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Conference 7.286::atarist

Title:	Atari ST, TT, & Falcon
Notice:	Please read note 1.0 and its replies before posting!
Moderator:	FUNYET::ANDERSON

Created:	Mon Apr 04 1988
Last Modified:	Tue May 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1433
Total number of notes:	10312

188.0. "SECTOR.PRG .nes. NOVICE" by KERNEL::FLOWERS (Hero of the Green Screen...) Mon Aug 08 1988 07:45

    
    	Hello All,
    
    		Tis me again and this time I am wondering if I should
    	stay away from computers!!!!
    		Could anybody give me any pointers on where I can find
    	out about how the Atari writes to disk ( sectors, FAT's etc.)?
    	Also what is the most versatile disk hacking?? program that
    	is currently available??? Ideally it should be able for me to
    	specify sectors and extract them to another disk as a file...
    		The reason I ask is that just recently I have been playing
    	with a sector editor and trashed two disks (luckily there was
     	nothing important on them) and the only way I could use them
   	was to re-format. That in itself was not too bad, however in
    	a late hacking session last night I managed (don't ask me how
    	it is too embarrassing) to delete the FAT off of my system disk.
    		I really would like to get the files back as it contained
    	many useful things I had picked up along the way.
    
    	Thank for any assistance,
    
    	Jason.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
188.1	But of hope, but thats all	TEA::PETERS	Don Peters, CTS1-2/H6, 287-3742	`Mon Aug 08 1988 09:05`	10
	When you say you deleted the FAT, can you be more specific? For example, there are, I think, two copies of the FAT. One is located on sectors 1 thru 5, and the other on sectors 6 thru 10. So one can serve as a backup for the other. But, sectors 11 thru 10 also hold disk pointer info, and that's not backed up. I suppose with some effort you could reconstruct text files since you could tell by the verbal context how to arrange the sectors of text. But it would be pretty hopeless for any other type of file.
188.2	The truth!!	KERNEL::FLOWERS	Hero of the Green Screen...	`Mon Aug 08 1988 09:32`	11
	Ok here is some more (embarrasing!) info. I was checking out a prog that I had aquired (public domain) that allowed you instead of deleting all files on a disk or re-formatting just wiped out the FAT ('s?) so it LOOKED like the disk was empty. I have scanned the disk and can pick up most of the text files using a sector editor but I have nothing (do not know how) to extract sectors as files. Desperate, Jason.
188.3		BAGELS::BRANNON	Dave Brannon	`Mon Aug 08 1988 19:30`	13
	is the duplicate FAT destroyed? One possibility not mentioned so far.... There are programs for the ibmpc that can recover lost files, the ST uses the same format for disks (with minor differences). Maybe something like the Norton Utilities has a program to recover the text files? That might even run under pc-ditto. You might ask in NAC::IBMPC for pointers to any public domain programs that will do that (If there is source code you might be able to port it to the ST) -Dave
188.4	Undelete for the ST	MILRAT::WALLACE		`Tue Aug 09 1988 11:45`	10
	Since Jeff gave a pointer to his PD files in 9.3 a reckon he won't mind if I point you there. You may be interested in: PRNSYS::DUA1:[LOMICKAJ.HOBBY.ST]UNDELETE.DOC -- and -- PRNSYS::DUA1:[LOMICKAJ.HOBBY.ST]UNDELETE.PRG The .DOC file explains a bit about FATs, DIRs, and how files are delete and recovered, you might find some usefull information in there even if you don't run the program. Ray