dck@houxj.UUCP (D.KWONG) (05/06/87)
When I got several soft errors on my hard disk, I ran the surface analysis option of a formatter program on the disk. But when I got out of the formatter, I found that the entire disk have been erased!!! I have tried the DOS RECOVER command and Norton Utilities 3.0 both were unable to recover any of my files. Is there any way to recover the hard disk contents? Also, do most disk formatter programs format your hard disk even though you only use their diagnostic features? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance. D. C. Kwong homxa!houxj!dck
rps@homxc.UUCP (05/06/87)
In article <203@houxj.UUCP>, dck@houxj.UUCP (D.KWONG) writes: > When I got several soft errors on my hard disk, I ran the > surface analysis option of a formatter program on the disk. > But when I got out of the formatter, I found that the entire > disk have been erased!!! No kidding! The program inspects the disk by reading then writing each spot and marking the bad ones. The program normally produces a message banner warning you that what you are about to do will destroy all data on the disk and give you the option to quit. If your program didn't do that you should complain to the author. As far as the disk is concerned, hope you backed it up!
regoli@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Michael Regoli) (05/07/87)
In article <203@houxj.UUCP> dck@houxj.UUCP (D.KWONG) writes: >When I got several soft errors on my hard disk, I ran the >surface analysis option of a formatter program on the disk. >But when I got out of the formatter, I found that the entire >disk have been erased!!! >I have tried the DOS RECOVER command and Norton Utilities 3.0 >both were unable to recover any of my files. >Is there any way to recover the hard disk contents? for what it's worth, norton's latest edition of the utilities (v. 4.0) includes "FR" -- format recover -- which allows the user to unformat an accidentially-formatted hard disk. success depends on whether the disk was written to since the accidental format. FR can be used preventively as well. when run in preventive mode, the program saves disk information necessary to recover from an accidental format. -- michael regoli indiana university, bloomington UUCP: ...ihnp4!iuvax!silver!regoli regoli@silver.bacs.indiana.edu
smvorkoetter@watmum.UUCP (05/07/87)
It seems to me, that in order to analyse the surface of the disk for defects by using the disk drive (as opposed to a visual inspection under a microscope), that one would have to write to it. This would obviously destroy anything on it beyond recovery. The program should have warned you. If it did not, then it was poorly designed. Sorry about the bad news. I hope you had a backup.
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (05/09/87)
FR, the Norton 4.0 format recovery routine *must* be run in the preventative mode-- ie: FR /SAVE from your autoexec file. What FR does is to copy the FAT and directory structure of your disk to a DOS file. When you boot from a floppy disk after loosing your FAT or ROOT directory, you can invoke FR without options. FR then reads the HDU sector by sector looking for its unique tag that it starts its data sectors with. It can then work backwards and reconstruct the FAT and file system. A low level format or a media verification will most certainly destory any possibility of recovering any of the original data unless your initials are NSA (grin). FR operates on the assumption that most hard disk formatters do nothing more than erase the FAT and the ROOT directory, then simply do a read verification on the remainder of the disk. Some versions of FORMAT-- AT&T previous to DOS, release 3.01 and the Compaq, damage the data in all the sectors of the disk, thus rendering FR useless. Although FR could try to work backwards by scanning the disk for sectors that were potential subdirectories, and using them to rebuild the file system, it makes no attempt to do so. In such a case, it would be impossible (virtually so, at least) to recover any to the files as opposed to directories in ROOT since the format customarily zeroizes ALL of the ROOT area (typically 512 entries). Just last week, an errant episode of MS-LINK (really, honest) trashed the ROOT directory of my own computer. I had not done an FR /SAVE, but lucky me had recently printed a hardcopy of the file entries, which I typed back in by hand. It was also much easier to locate the clusters that belonged to the files, as I regularly use a