lot of my data files,
> > > including a large amount of downloaded programs, so if I can recover
> > > what's
> > > on it, I'd really be able to breath a sigh of relief..
> > >
> > > Dazz
> > >
> > > --
> > > LinuxSA WWW: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/  IRC: #linuxsa on
> irc.linux.org.au
> > > To unsubscribe from the LinuxSA list:
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subject
> > >
> >
> > --
> > LinuxSA WWW: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/  IRC: #linuxsa on
irc.linux.org.au
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> >
>

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