Member Avatar

Just wondering if anybody here has any experience of writing programs in C or C++ to use and manipulate the Master File Table, to restore previously deleted files?.....

  • 5 Contributors
  • 10 Replies
  • 947 Views
  • 22 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Salem

Recommended Answers

All 10 Replies

Member Avatar

Sorry, What forum should i be posting in?.... i want to write the program in C++ and therefore thought i should post it in the C++ forum... Please advise!!

Just to clarify, i don't want to download a file recovery program... i'm going to write a file recovery program.....and wondered if anybody here and also done this?

Member Avatar

Sorry, What forum should i be posting in?.... i want to write the program in C++ and therefore thought i should post it in the C++ forum... Please advise!!

Just to clarify, i don't want to download a file recovery program... i'm going to write a file recovery program.....and wondered if anybody here and also done this?

No you posted to the right forum just ~s.o.s~ didn't understand that you want to write the program in c++ and not to recover deleted file

Member Avatar

Yeah, :P kind of communication gap.

Just thought that someone with 3 posts wouldnt want to probably write a recovery software (which is a VERY challenging project).

Dude , you need to do a reality check since if you are clueless about how to start, managing this project would be near impossible (you know i am optimistic).

Tell us how much C++ you know, and what is the complexity of the biggest program you have written till date.

Member Avatar

c++ or c programs (or programs written in any other language for that matter) are unreliable at best because the os may overwrite the sectors on the next write. Even Norton Utilities is not all that reliable. MS-Windows added the trash can for exactly that purpose, when a file is deleted the os moves it into the recycle bin directory and does not really delete it at all. It would be pretty easy to write a program to move files and directories back to their original location.

Member Avatar

c++ or c programs (or programs written in any other language for that matter) are unreliable at best because the os may overwrite the sectors on the next write. Even Norton Utilities is not all that reliable. MS-Windows added the trash can for exactly that purpose, when a file is deleted the os moves it into the recycle bin directory and does not really delete it at all. It would be pretty easy to write a program to move files and directories back to their original location.

But what you say beats the purpose of the OP. And also in the market there are a lot of file recovery softwares which recover files which are deleted using SHIFT + DEL. And as they are softwares, they are naturally made in some language (i think C/C++), aren't they?

Member Avatar

> and wondered if anybody here and also done this?
Assume the answer is "no", what is your next question going to be?
Then assume the answer is "yes", what is your next question going to be?

Or are you just conducting some kind of survey to see which boards have got the most experienced people?

Get to the real point and ask your real question instead of asking all these "meta" questions like "does anybody know....".
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#prune

For what it's worth, your question falls into my category of "if you need to ask, you're not ready to take on the task". There's a whole raft of complex issues which need to be addressed, and only really experienced programmers would have an appreciation of those issues, and would certainly know where to look to find the answers.

At the moment, you're just looking to get real friendly with the fdisk program because of all the times you will completely trash the file system to the point where windows refuses to reboot or repair the damage.

In answer to your meta question, I'll answer a qualified "maybe".
I've only tried this with FAT file systems, and only using spare disks in "read-only" mode, and only in real DOS where there is no concurrent disk accessing going on. It was also a long time ago.

But I'm not interested in nursing you through several months of development if that's what your next question is going to be.

Member Avatar

> and wondered if anybody here and also done this?
Assume the answer is "no", what is your next question going to be?
Then assume the answer is "yes", what is your next question going to be?

Or are you just conducting some kind of survey to see which boards have got the most experienced people?

Get to the real point and ask your real question instead of asking all these "meta" questions like "does anybody know....".
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#prune

For what it's worth, your question falls into my category of "if you need to ask, you're not ready to take on the task". There's a whole raft of complex issues which need to be addressed, and only really experienced programmers would have an appreciation of those issues, and would certainly know where to look to find the answers.

At the moment, you're just looking to get real friendly with the fdisk program because of all the times you will completely trash the file system to the point where windows refuses to reboot or repair the damage.

In answer to your meta question, I'll answer a qualified "maybe".
I've only tried this with FAT file systems, and only using spare disks in "read-only" mode, and only in real DOS where there is no concurrent disk accessing going on. It was also a long time ago.

But I'm not interested in nursing you through several months of development if that's what your next question is going to be.

Not quite sure what i said to annoy you there.... i am not looking for somebody to "Nurse me through several months of development" and there was no "next question" as such... mereley looking to meet people of similar IT backgrounds as myself, i believe they call it "Networking"... also i don't understand why people think that just because i have made only 3 posts i am unqualified to take on this project.... i have recently graduated with a 1st in Forensic Computing (Bsc Hons) and was just looking to expand my horizons from just using file recovery programs to actually writing them, and was hoping to meet somebody with a similar interests that maybe i could discuss, exchange ideas and information with... perhaps this was not the right place??

Member Avatar

We didnt mean to hurt to or something like that. Its just that you didnt even mention your problem approach or didnt even post your effort, so it made us think you want ready made solution.

POst some of your efforts or the info you have gathered to prove your point that you are genuinely interested.

Member Avatar

> i believe they call it "Networking"
There is another part of the board which allows you to introduce yourself, state your interests and also say that you're looking to meet other people with similar interest or experience.
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/forum165.html

That would be a much better place to just find other people which share your interests and experience.

This forum is for those with specific coding questions like "why doesn't this code compile".

Edit:
You might want to check out these two other forums.
http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=83
http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=528

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, learning, and sharing knowledge.