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Author Topic: Winows 8.1 - Restoring overwritten file  (Read 8870 times)

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Junes

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    Winows 8.1 - Restoring overwritten file
    « on: May 07, 2014, 11:46:26 AM »
    Greetings everyone.

    I have a rather delicate issue. Here it goes: I had a Microsoft Excel 2013 file that I had been working on for 8 hours today. When I was done, I wanted to overwrite the old file, which was on a USB drive, with the new, updated one from today. Due to my incredible stupidity however, I overwrote the new file with the old file from the USB drive instead, leaving me with 2 old versions of the file and 8 hours of work lost.

    I tried two things:

    - Win8 File Restore: You save your older versions of files on an external hard drive to prevent such things from happening. Unfortunately, the next older version is the one from a couple weeks back, although I had been saving the file multiple times during my work today. I suspect that this is due to the file simply being overwritten by the one from the USB drive, which had indeed not been changed for weeks. So where's my older version of the file saved on the laptop, but stupidly overwritten by another one of the same name and content (apart from the progress I made today)?

    - System Restore: Unfortunately, my last restore point was yesterday, which was when a program was last installed. And yesterday the file was in the same state as those couple weeks ago. I need a version from today before my overwriting the file though. Is there some genius way to do this?

    I can handle many software issues, but I've run out of ideas on this one. If anyone has an idea, I'd be immensely grateful.

    Allan

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    Re: Winows 8.1 - Restoring overwritten file
    « Reply #1 on: May 07, 2014, 11:56:15 AM »
    System restore wouldn't help. If the file exists, you can try Recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva

    BC_Programmer


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    Re: Winows 8.1 - Restoring overwritten file
    « Reply #2 on: May 07, 2014, 01:33:04 PM »
    If the file was on your local hard drive, you might be able to use the Previous Versions feature. I've used it to recover from bone-headed mistakes myself as well.

    It looks like that particular feature was removed from win8 though; here is an article that shows how to enable it and perhaps find the previous version information.


    I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

    Junes

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      Re: Winows 8.1 - Restoring overwritten file
      « Reply #3 on: May 07, 2014, 05:17:01 PM »
      Thanks for the input guys, but both didn't work. I've also tried EaseUs Data Recovery, as well as Recuva, as well as Previous Versions feature for Win8. An older version simply does not exist.

      patio

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      Re: Winows 8.1 - Restoring overwritten file
      « Reply #4 on: May 07, 2014, 07:25:29 PM »
      Try some of the Office file recovery tools then...
      " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "