Microsoft KB Archive/104701

Undelete Does Not Recover Files that Appear Recoverable PSS ID Number: Q104701 Article last modified on 09-30-1993 PSS database name: O_MSDOS

6.00

MS-DOS

= SYMPTOMS =

If you run Microsoft Undelete from an MS-DOS command prompt, you may receive the following message

Delete Sentry control file contains 0 deleted files.

Deletion-tracking file not found.

MS-DOS directory contains  deleted files. Of those,  files may be recovered.

Using the Delete Sentry method.

No entries found.

where  is a number greater than zero.

= CAUSE =

This message indicates that although there are deleted files that can be recovered, Undelete could not find a directory entry for the files. This is caused by a CONTROL.FIL file from an inactive installation of Undelete Delete Sentry (UNDELETE /S), which interferes with the normal MS-DOS Undelete function.

If Delete Sentry was loaded and then later unloaded, it may leave behind a SENTRY directory containing the file CONTROL.FIL. After unloading Delete Sentry from memory, if you delete a file and then try to recover it by typing “undelete” (without the quotation marks) at the MS-DOS command prompt, Undelete may not give you the option to recover that file.

= WORKAROUND =

To work around this problem, you must type “undelete /dos” (without quotation marks) at the MS-DOS command prompt. This should allow you to recover the file.

If you do not plan to use the Delete Sentry method of deletion tracking, a permanent solution to this problem is to delete the SENTRY directory by typing “deltree x:” (without the quotation marks), where  is the drive that contains the SENTRY directory. Note that after doing this, you can no longer recover any files that were deleted while Delete Sentry was enabled.

Additional reference words: 6.00

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1993.