retrieving deleted files

I accidentally deleted a file today and I'm hoping someone can help me to retrieve it. I will be very grateful. Thank you.

 

If it is in your recycle bin, easy enough to restore it from there.

Otherwise, you can probably locate it and if it is intact, restore it. Problem is, when you flag a file as deleted, even though the file is still there your OS sees the space as available and will use it to store new stuff so you could have only a partial copy left on your drive or if your luck was bad, the whole thing was overwritten.

Please let us know if the file is in your recycle bin. If it isn't, the less work you do on the PC before trying to recover the file, the more likely you will succeed.

 

retrieving deleted file

Newt,

Thank you very much for your reply. No, it's not in my recycle bin. I think I misspoke. It isn't an entire file, only about 2,000 words. I write, then re-write, cut and paste, delete, etc. etc. a lot. Is there a way of retrieving just the 2,000 words? It is a chapter and therefore has a name (I guess): CHAPTER SIX.

Again, I appreciate your help.

 

Do you know the exact name? If not, things are gonna be a little tough probably.

Most word processing applications make backup files. The process is usually automatic and the backup has a slightly different file name (maybe xxx.bak rather than xxx.doc for instance). What program were you using to manipulate the document chapter?

 

retrieving deleted file

Hi Newt,

It isn't segregated in its own file, but is chapter six of a book i'm writing. To be exact: 20 point, bold, caps: CHAPTER SIX.

My program is microsoft word.

Thanks.


Jim

 

jweyant1--If you find no backup, download Restoration to a floppy and run Restoration from there.
http://www.webattack.com/get/restoration.html
The deleted file, if it still is on the hard drive will be named as it was before, but missing the first letter.
The reason for using Restoration is that it is small enough to fit on a floppy, which means you are not using (and writing on) the hard drive. As Newt has said the space occupied by a "deleted" file is still on the hard drive but is viewed as space available to write other files. So you want to minimize writing to the hard drive.

 

Jim - your last post sounds like you simply deleted part of a document rather than deleting a file so Jim's suggestion and mine for restoring a deleted file are no good.

You need to hope you have a backup copy of the document from before you did the accidental deletion. Otherwise I'm afraid you are out of luck.

Note for later (and learned at 'Been There, Done That' University) is to do a 'save as' after you've done much writing and give the document a version number. So if you are working on Book, save it as Book01. Next time, save it as Book02. You might want to get as high as Book09 and make the next save Book01. Then if you make a major goof and don't notice it for a while (so that undo can't help) you can just go back to the most recent pre-goof version.

 

retrieving deleted file

Jim and Newt,

I'm afraid I've lost it. Too bad, that, but I'll re-do it tomorrow. And then I'll SAVE it. Thank you both again. Jim Weyant.