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Win95 Formatting?

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9 replies

by willow

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What process is used? Does Win95 FDisk your Drive? Can I recover the data?

9 replies

by logic2 tech

I'm not sure if I understand your question well, but here's my input...
If you want to format the active(bootable)hard drive, you need a bootable setup disk.

To make one if you don't have the win95 setup disk, choose Start>Settings>control panel. Open 'Add/Remove programs. click the tab 'startup disk' and click on 'create disk.

ALWAYS backup important data before doing any of this...

To format the active drive\partition you must restart the computer w\ the floppy in the drive and type: A:
press enter, type: format c:
this will basically erase all c: drive.

Formating a 2nd drive is easier.

When the 2nd drive\partition has a drive letter, just select Start>Run

type: format [drive]:

or from the Windows Explorer: RightClick on the drive (not C:) and choose format...

You can fdisk easily in the first method,(w\ a setup disk)
I suggest doing this first for efficiency.
boot the pc with floppy disk inserted, at prompt type: a:
press enter.
type: fdisk
Always create parti

by willow

I found the solution and purchased it and it worked great. The solution was a product called Lost & Found by Powerquest $89 and it worked great.

by logic2 tech

I was cut off(thought that would happen...)

Always create partitions in this order:
1.Primary 2.Extended 3.Logical
and remove partitions in reverse.

You can sometimes recover data after formating, but ONLY immediately after. If you fdisk then format then chances are very slim.

ALWAYS backup important data before doing any of this...

by willow

Thanks for the response, but the solution was a product called Lost & Found (Powerquest) and it worked great, it recovered everything from a Win95 Formatting of my primary storage drive.

by logic2 tech

I just read your previous inquery and maybe I know what you want to know. Bad news...

Fdisk and format rewrites the file allocation table.

The only utility I can think of that has lots of praise in these types of recovery situations is Spinrite. Find it here http://grc.com/default.htm
if aol:

Good Luck!

Logic2Tripper

by willow

Thanks for the suggestion tried this and it didn't work... However found the solution from another source, the product is called Lost & Found by Powerquest! Why didn't I think of them, in any case it worked great, found and restored all my data from a Win95 Formatting of my primary storage drive.

by earthworm

I read your previous question and think I have an answer for you.

There is a reat utility called Lost and Found by Power Quest. (Creators of Partition Magic)

http://www.powerquest.com/lostandfound/index.html

This program can recover files off of a drive that has been fdisked and formatted, and some of your data even if new data has been written to the drive (But less likely to work.)

I have used this progrm and found it to be extremly helpful for when I accidently format without a backup. But I never do that :)

Hope this helps.

Earthworm

by willow

Thank you very much for the solution, this worked great, got all or most of my data back plus some. Many Thanks!!!!!

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