How to Restore Deleted Files

If you delete files in your root directory
You have two ways to recover the files. The first way is to use the undelete command. The second way is to manually recreate each file.
To restore files with UNDELETE:
Find your MS-DOS diskettes and insert disk #1 into drive A.
Reboot your machine. The computer will boot to the floppy drive instead of the hard drive.
If you are using MS-DOS 5.0, press F3 when the Welcome to Setup screen appears. Answer Y to the question about exiting setup and returning to DOS. This brings you to an A:\> prompt.
Change to drive C: At the C:\> prompt, type:
path c:\dos
and press Enter.
Type:
undelete
and press Enter.
The undelete command responds with the files 1 by 1. The first letter of each file is a question mark. Enter the first letter for each file to undelete it. For example, suppose you accidentally deleted the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. To recover this file, type
undelete
at the C:\> prompt. The computer responds with:
Directory: C:\
File specifications: *.*
Deletion-tracking file not found.
MS-DOS directory contains 1 deleted files.
Of those, 1 files may be recovered.
Using MS-DOS directory
?UTOEXEC BAT 90 2-16-93 3:14p ...A Undelete (Y/N)?
Answer Y. The computer asks you to type the first character for AUTOEXEC.BAT.
Please type the first character for ?UTOEXEC.BAT:
Type the first letter of the file name, an "a."
After undeleting the files, remove the disk from drive A and reboot your computer.
To manually restore deleted files from the backup directory:
Find your MS-DOS diskettes and insert disk #1 into drive A.
Reboot the computer. The computer will boot to the floppy drive instead of the hard drive.
If you are using MS-DOS 5.0, press F3 when the Welcome to Setup screen appears. Answer Y to the question about exiting setup and returning to DOS. This brings you to an A:\> prompt.
Change to drive C. Type "c:"
At the C:\> prompt, type
dir /w
and press Enter. This displays the directory of your hard drive in a wide format.
Look at the items inside square brackets for either [BACKUP] or [ROOT].
If one of these directories is on your hard drive, type
copy c:\backup\*.*
or
copy c:\root\*.*
and press Enter. This restores several necessary files to your root directory.
To manually restore files without a backup directory:
If neither the [root] nor [backup] subdirectory exists; the backup directory may not be on your hard drive. Follow these steps to reconfigure your root directory.
Change to Drive C by typing "C:" and pressing Enter.
Type:
copy con config.sys
and press Enter. The cursor drops to the next line, ready for input.
Type each line as shown. Press Enter at the end of each line:
device=c:\windows\himem.sys
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256
files=50
buffers=20
If you make a mistake during typing, press Ctrl+C and start over at step 2.
If you have a SCSI Hard drive, Add this line at the end:
device=c:\windows\smartdrv.exe /double buffer
After typing the last line, press F6, then press
Enter. The computer responds with the message "1 File Copied" and you are back at the C:\> prompt.
Type:
copy con autoexec.bat
and press Enter. The cursor drops to the next line, ready for input.
Enter each line shown here. Press Enter at the end of each line.
@echo off
c:\windows\smartdrv.exe
prompt $p$g
set mouse=c:\msmouse
c:\msmouse\mouse
path c:\;c:\dos;c:\windows
set temp=c:\windows\temp
win
If you make a mistake, press Ctrl+C and start over at step 7. If you do not want the computer to start Windows automatically, do not enter the last line of the autoexec.bat.
After typing the last line, press F6, then press Enter. The computer responds with the message "1 File Copied" and you are back at the C:\> prompt.
Type:
copy a:command.com
and press Enter. This copies the COMMAND.COM file from drive A onto drive C.
Insert the last disk of your MS-DOS 5.0 diskettes
Type:
path c:\dos
and press Enter.
Type:
expand a:wina20.38_wina20.386
and press Enter. This is command expands and copies the file from the disk to the hard drive. Make sure you type the line exactly as shown.
When the C:\> prompt returns, remove the diskette.
Type:
md backup
and press Enter. This creates a backup subdirectory.
Type:
copy *.* c:\backup
and press Enter. This copies the files in the root directory to the backup subdirectory. Now you have some insurance against future mishaps!
(You may also want to create a bootable diskette and copy the files there as well.)
Reboot your computer