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Disk Editor
Recover lost subdirectories from a corrupt directory
309
Repaired directory structure
Recovery methods
Track information on paper as you complete the following procedures by creating three columns. Label them as follows:
1
1
1
Corrupt directory cluster number
Good sectors
Lost directories
To recover subdirectories from a corrupt directory, use the following procedures.
Action For more information
Locate clusters for the corrupt directory.
See “To locate the cluster for the corrupt directory” on page 310.
Find readable sectors.
See “To find all of the readable sectors” on page 311.
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Recover lost subdirectories from a corrupt directory
Action For more information
Copy good entries to the root directory.
See “To copy the good entries to the root directory” on page 311.
Find lost directories.
See “To find lost directories” on page 312.
Link lost directories to the root directory.
See “To link the lost directories to the root directory” on page 313.
Adjust parent directory pointers.
See “To adjust the parent directory pointers within each recovered directory” on page 313.
To locate the cluster for the corrupt directory
1 Start Disk Editor.
2 On the Object menu, click Drive.
3 In the Select The Disk You Wish To Edit dialog box, select the drive with the corrupt directory, then press
Enter.
Disk Editor scans the disk.
4 On the Object menu, click Directory.
5 In the Change Directory dialog box, select the parent of the corrupt directory, then press Enter.
6 In the Directory View, select the corrupt directory, then press Enter.
In most cases, you get read errors immediately after you press Enter. Usually only one or two sectors that make up the cluster are damaged, which lets you read the remaining good sectors. The good sectors cut down your workload, since you can copy the data that is within them to the root directory.
You will have to re-create the data in the corrupt
sectors. See “To find lost directories” on page 312.
7 Record the number in the Cluster field for the corrupt directory’s entry on your piece of paper in the Corrupt directory cluster number column.
Disk Editor tries to read the cluster that the corrupt directory occupies.
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Recover lost subdirectories from a corrupt directory
311
Usually only one or two sectors are damaged, which lets you read the remaining good sectors.
To find all of the readable sectors
1 If you immediately get a read error from Disk Editor, press Enter to clear the message.
2 Press PageDown to read the next sector of the cluster.
3 Record the good sector number on your piece of paper in the Good sectors column.
The current sector number is displayed at the beginning of each sector in logical mode.
4 Continue pressing PageDown until you reach the end of the cluster or cannot advance past the read errors.
Using the good sector numbers, you can relocate the valid entries to the root directory.
To copy the good entries to the root directory
1 Start Disk Editor.
2 On the Object menu, click Sector.
3 In the Select Sector Range dialog box, type the first sector number from your “Good sectors” list into the
Starting Sector and Ending Sector text boxes, then press Enter.
Disk Editor displays the sector in Directory View.
4 On the View menu, click As Directory.
5 On the Edit menu, click Mark.
6 Select all of the valid entries and exclude entries labeled Unused Directory Entry.
7 On the Edit menu, click Copy to copy the selected entries to the Disk Editor Clipboard.
8 On the Object menu, click Directory.
9 In the Change Directory dialog box, press Enter to select the root directory.
Disk Editor displays the root directory in Directory
View.
10 Select the first entry labeled
Unused Directory
Entry.
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Recover lost subdirectories from a corrupt directory
11 On the Edit menu, click Paste Over to append the directory entries from the Disk Editor Clipboard to the root directory.
12 On the Edit menu, click Write Changes.
13 Repeat steps 2 to 12 for all of the sectors that you recorded.
Use Disk Editor to locate all of the top-level directories that you want to recover. Once the directories are found,
Disk Editor can link them back to the root directory.
To find lost directories
1 Start Disk Editor.
2 On the Object menu, click Cluster.
3 In the Select Cluster Range dialog box, in the Starting
Cluster text box, type 2, then press Enter.
4 On the Tools menu, click Find Object >
Subdirectory.
Disk Editor searches for the cluster string.
5 When Disk Editor finds the search string, on the View menu, click As Directory.
6 Do one of the following:
2
2
If the screen does not resemble the contents of a directory, on the Tools menu, click Find Again until the information on the screen does resemble a directory.
If the screen does resemble a directory, look at the number in the Cluster field for the “. . ” (two periods followed by six spaces) entry. If this number is the same as the number that you recorded for the Corrupt directory cluster number, record the number next to the Cluster label on the status line on your piece of paper in the Lost directories column.
7 On the Tools menu, click Find Again and repeat step
6 to search for additional lost directories until you locate all of the top-level child directories that you want to recover.
Once lost directories are found, Disk Editor can link them back to the root directory.
Disk Editor
Recover lost subdirectories from a corrupt directory
313
To link the lost directories to the root directory
1 Start Disk Editor.
2 On the Object menu, click Directory.
3 In the Change Directory dialog box, select the root directory, then press Enter.
Disk Editor displays the root directory in Directory
View.
4 Select the first entry labeled
Unused Directory
Entry.
5 In the Name field, type a unique name for the current top-level directory.
6 In the Size field, type
0
7 In the Date and Time fields, type the current date and time.
8 In the Cluster field, type the cluster number for the lost directory that you are currently working with from the Lost directories column.
9 With the cursor in the D column, press the
SPACEBAR to toggle the directory attribute on.
10 Repeat steps 2 to 9 for all of the lost directories in the
Lost directories column.
11 On the Edit menu, click Write Changes, then press
Enter.
12 In the Write Changes dialog box, click Write.
You have recovered the directories.
Disk Editor allows you to rebuild the directory structure by adjusting the directory pointers within each recovered directory.
To adjust the parent directory pointers within each recovered directory
1 Select one of the recovered directory entries, then press Enter.
You should see the contents of the directory with the first two entries being “.” and “..”.
2 In the Cluster field for the “..” entry, type
0
3 On the Edit menu, click Write Changes, then press
Enter.
314 Disk Editor
Lift data from a damaged hard disk
4 In the Write Changes dialog box, press Enter to write the change.
5 Select the “..” entry again, then press Enter.
This confirms the link by returning you to the root directory and puts you where you need to be for the next recovered directory.
6 Repeat steps 1 to 5 for each of the recovered directories.
Use Norton Disk Doctor to clean up any lost clusters that were left on your disk. If you save the lost clusters as files, you can examine them and recover any additional lost files. Simply rename the files that you want and delete the rest. Norton Disk Doctor uses the file naming scheme FILE0000._DD, FILE0001._DD, and so on for the file names that represent lost clusters.
Now that you have recovered the directories, re-create the directories that they originally resided in and move them back. You do not have to worry about the directories being re-created in the same spot. Windows now avoids the bad area on the disk.
Lift data from a damaged hard disk
Extracting data from a disk is a time-consuming process, so you should only try to recover files that you have not backed up or do not have copies of elsewhere. Reinstall any program files from their original disks rather than trying to recover them with Disk Editor from a corrupt hard disk.
Neither Windows nor Norton Disk Doctor can access a corrupt disk. However, Disk Editor can access most bad disks and let you lift the data that they contain.
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