#PAR WARNING
WARNING! IT IS POSSIBLE TO CORRUPT THE PAR DRIVE BY DELETING A DIRECTORY FROM
OUTSIDE THE PAR.EXE UTILITY!
[I apologize if this is old news, but I don't find current mention of it.]
While performing file maintenance on my PAR drive, I used the Windows File
Manager to delete a directory (project) from the PAR drive. BOOM! The PAR
drive was corrupt. I could no longer access the drive with PAR.EXE — I would
get a message telling me the drive was corrupt and needed to be reformatted. I
was still able to access the PAR drive from DOS and I found that many of my
files had moved to other directories, some had duplicate names.
Ever helpful, DPS technical support told me I was out of luck: when PAR.EXE
reports the drive is corrupt there is NO WAY to recover files. In the future,
they said, DON'T DO ANY FILE MAINTENANCE OUTSIDE OF PAR.EXE — THAT'S WHAT ITS
THERE FOR (direct quote). They emphasized that this includes simple file
deletion — something I've been doing all along with no problems. Basically
they told me to quit wasting their time and reformat the drive.
Fortunately, I didn't take DPS' word that the files (some of which represented
hundred of hours of 3D-Studio rendering time) were gone for good. I copied the
critical files to my C: drive (I didn't try to recover any of the files that
had duplicate names), reformatted the PAR drive, and copied the files back. Lo
and behold, ALL the files were intact! I feel I would have been able to
recover more of my files if I had tried, but base on what the wonder-kid at DPS
told me I thought I was wasting my time.
MORALS: 1) DON'T DELETE DIRECTORIES FROM THE PAR DRIVE FROM DOS.
2) YOU MAY BE ABLE TO RECOVER FILES FROM A CORRUPT PAR DRIVE.
Cal Haines, 70302,3153