tune-up program to de-fragment my disk. I also keep the files in alphabetical order as much as possible to make them easier to find. I also try to minimize the number of files in ROOT, and keep everything in subdirectories, since it is very easy to identifify sectors that are subdirectories and restore their entries in ROOT. By taking the steps I mentioned above, you can probably recover from a crash that is not due to hardware error in just a few minutes. Norton or another popular disk sector editor is required to do the patching. You can use DEBUG, but it is rather inconvenient compared to programs that are optimized for disk sector editing. With floppy diskettes, the entire disk is low-level formatted every time, thus there is no possibility of recovering a floppy with FR. The Paul Mace utilities offer essentially the same thing as Norton with the same caviats as Norton. My experience has been that Norton is the better (that is to say easier to use) of the two utilities. --Bill (wtm@neoucom.UUCP)
flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU (05/10/87)
>When I got several soft errors on my hard disk, I ran the >surface analysis option of a formatter program on the disk. >But when I got out of the formatter, I found that the entire >disk have been erased!!! >I have tried the DOS RECOVER command and Norton Utilities 3.0 >both were unable to recover any of my files. >Is there any way to recover the hard disk contents? Mace Utilities 4.0 is advertised to include an UnFORMAT command which will recover usually 80-90% of an accidental format (and 100% if you already have MACE installed). Their order number is 800-523-0258.
connery@bnrmtv.UUCP (Glenn Connery) (05/11/87)
A user had done a surface analysis of his/her disk. Several people have
now suggested trying either Norton Utilities or Mace Utilities which
include unformat programs. I just thought I'd suggest that you save your
money. The surface analysis causes a low-level format. All of the programs
I have seen are quite explicit about the fact that this destroys your
data. It is not possible to recover from the use of such a program. To
repeat what some others have said, I hope this user had a backup.
--
Glenn Connery, Bell Northern Research, Mountain View, CA
{hplabs,amdahl,3comvax}!bnrmtv!connerykuo@skatter.UUCP (Dr. Peter Kuo) (05/16/87)
In article <203@houxj.UUCP>, dck@houxj.UUCP (D.KWONG) writes: > When I got several soft errors on my hard disk, I ran the > surface analysis option of a formatter program on the disk. > But when I got out of the formatter, I found that the entire > disk have been erased!!! > I have tried the DOS RECOVER command and Norton Utilities 3.0 > both were unable to recover any of my files. > Is there any way to recover the hard disk contents? > D. C. Kwong > homxa!houxj!dck You MAY have some luck with the Mace Utilities (now version 4.0). I have not used it, but from the readings it claims it can recover data from a formatted hard disk! There was a short write up about it in a not-so-recent issue of PC Magazine. Good LUCK! ... Peter/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Kuo | Bitnet (VMS) : KUO@SASK Accelerator Laboratory | (a.k.a. The Beam Warehouse) | uucp (Unix) : !alberta\ Univ. of Saskatchewan | !ihnp4 -- !sask!skatter!kuo Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | !utcsri / CANADA S7N 0W0 | (Earth) | Ma Bell : (306) 966-6059 Disclaimer: I don't know what I am saying, so don't quote me on anything! And I only speak for myself.
dmimi@ecsvax.UUCP (05/26/87)
In article <263@silver.bacs.indiana.edu>, regoli@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Michael Regoli) writes: > In article <203@houxj.UUCP> dck@houxj.UUCP (D.KWONG) writes: > > . . . Is there any way to recover the hard disk contents? > > for what it's worth, norton's latest edition of the utilities (v. 4.0) > includes "FR" -- format recover -- . . . > > FR can be run in preventive mode, where the > program saves disk information necessary to recover from an accidental > format. > Another, excellent reformatter, which also saves data so it can reformat an accidentally formatted disk (and, by the way, can also re-organize and consoli- date files and directories) is MACE, Paul Mace SOftware, 123 First St, Ashland, OR 97520, (503) 488-0224. It will also re-organize files on floppies and is generally an excellent program. I've not used Norton since I've had MACE. Another major advantage, is that it costs considerably less than Norton-- about $70 I think.