finding tarbal on fat partition [yet another data recovery problem]

[hawk <hawk@fac13.ds.psu.edu>]

*sigh*  I've found more ways to lose data . . . 

This time, I needed to switch a system from FreeBSD to Debian.  I wrote 
down the cylinder information for my two fat partitions in the extended 
partition, deleted the extended partition, and created a new fat 
partition as partition 4 after them.

I tarred /home and /etc separately and without compression to this new 
partitiion.  These are the only two files that have ever been in that 
partition.

I then installed debian where FreeBSD used to be, deleted partition 4, 
created the extended partition again, and used the cylinder information 
to recreate the three fat partitions.

The two former extended partitions survived.  The partitions with the 
backup did not, and I can't mount it.  I've tried recreating it as a 
primary, but still no dice.

I don't really need to recover the partition (though this would be 
easiest if it's possible).  I just need those tarballs (actually, just 
the first) back.

Is my best bet going to be to feed the output of dd to tar?  Or is 
there a better way to do this?

hawk, master of damaging partitions

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