Take the 2-minute tour ×

So a damaged disk image with FAT12 filesystem is given, which FATs and RootDir is empty but content of files are still existed in clusters. How can I recover this damaged disk image?

I tried to use testdisk but it ended up being not recovering.

I assume it is possible to recover these file by manually, means edit rootdir and FATs by using hex editor, but it is very time-consuming.

Is there any better way to solve this situation?

share|improve this question
Use the companion to testdisk, called photorec. –  Michael Hampton Jan 17 '13 at 21:39
From a quick Google: Lots of data recovery tools support FAT12. r-studio.com is one –  ta.speot.is Jan 17 '13 at 22:35
add comment

1 Answer

The FAT filesystems are easily accessed by the majority of modern operating systems. You could use a Linux distrubution (such as Ubuntu) to temporarily access the drive.

Download the LiveCD, burn it to a disc, boot your computer from it (make sure you select the Try before installing option), and mount the drive.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Your Answer


