EA-194                                                     PC Systems Support

 

LESSON 7                     Practical: File Recovery

 

Aim: To delete a known file located on a floppy disk and recover it using Norton’s Disk Editor.

 

Method:

Step1.     Using your bootdisk from the previous practical (floppyprac) boot your computer using
                the A: drive.
 

 Step2.  Start Norton’s Disk Editor (de.exe) located on your floppy disk and view the FAT
                contents relating to ‘carew.txt. Record all the details concerning the file’sclusters(and
                pointers) in the results table below.

 
Step3.   Remove your floppy disk and ensure that it is not write protected. Replace the diskette
                in the A: drive.
 

Step4.   From the A: prompt delete the file named carew.txt.

 
 

Step5.   Start Norton’s disk editor again and from the ‘TOOLS’ menu ensure that the ‘read
               only’attributes box is not ticked. Now you can make changes to the A: drive’s contents.
 

 Step6.   View the A: drives contents from the ‘OBJECTS’ menu and when you find ‘arew.txt’
                change it to ‘carew.txt’.

 
Step7.    Now view the FAT contents and change the clusters relating to ‘carew.txt’ back to how
                they were originally recorded.

 
Step8.   Go back to the A: prompt and ensure that ‘carew.txt’ is visible as a file on your diskette
               again. If so, you have successfully recovered a deleted file!

 
Questions:

 Qu 1.    Was your file (carew.txt) contiguous?

 
Qu 2.    If you wanted to recover a text file that and did not have prior knowledge of the FAT
              details relating to that file – what steps would you take to recover the file?