Command: undelete

  UNDELETE attempts the recovery of deleted files.

Syntax:

  undelete [directory] [options]
           directory  The location where the file to be undeleted is.
                      If no directory is given, the current working
                      directory is assumed.
  There are also more advanced undelete options:
  undelete /action what destination [size]

Options:

    /ALL         Undelete ALL files in the given directory without
                 prompting for each file.
    /LIST        Lists files that can be undelete without prompting to
                 undelete; no action is taken.
    /E           Exports any undeleted files to an external disk and
                 directory. With this option the source disk isn't
                 modified.
  Possible [action]s:
    /syssave     Saves the 1st or 2nd copy of the FAT, boot sector or root
                 directory. Select fat1, fat2, boot, or root in [what].
    /follow      Looks for a (possibly deleted) file starting at the
                 cluster [what] and saves data to a file given as
                 [destination]. The output of DIRSAVE helps you to find
                 the right cluster number.
    /dirsave     Like FOLLOW, but saves a directory to a file. Directory
                 [what] must be given by an absolute path starting with 
                 \ OR by a cluster number. Also shows a technical directory
                 listing on the screen.
    destination  must be on a drive other than the current drive. Data is
                 always read/recovered from the drive from which undelete 
                 is invoked.
    size         Specifying size is not needed, but you can override the 
                 autodetection by specifying size (in clusters for FOLLOW, 
                 in sectors for DIRSAVE).

Comments:

  UNDELETE only works on FAT12 / FAT16 disks!
  Using UNDELTE:
    1. Finding undeleteable files and directories:
       Run undelete in DIRSAVE mode. You will see deleted directory
       entries specially marked, and you will see their cluster numbers
       on the screen. You can redirect screen output to a file, for
       example:
         undelete /DIRSAVE \ x:\rescued.dir >y:\logfile
       Where logfile will contain the screen output.
       If you have the FreeDOS utilites installed on your system, you
       could use something like one of the following instead:
         undelete /DIRSAVE \ x:\rescued.dir | TEE y:\logfile
         undelete /DIRSAVE \ x:\rescued.dir | TEE y:\logfile | MORE
       These will display the information on screen as well as store it
       in the logfile.
    2. Recovering an undeleteable file
      Find the starting cluster of the file using DIRSAVE, as explained
      above. Then use FOLLOW on that cluster, for example:
        undelete FOLLOW 1234 x:\rescued.bin
      would save the contents of the deleted file starting on cluster 1234
      to the file rescued.bin on drive x.
  Advanced Uses
    - Recovering from within deleted directories
      Run DIRSAVE on an existing directory to find the starting cluster
      of the deleted directory. Then run DIRSAVE on that cluster to find
      deleted files and directories within the deleted directory... and
      so on with successive cluster numbers as required.
    - Recovering partially overwritten files
      Use FOLLOW on the existing new files and override the size value
      (in clusters, undelete tells you how big a cluster on the current
      drive is when you start undelete). So, if you have accidentally
      overwritten a long file "OLD" with a short new file "NEW":
      * find the cluster number of "NEW"
      * give the size of "OLD" when using FOLLOW
      * The recovered output will begin with the contents of "NEW" but
        should contain the not-overwritten end of "OLD" as well,
        hopefully. 
    - Using undelete to "mirror" important drive data
      If your filesystem gets completely broken, you can try to write back
      the important data saved by SYSSAVE. The saved information has to be
      stored on a separate disk. You may also wish to use the MIRROR
      command, which is simpler to use but stores the saved information at
      the end of the disk.
      * Run undelete in SYSSAVE mode for all 4 sources: fat1, fat2, boot,
        root
      * Keep the files in a safe place 
    - Restoring the "mirror" data
      This may be necessary in some cases of disk disaster.
      WARNING: This is for experts, repair-men and very desperate people
      only! Doing this incorrectly or unnecessarily could make things
      worse!
      * Glue the 4 sources together in the order "boot fat1 fat2 root" to
        reconstruct the first part of your partition, starting with the
        first sector.
      * you could use DEBUG (w command) to restore this info
      * You can also merge saved and existing data with a hex editor.

Examples:

  - see comments -

Command: undelete

Syntax:

Options:

Comments:

Examples:

See also: