unformat MS-DOS Command

Type: External (5.0 and later)

Syntax:

UNFORMAT d: [/J][/L][/test][/partn][/P][/U]

Purpose: Used to undo the effects of formatting a disk.

Discussion

The UNFORMAT command is used to recover files on a disk that have been erased by using the FORMAT command.

NOTE:
The UNFORMAT command cannot always recover all the files that were on a disk that was accidentally formatted. To assure a better recovery of files on a formatted disk, use the MIRROR command.

Options

drive Specifies the drive containing the disk to unformat. /J – Checks the disk to determine if the MIRROR command has been used to place file-recovery information on it. (In DOS Version 6, this program is stored on the DOS supplemental disk.) /L – Used with the /partn parameter to tell DOS that there is no MIRROR file on the disk. /P – Used to tell DOS to send any UNFORMAT messages to the printer. /U – Used to tell DOS to recover files from a formatted disk without using the MIRROR file information (starting with DOS Version 6, this option is no longer available). /partn – Used to restore a corrupted partition table of a hard disk drive. This option requires a PARTNSAV.FIL file created by using the MIRROR command with the /PARTN option (starting with DOS Version 6, this option is no longer available).