One of NetWares most useful utilities is the Salvage utility, which is kind of a trade
secret. One day a user will delete a couple of files or a complete directory
accidentally, of course, and it will be the job of the LAN administrator to save the day
because the files were the company's financial statements and they are due in a meeting
yesterday. The NetWare 3.12 and 4.X SALVAGE utility is the extremely useful and
sophisticated tool to recover these files.
NetWare retains deleted files in the volume were the files originally resided. There
they continue to pile up until the deleted files completely saturate this volume. When
the volume becomes full with these images of the deleted files, the system begins
purging, starting with the files that have been deleted for the longest period of time.
The only exception to this, is files or directories that have been tagged with the purge
attribute. As you can imagine these hidden deleted files can quickly eat up the space on
a hard drive and the administrator will need to keep an eye on these so that the system
is not unduly slowed down by the system purging to make room for saved and working files.
These deleted files can also be purged manually with the SALVAGE utility, which is a
great way to make sure that a file you don't want others to see is completely removed
from the system!!!
For a user or administrator to retrieve a file using SALVAGE, the create right (right to
edit and read a directory area or file) must be assigned to the directory in which the
file resides. If the directory still exists, the files are put back into the directory
from which they were deleted. If the file being salvaged has the same name as a file
that already exists, then a prompt will be presented to rename the file being salvaged.
Since NetWare keeps track of the files by date and time several versions of the file may
accumulate.
When a directory is deleted, the method for recovery is a bit different. NetWare does
not keep track of the directories, only the files. These files are stored in a hidden
directory called DELETED.SAV. This directory exist in every volume on a network. The
supervisor must go to this directory where the desired files can be copied to other
directories to be completely recovered.
Now that you have a simple explanation of the way the system works, lets look at the
actual graphic user interface (GUI) that comes up when you type SALVAGE at the network
DOS prompt. The main menu is below.
As you can see, this simple menu is extremely user-friendly. Like all NetWare utilities,
the only keys used are the Delete, Insert, F5, Escape and Enter. When you select the
View/Recover Deleted Files option, a new menu appears prompting for the file string to
locate. Like DOS, wild cards can be used or you can type the file name. The GUI is
presented on the following page.
The default for the search string is "*" ,the all wild card , and will display all the
files deleted in the chosen directory. An example of this listing is presented below
which shows the files that were deleted in a particular directory. You can very simply
undelete one of these files by highlighting the file, marking multiples with the F5 key,
and pressing the Enter key. A message box then appears prompting you to verify the
file(s) to be recovered. Selecting the YES command button will recover the file. It is
as simple as that.
If the you need to change to a different directory all you have to do is select the
Select Current Directory option from the main menu. This will bring up a current path
display window and a network directory window in which to make the changes to the path.
As you look at the example below, you will see that all you need to do is highlight the
Network Directories window option and press the Enter key until the path window displays
the path you want. Once at the desired path, press the Escape key to go back to the
main menu and select the View/Recover Deleted Files option and do the same as before.
Well, this is all there is to recovering a file from a network using NetWare. It also is
another great example of how things that are deleted from a network drive are still
accessible, so if you want a very important company document to be purged, you will have
to delete it from SALVAGE or mark it with the purge attribute.
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