Contents
FIXLFN utility is a part of Zero Assumption Recovery toolkit.

This help file covers the following basic topics:

What is FIXLFN for?

How do I use FIXLFN?


What is FIXLFN for?
Data recovery with ZAR tools involves two phases:

1. File data recovery. At this point content of all recovered files is written to disk, but files are named according to their short names on a damaged filesystem. This is because ZAR tools operate under DOS and there is no way to write long file names at this time. Long file name information is stored in a separate file (LFNINFO.DAT).

2. File name information recovery. Once file copying is done, you should start Windows and run FIXLFN to rename files to their corresponding long names. FIXLFN uses a data collected by ZAR tools during the first phase.


How do I use FIXLFN?
FIXLFN operation involves the following three steps:

1. Open LFNINFO.DAT file.

Click the button on the first tab, then browse to LFNINFO.DAT file. It is located in the directory you have recovered your files to. Once the file is opened and read, FIXLFN will automatically switch to the next appropriate tab.

2. Setup a correct code page.

This step is not needed if there were no national-language symbols in file names on a crashed system. FIXLFN automatically detects such a situation - the message would be shown and code page options would be disabled.

Long filenames are stored on a filesystem in Unicode format, but the code page information is stored within Windows. Once Windows installation crashes, there is no way to programmatically identify the code page of a filesystem except for trial-and-error. FIXLFN checks the deafult code page on the Windows installation it runs from and uses this as a default choice. If you run FIXLFN on the localized version of Windows with a language matching that of a crased filesystem, proper code page will be selected automatically and you do not need any further adjustments. For example, this would work if you are using Russian version of Windows to recover Russian filenames. If you see multiple underscores ('_') in file names preview window, you need to adjust code page until file names would look correctly.

3. Rename files.

Once the correct code page is set up, you should switch to the "Rename files" tab and click "Rename files now" button. FIXLFN will rename all files according to LFNINFO.DAT information and selected code page.


Once code page is set corectly (if you need it), click this button to rename all files to their corresponding long names.


You should adjust the code page to match the filesystem's code page using this selector. All code pages supported by Windows installation you currently work on are listed. Once you change the code page, preview window below will reflect changes made.


Click this button to specify LFNINFO file to load. ZARFAT/ZARNTFS write this file during recovery run. The file should be located in the directory you recovered files to.


This table lists file names as they will appear after rename. You should adjust the code page using selector above so that names will read correctly.