Was FAT32 easy for old data recovery?

[The Day Dreamer]

I read that NTFS uses imeddiate free blocks for new files to be stored unlike FAT32 which did not. As a result FAT32 had more chances of recovering very old files unlike NTFS where you have lost it in case you added new files to a folder from where you want to recover old files.

Is it true?

 

[ninaholic37]

My hard drive is a 800MB FAT32. I booted into MS-DOS 8.0 (WinME) and did a test:

- Ran Scandisk to see what the "Surface Scan" looked like
- Copied a 160MB file to root
- Ran Scandisk again to see where it put it (a big empty spot near the end)
- Deleted the new 160MB file
- Ran Scandisk again (space was freed)
- Copied a 24MB file to root
- Ran Scandisk again (It put the file after where the 160MB was deleted, not at the same place)

So it appears your FAT32 theory is true, at least using MS-DOS 8.0 copy. I can still recover the 160MB file with Undelete, even though I copied a 24MB file after.

 

[corkyg]

OTOH, check para 3 of this:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc976817.aspx

 

[Z15CAM]

One thing you have to remember is that FAT32 in limited to 32GB Partitions. I still use FAT32 32GB Partitions to compressed DOS Boot GHOST GHO backup images - Spanned if necessary to another FAT32 32GB Partition.

You can format FAT32 to larger then 32GB partitions to store data and access the files through a GUI Boot (Win for example) but you can't DOS Boot and DOS Browse or execute FAT32 EXE apps that will see all files on FAT32 volumes with more then 32GB's.

AVI files are limited to 2048MB's in FAT32 partitions.

I doubt Data Recovery would be successful in FAT32 Partitions over 32GB's.

A DOS Extended Memory FAT32 Boot with Compressed DOS Images (GHOST) on FAT32 32GB volumes is about the EASIEST way to Repair and Over-Write your OS - Something MS has been trying to defeat and hide since Win3 and 95A.

Win still boots from an Active Primary DOS Boot FAT32 Partition containing the bootmgr, grldr and BCD files which is commonly referred to as the MBR partition and least understood by most Win users.

As a matter of fact , if you can still DOS Boot a floppy (USB Today) backed up with 1.36 MB volume of these files you can over-write replace the corrupted or missing files on the Active Primary FAT32 DOS MBR Boot Partition, you can Reboot into Win GUI and screw with the Win install Repair Option - Which is designed to fail.