It is 95% lost, but there is a slight chance.

First of all, did you do format /u (unconditional) or saved the unformat
info, do you use any Imaging software, etc. that can help you to do
unformat? If yes, use it. Any software designed for prevention of such
occurences is better than the way I describe below, that will work only
with a great deal of luck.

A weird suggestion... May be it is easier to retype the document than to
recover it?

The way is as follows: (get a raw disk editor. DiskEdit from Norton
Utilities 8.0 for DOS is a candidate, but any other will do). You can
potentially destroy something important and have to reinstall again, so
be prepared for it if it happens.

You must know EXACTLY the document filename since this is the only trace -
the FAT is already destroyed by reformat. If you've already FDISKed into a
configuration different than that used before, your chances are
effectively 0% since only a data recovery expert has the necessary tools
to proceed from that point.

The file name should be like in the directory record, the 8.3 format -
like "Program Files" turns to "PROGRA~1", etc. Search this record (8-byte
filename, followed by 3-byte extension, like MYIMPO~1.DOC for My Important
Document.Doc).

If you can locate the directory with the following record, get the
starting cluster and file size from the directory record.

In the disk editor, start at the starting cluster and copy an amount of
bytes equal to file size to some temporary file, and try to open it as a
Word document.

This technique will work only if:

* The directory record is not overwritten with your Windows installation
(if you've recently unfragmented, it probably IS overwritten)

* The file was not fragmented, i.e. continious (if you didn't unfragment
recently, it probably IS fragmented)

as you see, these two conditions clash... This is why I say there is a
very slim chance.

Good luck,

<> Max Timchenko [MaxVT]
<>
<> [log in to unmask]

On Wed, 31 May 2000, Nick Young wrote:

> Bit of a HD drama I'm afraid..... I've reformatted my HD and reloaded
> a fresh copy of win 98.... And all is well.....  My question is
> this.... Is there any way of recovering deleted data from the HD? Like
> an idiot I've lost an important document.....

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