The main drawback to this option is it cant handle fragments properly due to the lack of a cluster map.

If youre able to help, you can donate via our fundraiser on GoFundMe Link.

For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.

Note that Im neither the most experienced nor most knowledgeable when it comes to file systems, so if you see anything that seems incorrect, please say something.

Warning: Expands to 120 GB.

Use HDDRawCopy.) FATX Basics Before manual recovery, youll need to know some key things about the FATX file system.

FATX is very similar to FAT32, so theres lots of documentation crossover, but this section will be limited to only the relevant parts.

Partition header The partition header provides critical information about the FATX partition: Its ID, sectors per cluster, and root cluster.

For this tutorial, only the sectors per cluster will be relevant.

Because the sector size (defined in the partition table on devkits or in the kernel on retail) is 0x200, this means the size of each cluster is 0x4000 (16 KB).

Cluster map The cluster map, or cluster chain map, is what gets read in the real world, effectively acting as a table of contents and telling the file system the location of each individual cluster the file uses.

This is needed because of fragmentation, where a file isnt stored in a unified block and instead gets split up across the file system.

Here we see an example of fragmentation, jumping from cluster 0x4D to 0x9A.

This is because formatting the drive works by wiping the cluster map, rather than the slower process of destroying directory entries or data.

There seems to be some data destruction (see Skat, Ploo), but its usually minimal.) Directory entry Directory entries are what the file system uses to store information on individual files and directories: their attributes, name, type, cluster, size, and timestamps.

For us, these are the most important parts of the file system: files can be properly recovered using them, but without them, all metadata is lost and differentiating between files can be difficult or impossible.

The first entry reads: Name is 6 bytes long; is a directory; has name DEVKIT; first cluster is 2; and was created, modified and accessed 2012-05-24 15:39:18.

Since FATX-Tools recovers this metadata properly, we only need to read the cluster number (offset 0x2C in each entry) for manual recovery.

Refer to FAT and Design of the FAT system for more in-depth reading.

The Free60Project wiki page is also a good resource, albeit unclear in certain places.

Recovery using FATX-Tools Usage of FATX-Tools is necessary to find out what files require manual recovery.

Run maingui.py and use the FileOpen command to open the image, then right-click Partition1.

Orphan analysis The Perform Orphan Analysis option detects files via the file system using directory entries.

If all goes well, a tab named Analysis results will appear after the analysis completes.

Xplorer 360 Can'T Find Fatx