Off - Topic... need help recovering inadvertently deleted mdb file off Windows XP machine

[MLH]

I don't know how it happened. I have hundreds
of hours worth of work invested in a file I foolishly
named DB9.mdb. I was intending on renaming the
file soon. But I neglected to do so before getting
caught up in a new project. When I did, I forgot
about the filename I was working under. One day,
and I don't know how long ago it was, I deleted
db*.mdb and db*.ldb from the development
directory as a routine part of disk housekeeping.

Of course, if I'd made backups, you wouldn't be
reading this. So my question is, have any of you
tried commercially available file recovery software
and do you have any you would recommend.

[Salad]

MLH wrote:

I don't know how it happened. I have hundreds
of hours worth of work invested in a file I foolishly
named DB9.mdb. I was intending on renaming the
file soon. But I neglected to do so before getting
caught up in a new project. When I did, I forgot
about the filename I was working under. One day,
and I don't know how long ago it was, I deleted
db*.mdb and db*.ldb from the development
directory as a routine part of disk housekeeping.

Of course, if I'd made backups, you wouldn't be
reading this. So my question is, have any of you
tried commercially available file recovery software
and do you have any you would recommend.

Did you delete this on the network or your hard drive?

Did you delete from DOS or from Explorer?

I know in Novell, if on the network, they had a command called Salvage
that saved my life or work a couple of times.

Have you checked your recycle bin? I know it's obvious but one has to
ask questions like this on a newsgroup.

Can you work on another machine and shut this one down...or at least
keep it idle? In Novell's Salvage, I could sometimes recover files
months later after deletion. It just depends if the disk drive has
written files/data in that spot/disk segment location. You don't want
your computer writing information to the location where the file
existed. That file can be scattered all over the hard drive. The
Recover programs basically link the segments and do their best to get
all the segments into one compact object called a file.

I can't make a recommendation for you as to a recover program.
Hopefully others can. I can only recommend that you delete your hard
drive files from Explorer so you can go to the trash can and recover
them. But that might not help you today.

[MLH]

I deleted the file, most likely, from a CMD window (basically, a
DOS window). Old habits are hard to break. I did it on a non-
networked, stand-alone XP box.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 06:40:38 GMT, Salad <oi*@vinegar.com> wrote:

Did you delete this on the network or your hard drive?

Did you delete from DOS or from Explorer?

I know in Novell, if on the network, they had a command called Salvage
that saved my life or work a couple of times.

Have you checked your recycle bin? I know it's obvious but one has to
ask questions like this on a newsgroup.

Can you work on another machine and shut this one down...or at least
keep it idle? In Novell's Salvage, I could sometimes recover files
months later after deletion. It just depends if the disk drive has
written files/data in that spot/disk segment location. You don't want
your computer writing information to the location where the file
existed. That file can be scattered all over the hard drive. The
Recover programs basically link the segments and do their best to get
all the segments into one compact object called a file.

I can't make a recommendation for you as to a recover program.
Hopefully others can. I can only recommend that you delete your hard
drive files from Explorer so you can go to the trash can and recover
them. But that might not help you today.

[Wayne Morgan]

I haven't tried this product, but other products of their's that I've tried
worked well. The problem is that anything you install to undelete the file
may overwrite the deleted file before you can recover it. If you don't have
a backup (you do have a backup, don't you?), then you may want to install
this utility on another computer, so that you don't write to the hard drive
with the deleted file, pull the hard drive and install it in the other
computer, and see if you can undelete the file. If you have more than one
hard drive on the current computer and depending on the location of the
file, you may be able to do all of this on the current computer.

http://www.systernals.com/products/r...ore.asp?pid=fr

--
Wayne Morgan
MS Access MVP

[David W. Fenton]

MLH <CR**@NorthState.net> wrote in
news:fo********************************@4ax.com:

I don't know how it happened. I have hundreds
of hours worth of work invested in a file I foolishly
named DB9.mdb. I was intending on renaming the
file soon. But I neglected to do so before getting
caught up in a new project. When I did, I forgot
about the filename I was working under. One day,
and I don't know how long ago it was, I deleted
db*.mdb and db*.ldb from the development
directory as a routine part of disk housekeeping.

Of course, if I'd made backups, you wouldn't be
reading this. So my question is, have any of you
tried commercially available file recovery software
and do you have any you would recommend.

I use Executive Undelete.

I bought it, downloade it and installed it after just such a
situation, where I accidentally deleted an important MDB file (I
never send anything to the recycle bin, using SHIFT-DELETE for all
deletions).

Since the deleted file was on my E: drive and my programs are on my
D: drive and my OS on my C: drive, I was able to download and
install the program without writing to the E: drive. Because of
that, the file was fully recoverable.

