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/  Forum Index
   /  Amiga OS4.x \ Workbench 4.x
      /  undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
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ggw 
undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 2-Sep-2015 2:21:38
#1 ]
Super Member
Joined: 24-May-2003
Posts: 1106
From: Austin, TX

Or on any partition with other than FFS?

Not that *I* did a quick format on HD1 instead of similarly name partition while working on the install of FE. Alas, my last use of Deniil's backup program was last April 1. I just cannot believe it was that long ago!

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broadblues 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 2-Sep-2015 3:12:13
#2 ]
Amiga Developer Team
Joined: 20-Jul-2004
Posts: 4446
From: Portsmouth England

@ggw

Formatting is not undoable, it warned you three times!

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AlexC 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 2-Sep-2015 9:51:17
#3 ]
Super Member
Joined: 22-Jan-2004
Posts: 1300
From: City of Lost Angels, California.

@ggw

Partition Wizard might be able to retrieve the lost files

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Severin 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 2-Sep-2015 13:21:02
#4 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 18-Aug-2003
Posts: 2740
From: Gloucestershire UK

@ggw

There is NO recovery software for SFS/02, joerg never wrote any. SFS recovery software will fall over when it reaches any boundary over it's limits if it will even work at all.

Basically you're stuffed and you should stop listening to the voices telling you 'It's alright click ok'.

At least you have a backup from april. I suggest you install Steven Solie's Docket program and shedule regular backups.

_________________
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Visit the Official OS4 Support Site for more help.

It may be that your sole purpose is to serve as a warning to others.

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Hypex 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 2-Sep-2015 17:27:25
#5 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 6-May-2007
Posts: 11181
From: Greensborough, Australia

@ggw

First, you've the best thing by simply quick formatting it. Yes I know it is common. Second, you've done the worst by doing it to a filesystem that has no recovery tools!

Unfortuately, the days of OS4 are not as good as the days of yore. We can't just get out DiskSalv anymore and run an unformat on it.

Your files are still there and intact. All you need to do is rebuild the root block. A simple task that nothing can do apparently. Shocking.

I think you have a couple of options at least depending on your files. The first is to download SFS and see if tools like SFSSalv do anything. If none work and you've given up all hope then try hacking it. Go into MTB and change it to SFS/0, reboot and see if it picks up the files at all.

Last resort, take the HD out, plug it into a PC and run software like PhotoRec. It won't be able to determine the file names I think but at least it could detect common data types and string it all together.

Given there's probably like 1KB of data lost in the root it just seems silly that you couldn't get the files back. I wonder if SFS/2 stores backup root blocks? That would save you. Linux driver?

http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=comments&file=utility/misc/docket.lha

BTW, unless you change to a recoverable filesystem, backup your root blocks for next time.

Last edited by Hypex on 02-Sep-2015 at 05:28 PM.

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ggw 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 2-Sep-2015 19:57:59
#6 ]
Super Member
Joined: 24-May-2003
Posts: 1106
From: Austin, TX

@Hypex
Quote:

BTW, unless you change to a recoverable filesystem, backup your root blocks for next time.


I don't remember anything about "backup" that refers to "root blocks". Before I go rooting around (that's a pun, son...) looking for something like that, will you give me a little more about one does that?

It *is* only once every few years that we do a complete reinstall of the OS. When I only do some computer action so seldom, I *am* likely to not be wary enough.

As many no doubt also have faced, if I were to refuse to "move forward" until I was 99% sure I understood the consequences of a seemingly "normal" thing of being mentioned without explicit warnings about common human errors... I, uh, would still be in school.

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lionstorm 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 2-Sep-2015 20:27:19
#7 ]
Super Member
Joined: 31-Jul-2003
Posts: 1588
From: the french side

@AlexC

Quote:

AlexC wrote:
@ggw

Partition Wizard might be able to retrieve the lost files


PW does not work anymore under OS4.1FE ! or lets say it starts but thats it.

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Severin 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 2-Sep-2015 21:31:34
#8 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 18-Aug-2003
Posts: 2740
From: Gloucestershire UK

@lionstorm

Quote:

lionstorm wrote:

PW does not work anymore under OS4.1FE ! or lets say it starts but thats it.


