Monday, September 6, 2010

Success with XFS deleted files

After a lot of hard work (and head scratching) it is now possible to recover deleted files from the problem XFS disk. This is a new development within the CnW data recovery software which will recover the file without doing any data carving. In other words, the files are recovered with correct names, original dates, and very largely, correct directory structure.

The process, by necessity is rather slow. It starts with a complete scan of the drive (or in this case, the RAID-0) to locate all existing iNode entries on the disk. These are then analysed, and regenerated to provide a list of possible directory entries. Once the disk structure is know, files can be recovered, including all files that have been deleted.

With all deleted files, there is always a danger that a new file written to the disk after the file was deleted, could overwrite critical data. However, if the recover process is started as soon as the error, or corruption is know, recovery levels will be good.

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