computer help, please!!

[The Vee]

Today I did a stupid thing. Not thinking I hit the wrong key and overwrote a similar database with a new one of the same name. Does anyone know if I can get the overwitten one back? It's not in recycle bin as I didn't delete it and all those recovery programmes you can get seem to deal with damaged or deleted stuff. Any help would be much appreciated. Oh and it's an access database. Please be gentle, on a scale of 1 to 10 my pc knowledge is about a 1 :embarasse :embarasse

[Bal]

is this at home or at work? if at work ask your IT staff if they run volume shadow copies, if at home i think you'll find your a bit stuffed ...

sorry mate

[The Vee]

Yep it's at home. The being stuffed bit is something I thought maybe the case :embarasse :oops: :bigcry:

[ritch_w]

check all your temp folders for a filename similar to your db - might start with ~ then the rest of the file name

use the search facility to look for all files with the db file extesion as well

[vampirej]

If you have actually overwritten the file within the folder, I'd imagine that you won't be able to retrieve it tbh. You running XP by any chance? There's a slim chance that you might be able to run a "roll back" to certain time. However, please bear in mind that everything will be rolled back too...
You could also try My Recent Documents to see whether it would open the old one over the new one...

[The Vee]

yes, running xp. is that rollback the same as the system restore?

[vampirej]

Yes... but I'd backup everything that you might have changed since then and NOT a full system restore from the disk. It's the build in function with XP.
Just wanted to make sure, as I don't wish to have given you the wrong advice.
Do you need it done urgently? otherwise, I'd wait to see if the others have any other suggestions before doing the restore as I'd treat this as the last resort...
Good luck mate.

[Bal]

yes yes system restore ... should have thought of that.

do a system restore back to yesterday :) all changed will be lost on anything you have done for every file but you'll get your file back :)

[The Vee]

yes yes system restore ... should have thought of that.

do a system restore back to yesterday :) all changed will be lost on anything you have done for every file but you'll get your file back :)

Ok Going in !!

[bradc]

a good program I have used in the past was "get data back" by runtime systems. Download that and do a full search on the drive and see what turns up. It will cost you US$60 to register it so you can get your data, but you can see what data can be recovered for free.

[Springie]

System restore won't bring it back, it only restores system files. The best option is to DO NOT SAVE anything untill you have tried to get it back.
When you delete a afile on a computer it doesn't actually mean its gone. Basically when you delete a file it renames the first letter of the filename to a system character that that the operating system recognises as a file that can be over written i.e free space.

Best thing to do is get dont do anything, get a recovery software package and you should be able to get it back.

[Nick Mann]

Basically when you delete a file it renames the first letter of the filename to a system character...

But surely this is not the case when you save another file with the same name? Defo worth a go, though. Does undelete work as a dos command nowadays? I'm sure it used to years ago.

[vampirej]

It sounds as though he's copy a new file to replace the old one, and clicked "Yes" when the dialogue box came up. So to me, the only hope would have been anything that was saved in cache memory. However, I thought system restore is to restore everything to the specified date? Similar to Norton Ghost?

[Funkstar]

System Restore tells you that you wont lose any recent work, so his work will be the same as when he saved it. I'd go with Springie's idea.

[strapping young lad]

presume you used ms access?

then tbh you are a bit stuffed unless you make backups yourself

sorry m8

however i will ask my boss tomorrow who thinks he is a bit of an expert with access

then again this is fruitless if its not access

let me know what it is and i will see what i can find out (our workplace includes the sysadmins, dba's and dev teams for autotrader.co.uk ;) ) so someone will know!

[The Vee]

Yes it is ms access. Think I might have stuffed this one though. Tried the system restore thing, only to find it was switched off - must have been like that for yonks /pan . See what they say tomorrow SYL. :thumbsup:
Have tried one of those data recovery things but it doesn't appear to find it.

[AllBeItMine]

nah mate - you are buggered. sorry dude.

[Jimbo]

Gosh, all these opinions! Ok....here's mine for what it's worth.

- As somebody correctly said, if you delete a file it doesn't actually delete it, it just marks it as deleted on the disc so that the operating system sees it as free space.

- If you rename another file to use the same name, that second file is still inhabiting the same part of the disc as it previously did, therefore it doesn't actually overwrite the old file physically

- System Restore WILL NOT recover files, just registry and operating system files and is only of any use if you install a dodgy driver or whatnot.

I have had great success in the dim and distant past undeleting files, but I'm not much help to you now, all my software is years old and certainly won't be compatible with XP's NTFS file system, but DEFINATELY give it a go, especially if it's important....there must be thousands of freeware programs that would do this.

The longer you leave it, the less chance you have of recovering it. Knowing how MS Access files are constructed I'd be very surprised if you could recover it in part, it would most certainly have to be the whole thing, so providing you didn't have tiny amounts of disc space (that the operating system might have overwritten in it's swap files), and providing you've minimised activity since you lost it, I reckon you can get it back.

[Slimshady]

Sorry m8 just read this post – have you written data to the hard drive where the data resides? If the answer is yes – you have almost no chance.

If the save rate is low I have a very specialised programme (registered) that may solve your problems – I have had approximately 40% success – so don’t hold your hopes up.

The best solution is to install the software on a separate machine – remove the hard drive from the one you wish to recover and install on the machine with the recover software – if you are lucky you can restore the data – if you are currently on the machine posting this then I would bet 95% that the data is gone

By the way MS restore will not work - fact

Good luck – I know this is hard

Mail me if you require additional help

[strapping young lad]

ive a cd full of data recovery tools (handy when youve blown away a partition and you shouldnt have)

its called boot cd

[The Vee]

Thanks again for your help peeps. I've had to resign myself to the fact I'll have to rewrite the DB. Not what I need at the moment, not enough time!!

[strapping young lad]

spoke to me boss

basically you are a bit screwed

if you overwrote the mdb file with another of the same name its highly unlikely you can recover it

sorry.

[The Vee]

spoke to me boss

basically you are a bit screwed

if you overwrote the mdb file with another of the same name its highly unlikely you can recover it

sorry.

OK mate, thanks for trying :thumbsup:

[strapping young lad]

he says there are apps out there that can do the backup automatically but says its easier if u burn it to cd or dvd on a regular basis

and

dont use the same names for db's ;)

[Polabear]

check all your temp folders for a filename similar to your db - might start with ~ then the rest of the file name use the search facility to look for all files with the db file extesion as well

Best way to ensure it finds ALL files of the files with that extension Andy is go to search and type *. then whatever the extension name is, also make sure you have it search all hidden files and folders as well, good luck mate.... :thumbsup:

[strapping young lad]

if you did any work on the new db i would guess all it will find is the new version.

you might be lucky but unlikely