Hmmm... It doesn't work on X1000 but should still work on SE, XE, Micro and Sam 440/Flex. No idea about Sam 460.

_________________
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Anonymous 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 3-Sep-2015 6:37:27
# ]

0
0

@ggw

RDB (Rigid Disk Block) is the thing you should be looking for.

It simply means that there are programs out there (68k only though) that can *probably* revert a quick format (no promise, though).

You could try Thomas Rapp's RDBRecov for a start.
(It doesn't make changes to your HDD, only prints in a shell what it can find, the work has to be done by yourself in Media Toolbox afterwards.)
It "should" work, as it's fairly new (2005) and knows about SFS, haven't tried it myself.

For backing up your HDDs RDB/partition information is actually quite easy.

Open up Media Toolbox
Choose your HDD
"Edit partitions and filesystems"
Now bring up the pull-down menu and choose either
1) Save profile
2) Save RDB as mountlist or
3) Save RDB as text

I haven't tried it myself either, but you should be able to "Load" any of the three back in once saved and resurrect any mistakes/errors (i believe).

Not for your already wiped HDD, of course, sorry

 
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thomas 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 3-Sep-2015 8:16:42
#10 ]
Super Member
Joined: 28-May-2003
Posts: 1141
From: Germany

@Raziel

Quote:

Raziel wrote:
@ggw

RDB (Rigid Disk Block) is the thing you should be looking for.



No, the problem has nothing to do with the RDB. The Format program does not touch the RDB neither does the file system during quick format.

It's indeed the root block of the partition which has been overwritten.

However, "backup your root blocks" is easier said than done. Each file system stores its root block in another location and it is not only the root block but depending on the file system used there might also be some bitmap blocks or anode/inode/whatever blocks which need to be restored, too.

So "backup what quick format would overwrite" is what has to be done, but it is practically impossible to do it.

Making a backup of the RDB is a good idea, too, but it is not related to the problem discussed in this thread.

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Anonymous 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 3-Sep-2015 9:03:07
# ]

0
0

@thomas

kk, me mixing things up again, sorry

 
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lionstorm 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 3-Sep-2015 18:31:40
#12 ]
Super Member
Joined: 31-Jul-2003
Posts: 1588
From: the french side

@Severin

Quote:

Severin wrote:
@lionstorm

Quote:

lionstorm wrote:

PW does not work anymore under OS4.1FE ! or lets say it starts but thats it.


Hmmm... It doesn't work on X1000 but should still work on SE, XE, Micro and Sam 440/Flex. No idea about Sam 460.



no it does NOT work on my A1XEG4, there is no partition listed, and I have plenty of them in all differents size and filesystem !
This was reported on Hyperion forums -> no solution -> OBSOLETE

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Hypex 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 5-Sep-2015 15:51:17
#13 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 6-May-2007
Posts: 11181
From: Greensborough, Australia

@ggw

First, I don't know what I was copying but I meant this link:

http://os4depot.net/index.php?function=showfile&file=driver/filesystem/sfs.lha

Quote:
I don't remember anything about "backup" that refers to "root blocks". Before I go rooting around (that's a pun, son...) looking for something like that, will you give me a little more about one does that?


Using the right software. Which unfortunately we have none of for OS4. We used to have software that would do things like backup the root block of a volume which used to sit in the moddle for FFS IIRC. However with different filesystems it's hard to do now days. You coudld do it manually with Utilities/RawDisk but backup what blocks?

Quote:
It *is* only once every few years that we do a complete reinstall of the OS. When I only do some computer action so seldom, I *am* likely to not be wary enough.


Yes. We all are. But I hate reinstalls even every few years because it feels liek it takes years to restore all your settings!

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Hypex 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 5-Sep-2015 16:39:15
#14 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 6-May-2007
Posts: 11181
From: Greensborough, Australia

@lionstorm

Yeah I found that out as well. I suspect a change in the system or version has tripped it off. If you look at the code the whole thing is encypted. I mean, it still has ELF tags and a version string but where's the rest of it?

