Major Diaster w/Excel File. I copied over my new file w/ old

[DougStroud]

I have been using computers for a very long time now. And I just performed the most stupid idiotic thing someone can do, copy over your newly update file, 7mgs worth of data w/ the orignal file.

Is there anything short of starting over from scratch that someone can recommend?


Mahalo,

Doug S.

 

[tactps]

If you didn't take a backup, I don't like your chances (unless you have some sort of amazing software on your PC).

I can offer you empathy but no solution:

We've all done something that made us want to do this --->
The up-side is you'll never do it again. (I know that doesn't help!)

 

[DougStroud]

True, True, True.

Never say never, I am always super careful, but sometimes the hand is quicker than the eye.

Thanks,

Doug S.

 

[tusharm]

If you haven't done anything else with that computer and if you want to spend a fair amount of money, there are utilities / services that will recover files from your hard disk. It's a real PITA because you will have to ship your computer to them and will cost a few hundred $$ but search google.

The key to such recovery is that on most computers when a file is deleted from a hard disk only the disk directory is altered to flag that area on the disk as "empty.". However, the actual disk sector is not scrubbed (computers running 3rd party software and operating in 'secure' mode will actually overwrite the sector). Effectively, the actual file is still on the hard disk. All you need is a utility program or a company that has something more sophisticated to go look at the disk directly (i.e., bypassing the normal protocol that starts with the disk directory).

Where does one find such a utility or service? Start with google.

 

[DougStroud]

Thanks Tushar,
But I copied over the file, not deleted it. And I was curious if there was some way something was sitting in a temporary file or directory that would allow me to recover. I do not really believe this to be possible, but hey w/ technology now you just really never know.

Thanks,

Doug S.

 

[tusharm]

When you copy a file the system treats it as a "add a new file" then "delete old file."

Thanks Tushar,
But I copied over the file, not deleted it. And I was curious if there was some way something was sitting in a temporary file or directory that would allow me to recover. I do not really believe this to be possible, but hey w/ technology now you just really never know.

Thanks,

Doug S.