Can a file be recovered that has been overwritten?

[Guest]

This mistake was a Windows XP issue during file copy. A friend is turning to
me for help. He thought he backed up his Quicken file on a 2nd hard drive.
Later he downloaded a program update and when he opened the program it did
not automatically open. The program started as if it had never been used
before and all of his accounts did not seem to be there. So he copied the
"backup" file from his 2nd hard drive. No there is no date we can fild
anywhere.

I have a gut feeling his backup file was empty. I did all kind of searches,
even for hidden files, for the names of the files he lost. So far I have not
found the. He lost several years of financial data for his mother's records
(she is in an assisted living home) and years of his own financial data.

Any suggestions? Intuit (Quicken) won't help unless they receive $75.00+++
and we all know software tech support is only as good as the person you get
on the luck of the drawn on the other line.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Galen]

In Cathy in Florida had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

This mistake was a Windows XP issue during file copy. A friend is
turning to me for help. He thought he backed up his Quicken file on
a 2nd hard drive. Later he downloaded a program update and when he
opened the program it did not automatically open. The program
started as if it had never been used before and all of his accounts
did not seem to be there. So he copied the "backup" file from his
2nd hard drive. No there is no date we can fild anywhere.

I have a gut feeling his backup file was empty. I did all kind of
searches, even for hidden files, for the names of the files he lost.
So far I have not found the. He lost several years of financial data
for his mother's records (she is in an assisted living home) and
years of his own financial data.

Any suggestions? Intuit (Quicken) won't help unless they receive
$75.00+++ and we all know software tech support is only as good as
the person you get on the luck of the drawn on the other line.

Thanks for your help.

It is unlikely - stop using that drive and check either with a site such as
www.snapfiles.com or (if you REALLY need the file back) an expensive
recovery house that specializes in data recovery. I'm unwilling to recommend
any due to the nature of the beast but if you can find one that you find has
a good reputation and uses bit locking hardware devices prior to any
forensics and you SHOULD find one that will do all that they can do.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"At present I am, as you know, fairly busy, but I propose to devote my
declining years to the composition of a textbook which shall focus the
whole art of detection into one volume." - Sherlock Holmes