On 19-Apr-2002 Mike Lake wrote: > I have a friend who has just formatted his IBM format Windows floppy > with important info on it. There are $ packages he could use but he is a > uni student. Under Linux I could mount the fd ro but is there another > FAT table on Windows floppies can I tell the mount command to use? > I am hoping that Linux utils might be able to get his files back, not > with all their correct names, but at least salvage them as AFAIK the > format command does not actually write all over the disk?
You're right, a format (well, a quick format(*)) will just zap the directory and wipe the FAT. The reserve FAT was unaffected. DOS 5.0-6.22 had a UNFORMAT command that would reverse a quick format as much as it could - I think you'd end up with mangled filenames. It looks like FreeDOS has an implementation. Rather than mess about looking for a Linux utility, I think I'd just try that. Or Google for DOS and UNFORMAT. (*) He did do just a quick format, didn't he? A not-quick format sitting there counting the tracks zaps everything. Recovery may be possible by specialists, but it will cost. -- Jim Hague - [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Work), [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Play) Never trust a computer you can't lift. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