Now all my drives are protected with this, and it has been a
life-saver on more than one occasion.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[MLH]

I think I'll give Executive Undelete a try. Thx David.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 15:07:31 GMT, "David W. Fenton"
<dX********@bway.net.invalid> wrote:

I use Executive Undelete.

I bought it, downloade it and installed it after just such a
situation, where I accidentally deleted an important MDB file (I
never send anything to the recycle bin, using SHIFT-DELETE for all
deletions).

Since the deleted file was on my E: drive and my programs are on my
D: drive and my OS on my C: drive, I was able to download and
install the program without writing to the E: drive. Because of
that, the file was fully recoverable.

Now all my drives are protected with this, and it has been a
life-saver on more than one occasion.

[David W. Fenton]

MLH <CR**@NorthState.net> wrote in
news:ig********************************@4ax.com:

I think I'll give Executive Undelete a try.

If the file was on a partition that has been written to frequently
(such as your C: drive), you're unlikely to be able to recover it,
especially after all the writing that an installation routine will
do.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

[Larry Linson]

You've gotten good advice on recovering. But, even if your old habits die
hard, it is an object lesson in the advisability of frequent backups. In my
previous incarnation as a mainframer, I knew that all changed files on the
system were backed up nightly by the operations staff, so I only had to
worry about losing a day's work.

Once my focus changed to PCs, I soon learned to be very cautious -- when
developing, I will save backup copies frequently because I work by the hour
and "time is money"... in a given day, I will make several backup copies. I
create a subfolder with the date and either time or text to indicate the
sequence of the backup, so it is easy for me to find a particular copy.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

[Doug Hutcheson]

"Larry Linson" <bo*****@localhost.not> wrote in message
news:wP****************@nwrddc02.gnilink.net...

You've gotten good advice on recovering. But, even if your old habits die
hard, it is an object lesson in the advisability of frequent backups. In my previous incarnation as a mainframer, I knew that all changed files on the
system were backed up nightly by the operations staff, so I only had to
worry about losing a day's work.

Once my focus changed to PCs, I soon learned to be very cautious -- when
developing, I will save backup copies frequently because I work by the hour and "time is money"... in a given day, I will make several backup copies. I create a subfolder with the date and either time or text to indicate the
sequence of the backup, so it is easy for me to find a particular copy.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

Larry,
Do you use the VSS add-in?
I agree with your comment about backups, but I also like to have VSS keeping
score for me...YMMV.
Cheers,
Doug

--
Remove the blots from my address to reply

[Larry Linson]

No, I haven't used it. I tried a couple of third-party source control
packages back in Access 2.0 times, when working on modest-size development
teams, but those did not survive the move to 32-bits (Access 95 and later).

Larry

"Doug Hutcheson" <do*****************@nrm.blot.qld.blot.gov.blot.au > wrote
in message news:lU***************@news.optus.net.au...

"Larry Linson" <bo*****@localhost.not> wrote in message
news:wP****************@nwrddc02.gnilink.net...

You've gotten good advice on recovering. But, even if your old habits die hard, it is an object lesson in the advisability of frequent backups. In my

previous incarnation as a mainframer, I knew that all changed files on the system were backed up nightly by the operations staff, so I only had to
worry about losing a day's work.

Once my focus changed to PCs, I soon learned to be very cautious -- when
developing, I will save backup copies frequently because I work by the

hour

and "time is money"... in a given day, I will make several backup

copies. I

create a subfolder with the date and either time or text to indicate the
sequence of the backup, so it is easy for me to find a particular copy.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

Larry,
Do you use the VSS add-in?
I agree with your comment about backups, but I also like to have VSS

keeping score for me...YMMV.
Cheers,
Doug

--
Remove the blots from my address to reply

[MLH]

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Halle lu uuu uuu jah!
I got it! The file was over 4 months old and still intact.
There is a God! The great computer god. I shall pay
hommage, sacrificing time 'n tapes and placing
nightly backups on the altar in his honor. Thx
for the Executive tip, Dave!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 23:55:10 GMT, "David W. Fenton"
<dX********@bway.net.invalid> wrote:

MLH <CR**@NorthState.net> wrote in
news:ig********************************@4ax.com :

I think I'll give Executive Undelete a try.

If the file was on a partition that has been written to frequently
(such as your C: drive), you're unlikely to be able to recover it,
especially after all the writing that an installation routine will
do.

[Tony Toews]

MLH <CR**@NorthState.net> wrote:

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Halle lu uuu uuu jah!
I got it! The file was over 4 months old and still intact.
There is a God! The great computer god. I shall pay
hommage, sacrificing time 'n tapes and placing
nightly backups on the altar in his honor. Thx
for the Executive tip, Dave!

Wow. Impressive.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
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