There is no strings or library names, so how does it work? I searched for ELF hidden strings on the net once but found no links suggesting text can be hidden. That would leave an init routine at the start of the code to decrypt all strings. But even then you'd need to encrpyt it at runtime so how would you kmow where all the strings are without using assembler? Bit lost here.

We can also look at AmiDVD. Same format. I know AmiDVD uses L:SLB as it creates bootable CDs using it but it is nowhere in the binary!

This leads me to beleive that Joerg was paranoid and went to efforts to not only hide his strings but do certain checks to make sure it breaks. Bit suspicious that Snoppy lists an "OK' and then PW quits. And also that it crashes on the X1000 so it's buggy regadless. In any case something peed Joerg off so looks like he's become like Holger Kruse and broken up with the Amiga scene. Just after creating JXFS so he could punish us Amiga users because he knew we'd use it by falling for the 64-bit" catchphrase and lose data with no recovery tools. I mean, who does that!?

On a side note the SFS archive has SFSSalv which looks like an older version of PW. There is also sources for useful tools like SFSCheck but not SFSSalv. So where is the source? Does the orignal Hendrix archive have it?

Final notes. FE has PartitionWizard 53.4 (12/12/2010). Update 6 has PartitionWizard 53.2 (17/07/2008). Does this work on FE? Both are very old regardless.

Last edited by Hypex on 05-Sep-2015 at 04:43 PM.

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OldAmigan 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 5-Sep-2015 19:29:50
#15 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 25-Dec-2003
Posts: 681
From: Dumfries, Scotland

@ggw

Hypex's advice about using PhotoRec on a PC is good advice. It comes with TestDisk which also has a good go at recovering files. It's TestDisk which doesn't recognise file extensions and names.

PhotoRec will at least identify file extensions. It isn't the easiest program to use, though.

Both of these also come bundled as part of various recovery suites but can be downloaded here

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========================================
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Hypex 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 6-Sep-2015 15:12:02
#16 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 6-May-2007
Posts: 11181
From: Greensborough, Australia

Also, SFSDoctor on MorphOS could be another possbility. I don't know if it supports SFS2 and read there are differences between OS4 and MOS versions but dragging the disk out and hooking it up to a MOS machine may help.

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ggw 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 7-Sep-2015 2:51:58
#17 ]
Super Member
Joined: 24-May-2003
Posts: 1106
From: Austin, TX

@Hypex

All good ideas.

I have so much to do, that I have preserved that partition. I vaguely plan to get a hold of the source code for SFS and look at it enough to know what would be in that part that QuickFormat trashed.

Likewise, I have saved a copy of the backup for that disk in a partition that has all the same attributes as the original. I hope that I can better identify what has changed that way and concentrate on that.

Also I am working on convincing my self that what I lost was not that important. It was personal stuff ... like a todo list and pictures from my camera which I always doctor (crop and arrange the lighting and saturation) them and move the 640x480 versions to other partitions.

Now I have to make the backup program work for me in a sensible way.

But for the moment I STILL getting all my system settings to my liking. And weekends are my only time for that.

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..effects of civilization upon...nature, the growing gap between what education was supposed to accomplish and what it consisted of, the national debt and...high taxes, the problem of the excess cost of medical care -- Philip Wylie, 1951

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Hypex 
Re: undo quickformat on sfs/02 partition?
Posted on 7-Sep-2015 15:27:49
#18 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 6-May-2007
Posts: 11181
From: Greensborough, Australia

@ggw

In the SFS arhive there are some include files. Only SFS0 is listed but I don't know how SFS0 and SFS2 differ. However, I did read that the root block is duplicated at the end of the partition. If SFS2 does the same then it is a case of locating the root block and copying it back to see if that fixes it. Unless a SFS format was called which I suspect would erase both.

Good idea to backup the disk. I would. I did years in a way when I used DiskSalv to create an archive for me. I suspect the volume must have been gone. And then the data became just as useless when I found out, from the author himself, that DiskSalv cannot exract files from its own archives. Almost as good as the AmiBack floppies I have that seem to be missing disks in my sets. I hope to figure out one day the structure of a BACKMIKEDISK.

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