CompuServe Thread

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