Recovering a Lost Directory

by Dick Estel

A couple of times I have made panic calls to more experienced members of the group seeking help in
restoring a bad directory.  

The first time, I did a short format of a disk, which does NOT erase any files, but clears the directory
and makes the entire disk available for use.  I knew my files were intact, but I did not know how to get
the directory back.  This sort of thing can be done with a track and sector editor, but use of this is fairly
complicated and requires some knowledge that I did not have of how files are stored on a disk. 
Ultimately I recreated this disk from various other sources.  

Not long ago a 1581 disk with well over a hundred Doodle and Koala files took a dive.  I still do not
know what happened, but the result of trying to read the directory or load the files was the same as
doing it with a blank disk.

I had just read that issue 82 of Loadstar would have a program to recover disk directories, so I waited
impatiently for it to arrive.  When it finally came, I was dismayed to find it was only for 1541/1571
disks, but the documentation mentioned that Maverick has a directory recovery program also.

I promptly booted up Maverick and selected the Directory Recovery program from the menu.  I
followed the very simple instructions, put in my bad disk, and did something else while the program did
its work.  In a matter of a few minutes it was done, and when I tested the disk, everything was back to
normal, with all my files accessible.

If this ever happens to you, don't stomp the disk into the ground in frustration--just get out Loadstar or
Maverick, or call for help from one of our members who has these programs if you don't have them.

(From The Interface, newsletter of Fresno Commodore User Group May 1991, via the Commodore
Information Center http://home.att.net/~rmestel/commodore.html)