At 25 mars 2003, 12.23 CET, Rick Lecoat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Received from: Leonard Morgenstern >At: 4:16 am (GMT) on Mon, Mar 24, 2003 > >>Have you tried Norton SystemWorks or a similar utility package? Remember, >>normally when you "erase" a file, it's not really erased. Instead, the >>disk sectors that it occupied are flagged as available for new files. If >>you use Norton before you have added too many new files, you can recover >>some (or even all) your data. So, don't write anything to that disk until >>you have attempted to recover the files! >> >>I assume that's what happened to you. If your disk is physically damaged, >>Norton won't work. I'm told DriveSavers is expensive but they often work >>wonders. > >From Max's original message he seems to have actually reformatted the >drive, which is much more serious than simply deleting files. Actually, >when you delete a file in the normal way it isn't deleted at all; rather, >the OS simply flags the space that the file takes up as being available >to be overwritten (normally a file's space is protected from being >overwritten so that when you save file B it isn't saved over the top of >file A -- unless it has the same name, of course). So deleted files >actually aren't deleted until the OS uses that space for a new file. >Formatting, on the other hand, DOES wipe data. However, as the FBI and >other security agencies know very well, whilst a single reformat will >render the data on a drive Totally Gone to the average user, with the >right tools it *can* be recovered. I read once that it takes 7 reformats >of a drive to completely destroy the data on it to the point where it is >*really* unrecoverable (guys may want to bear that in mind when erasing >those girly pics before giving their girlfriend their old mac). So the >low-down is that a reformat is not the end of the line but you'll need a >specialist service to have even a hope of recoving the data. I think. > >Hope this helps; >Rick
Well you are right I did reformat/reinitialize the disk. But I doubt the data is erased by this. The procedure takes a few seconds -- it should take longer than that to erase some 50+ Gb of data. I understand it's more serious, but still I was anyhow hoping for some software tips to recover it. If you have Norton installed (which hadn't...) there is a function to save files from initialized disks, as Norton saves some kind of info file that makes recovery fairly easy. This speaks for the theory that the data isn't erased even in the case of an initialization. I have run Norton's "Volume Recovery" wich "resurrects initialized or crashed disks" without luck as it just seems to look for that particular info file I mention above. I was hoping that perhaps TechTool could do the job but as nobody of you tech gurus out there have suggested it, I guess it's about time to try finding a fairly simple solution to this. Thanks for your support. Max G
