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Thread ID: 23290	2002-08-12 10:18:00	Lost FAT	theutmost (1402)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
70439	2002-08-12 23:32:00	Have you tried scandisk off a floppy?	Heather P (163)
70440	2002-08-13 00:03:00	Nothing you can do will save/recreate the FAT . The very expensive data recovery companies charge a lot because what they do is very difficult . File Allocation Table . That describes what it does . It is a table which has an entry for every cluster on the "disk" (partition or whole disk) . When a file is written, a temporary entry is made in the disk directory, and the file is written to the first free cluster . In the FAT each free cluster entry is a pointer to the next free cluster . At the end of file, a marker is written to indicate EOF in the FAT, and the directory entry is tidied up, and size etc put in . There is an entry for the first cluster of the file . That is your only hope . Nortons Utility *might* be able to get some files . If the directories are still intact, you *might* be able to do "absolute" sector addressing and pick out files, using the starting cluster and size as guides . If the files aren't fragmented, and you are very lucky . . . Another method with NU is to search for known strings in files . . . Or, with the disk installed on a Linux system, you could use dd to do this picking off . But a lost FAT is Very Bad News . MS put two copies of the FAT on the disk, but they never got it right --- if one copy was corrupted, the other one was corrupted too, and if you lose one . . .	Graham L (2)
70441	2002-08-13 00:21:00	Unfortunately as Graham said it's now too late to recover the FAT. There is a utility however, Save the Boot, Fat, Partition, a 3 in one package, that would probably have enabled you to have restored the FAT if you had previously 'Saved the Fat'. I havent used it for yonks but it was a piece of insurance at the time, maybe I will resurrect it. You can get it at: www.simtel.net	Terry Porritt (14)
70442	2002-08-13 01:08:00	Hmm... I think the reason I laid the above utility to rest was that it doesnt work with FAT32 :( So that's no use either.	Terry Porritt (14)
70443	2002-08-13 03:07:00	Ok then, after a bit of digging here is a utility package for saving FAT32, Bootsector and MBR. It's too late now for you 'theutmost', sorry about that, but it could be useful for those who like to play, or are just living in fear of losing their fat :) The package is SRCTools and was written to replace the STFBP dos fat16 utility mentioned above. You can get it from: dos.li5.org I have tested out the save switches in each of the 3 utils on Win98 OS, and they appear to work ok. I was too chicken to test the Restore switches, but after all you would only use these if in dire straits. The bootsector and mbr files will fit on a floppy, but the fat32 file is much too big and would need to be saved to another hard drive. Have fun.	Terry Porritt (14)
70444	2002-08-13 04:33:00	Try using Drive Rescue (home.arcor.de). I can't say that I've used it to recover a FAT (although that is one of it's features),but it's mighty handy for recovering deleted files.	antmannz (28)
70445	2002-08-13 06:39:00	Recovery from an accidently deleted FAT 32 drive is covered in the knowledgebase of MS Failing that, data recovery is the next option following by repartitioning, formating and installation . The cause of the problem is less likely to be a problem caused by the setup of 2k and more likey to be a problem with either a physical drive defect or a corrupt boot record (either 1st or 2nd FAT) . Other contributing factors could be references to earlier boot managers or a boot sector virus . In any case checking of the drive for physical defects followed by a check of the first 120 - 150 sectors would be advisable . All of the above should be done after data recovery . Btw - NTFS does not use FAT and dynamic disk indexes are different to basic disk indexes .	Merlin (503)
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