undelete from root?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe Magiera
  • Start date Start date
J

Joe Magiera

By accident (obviously), from a command prompt (DOS Window), while in
the root drive, a delete *.* command was issued (i.e., "C:\>delete
*.*").

Fortunately XP was smart enough to not delete any folders. However
all files in the root have been deleted.

I've tried no fewer than 6 various undelete applications with no
success. They all have problems identfying deleted files in the root
directory. One of them, nice enough to offer tech support for a demo
version, noted that it doesn't have anything to attach files in the
root to, so it doesn't identify them.

I tried running the old MS DOS undelete command, but I got some kind
of "Delete Sentry control file not found". Documentation said to use
a /dos switch on it, but that didn't work either. I do remember how
well that undelete command worked back in the DOS/Windows days.

Does anyone know of any ways to undelete files from the root
directory? Any tips/help much appreciated. Thanks,

Joe
 
Joe said:
By accident (obviously), from a command prompt (DOS Window), while in
the root drive, a delete *.* command was issued (i.e., "C:\>delete
*.*").

Fortunately XP was smart enough to not delete any folders. However
all files in the root have been deleted.
Click to expand...

Has nothing to do with smartness--no Microsoft delete command has ever
defaulted to deleting folders. At one time there was a different command
for that, later there was a switch for the delete command.
I've tried no fewer than 6 various undelete applications with no
success. They all have problems identfying deleted files in the root
directory. One of them, nice enough to offer tech support for a demo
version, noted that it doesn't have anything to attach files in the
root to, so it doesn't identify them.

I tried running the old MS DOS undelete command, but I got some kind
of "Delete Sentry control file not found". Documentation said to use
a /dos switch on it, but that didn't work either. I do remember how
well that undelete command worked back in the DOS/Windows days.
Click to expand...

That's because MS-DOS undelete depended on a particular feature of a
particular version of DOS. XP uses a different undelete mechanism that is
not very robust.
Does anyone know of any ways to undelete files from the root
directory? Any tips/help much appreciated. Thanks,
Click to expand...

Just do a repair installation. In the future set regular restore points and
don't let "someone" have write-access in the root directory.
 
Joe Magiera said:
By accident (obviously), from a command prompt (DOS Window), while in
the root drive, a delete *.* command was issued (i.e., "C:\>delete
*.*").

Fortunately XP was smart enough to not delete any folders. However
all files in the root have been deleted.

I've tried no fewer than 6 various undelete applications with no
success. They all have problems identfying deleted files in the root
directory. One of them, nice enough to offer tech support for a demo
version, noted that it doesn't have anything to attach files in the
root to, so it doesn't identify them.

I tried running the old MS DOS undelete command, but I got some kind
of "Delete Sentry control file not found". Documentation said to use
a /dos switch on it, but that didn't work either. I do remember how
well that undelete command worked back in the DOS/Windows days.

Does anyone know of any ways to undelete files from the root
directory? Any tips/help much appreciated. Thanks,

Joe
Click to expand...
Did you only have "windows" files there or some user ones as well. If only
windows files ie boot.ini, ntldr, NTDETECT.COM etc then you can replace
those no probs ( those are the only three files I have in C:\ )
regards
ted
Brute force fix would be to reload windows but to say c:\widowsnew just to
get the root files replaced then edit boot.ini to point to old windows
folder c:\windows or whatever. The windows install does let you say where to
put it if you use an "advanced option" see below for uncertain location!!
Its late, so there may be a more simple solution that this tied brain missed
(more than one!)
 
Joe said:
By accident (obviously), from a command prompt (DOS Window), while in
the root drive, a delete *.* command was issued (i.e., "C:\>delete
*.*").

Fortunately XP was smart enough to not delete any folders. However
all files in the root have been deleted.

I've tried no fewer than 6 various undelete applications with no
success. They all have problems identfying deleted files in the root
directory. One of them, nice enough to offer tech support for a demo
version, noted that it doesn't have anything to attach files in the
root to, so it doesn't identify them.

I tried running the old MS DOS undelete command, but I got some kind
of "Delete Sentry control file not found". Documentation said to use
a /dos switch on it, but that didn't work either. I do remember how
well that undelete command worked back in the DOS/Windows days.

Does anyone know of any ways to undelete files from the root
directory? Any tips/help much appreciated. Thanks,

Joe
Click to expand...

Just have someone email them to you. You can then copy them over.

Next time, assign them system file attributes so a simple DOS delete
command won't delete them.


Odie
 
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