Accessing files in Recycle Bin from Dos... NEED INFO

[Mascarab]

I need to know how to get a file that is in the recycle bin in Win98 from DOS. My cousin deleted vmm32.vxd and its in the recycle bin, so he cant get to safe mode either or startup to restore it in windows. There really isnt many resources to get him the file from another computer and copy it. I just need to how and if I can copy or move a file from recycle bin, using only DOS.

 

[Moonbender]

C:\>cd recycled (change directory to recyle bin)

C:\RECYCLED\>attrib -h vmm32.vxd (remove hidden attribute, not sure if it is necessary)

C:\RECYCLED\>move vmm32.vxd c:\WIN\SYSTEM32\vmm32.vxd (move file, not sure if it is supposed to be in the SYSTEM32 subdir, but probably it is)

 

[Mascarab]

Thanx a lot I couldnt find this info out from anyone! They copied vmm32.vxd to a disk but the file was corrupt or something, will this overwrite it?

 

[Mascarab]

I've tried this and it says File Not Found.

What now?

 

[Moonbender]

If the file already exists, it will be overwritten - I just tested it, move didn't even seem to ask whether to overwrite or not. So be a bit careful ...
You can also use the COPY command instead of MOVE, everything else can remain the same.

 

[Moonbender]

If the file's not found it means that it's not in the recycle bin. Probably.
Try a DIR and DIR /A:H (shows hidden files). Is there a vmm32.vxd in the list? Or any file with a similar name? Also, try looking into the bins of the other local drives (if there are any), the path is always [Drive]:\RECYCLED, maybe it is somewhere there.

If you cannot find it, you'll have to copy it (by floppy disk) from another computer or some other source (driver disk? windows CD?).

 

[Mascarab]

Well what I'm doing is like trying that out, the computer's at my cousins house. I have a .jpg file in the recycle bin and I'm putting in the commands you've showed me, still says File Not Found...? Maybe because I'm on Win2k?

 

[Moonbender]

Ha! I think when you delete a file, it get's moved to RECYLCED, but, and that's why what I said above doesn't work, it also is renamed.
I can't really say how Windows (I am using 2000 as well, maybe 9x act differently) defines which name to use, but the readme.txt I deleted for testing purposes was renamed to De1.txt. This change was only visible in DOS mode using DIR, the Windows recylcle bin obviously keeped the original name.

Anyway, I don't think this is a large problem at all. The file is renamed, but apparently the extension (ie the .txt) is kept. SO all you have to do is find the file with the extension .vxd and do what I said above, ie:

C:\RECYCLED\>move [newfilename].vxd c:\WIN\SYSTEM32\vmm32.vxd

Hope it works now

 

[Mascarab]

Ugh! Now, how do i get it to show me what files are in the recycle bin?

 

[Moonbender]

The DOS command DIR lists the files in a directory.

Ie. C:\RECYCLED\>DIR

If you only want to see files with a specific extension, use, for instance, DIR *.VXD to show all .VXD files.
To show hidden files, use DIR /A:H - be careful though, files which are not hidden won't be displayed (sounds more confusing than it is).

You can get a full reference for the DIR command if you type DIR /? - this is true for all DOS commands, ie CD /?, MOVE /? and so on.

 

[AKA]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=34&threadid=311248

 

[Moonbender]

Ah, very nice. Gotta love cross-posts, btw.

Edit: w00t senior member