Deleted drvspace.000 file, how do I recover it. 1

[haolefiedbraddah]

I inadvertently deleted the drvspace.000 and related files from the windows (Win95) directory after attempting to add another hard drive to a friends system. This caused all the compressed data on the HD to be inaccessible. I can see that there is data on the HD when I run a SCANDISK surface scan... I but just can't access it. DOH!! I know, I know, I know... It's a long story to how I went about this idiotic feat. But none the less, I need a solution to recover these files or someone to tell me that I am hosed. Please help. <br>
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Thanks,<br>
<br>
hb

 

[robherc]

have you tried ms DOS undelete??? that _might_ work; or, if you're getting file segments show up when you run ScanDisk, tell it to convert them to files, then you'll have to figure out which file was which & rename them accordingly.<br>
Either way, don't get your hopes set too terribly high, the outcome still looks pretty bleak (that's what they invented back-ups for)<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
-Robherc<br>
robherc@netzero.net

 

[haolefiedbraddah]

Robherc -<br>
<br>
I will try the MS DOS undelete command as you suggested. I will try anything at this point. Seems that when the drvspace.000 and related files were deleted, access and visibility to all files was not available anymore. All I see right now is the root (c:\) directory.<br>
<br>
I know that backups are the key. But I didn't see any reason for one if I was adding a new HD to the system. What I didn't realize was, after adding the new HD info to CMOS, then rebooting, the new HD did not get recognized but still booted ok. Then when I went into windows explorer to see what was on the new HD and possibly clear it out a bit... I started clearing out info on drive H:\, not realizing that this was the compression info for the original HD (C:\). This is when bad things started happening.

 

[jsauce]

If this is an extremely important drive with a lot of important information on it, I would consider buying PowerQuest LOST and FOUND. This program can locate the drvspace.000 and then restore it. You can find it at

http://www.powerquest.com<br>

<br>
I use this program all the time and find it to be an asset.

 

[haolefiedbraddah]

Thanks, jsauce!! I already downloaded the evaluation copy of the software and will try it out soon. I will let you know if I had any success.<br>
<br>
hb

 

[jsauce]

no problem, but I do not think you can actually recover the files without paying for the program. I know it will find the files, but I don't think it will recover. While the price tag for the program is $69.95, I assure you that the price of this program is nothing compared to what this program can do for you. I literally took a drive that was 8 years old, pulled from an old 386, tossed it into a computer, and found the drive to have some files on it. Now the files on the drive were junk, but I just wanted to see what exactly was on this drive, being it was 8 years old. I was able to see and restore files that had been placed on the drive more than 5 years even some that were 8 years old. I even had a drive that stopped being detected by the computer, but Lost and Found not only was able to detect the drive, but restore files from it. It can detect and restores files from a drive even if the drive has been formatted, and in most cases as long as the drive still spins, the data is recoverable.

 

[Alt255]

Jsauce, that sounds like good software. Do you know if it can recover data from a drive with a missing partition table and FAT(s)? The professional data recovery services can charge $thousands$. It sounds like a bargain, by comparison.

 

[jsauce]

And it is. The deal with Powerquest Lost and Found is this:<br>
<br>
Powerquest Lost and Found is so powerful that it can recover data on any disk that supports FAT16 and FAT32 partitions. Works with all possible IDE, EIDE and SCSI disk-drive configurations. It can locate and recover data even when you have either accidently or intentionally formatted, or quick formatted a drive. The difference in the two is that the FAT is simply destroyed. What makes this program so useful is that it only READS, it never writes, this is your guarantee no corruption of data can occur. It locates all data and then tells you by color what files are the easiest to recover. Even if you take a disk and format it thousands of times over, Lost and Found will find the data from the first format as long as the data was not overwritten to the disk in the same spot. In fact even if sectors on the disk are physically damaged causing the media to become unreadable in dos, Lost and Found can detect and recover the data located within these sectors. They say, "as long as your disk is still spinning, Lost & Found can locate and recover almost any file, anywhere on your disk." <br>
<br>
<br>
Companies have been charging thousands of dollars for years offering the same services that Lost and Found offers, but now you don't need these companies, now you can do it yourself. Powerquest was so sure of their program that when that shooting thing happened in Colorado, they sent the Police a copy of Lost and Found, which helped them recover vital information about the two kids plans that had been deleted from their computers. It allowed the police to get insight into the reasons for the shootings. <br>
I have seen two problems, that may have been fixed with the 1.1 update. Very large SCSI drives that were made by less know companies gave Lost and Found a bit of trouble, but simply booting with a Windows 98 disk, which has its own set of SCSI drivers, then popping in the Lost and Found disk solved that. And the other problem seems to be Long Filename and tildes. When you recover files to the second disk Lost and Found will add a tilde to the file to make sure a file with the same name is not being overwritten. Then you have to pop in the second disk which comes with a refresh.exe file that fixes the tilde, long filenames problem, so its not that big of a deal, small problem, use second disk. Oh actually one other problem, Lost and Found is only useable on a single computer, they have a program called Search and Rescue(same as Lost and Found) which allows multiple computers to be used, it is just more expensive, primarily for IT proffesionals who run into data loss everday.