Can I restore a deleted word file?

[Wendy]

I accidentally deleted a word document from the recycle
bin. I did a system restore to the day before, but it
did not restore the file. Can I get it back, and how?
It was just done yesterday evening. Please help. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

I do not believ that system restore can save those
files. If it did, just imagine the 1000's of pics and
mp3's etc that would be restored each time system restore
was used.
I believe that restore is for retrieving programs and not
individual files. I believe you are out of luck and your
file is lost forever.

 

[xfile]

Unless you have 3rd party software installed for rescue deleted files, my
understanding is that it's gone forever if you deleted the file from Recycle
Bin.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Wendy,

System Restore does not recover deleted files - but you know that now. Try a
freeware undelete utility. If the file has not yet been overwritten, these
can help. This one works quite well: http://hccweb1.bai.ne.jp/~hcj58401/

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

I accidentally deleted a word document from the recycle
bin. I did a system restore to the day before, but it
did not restore the file. Can I get it back, and how?
It was just done yesterday evening. Please help. Thanks.

System restore restores system files. It does nothing for files
you create.

"Deleting" a file doesn't actually delete it; it just marks the
space as available to be used. There are third-party programs
that can sometimes recover deleted files. The problem is that the
space used by the file is likely to become overwritten very
quickly, and this makes the file unrecoverable.

So your chances of successfully recovering this file is decent if
you try recovering it immediately after deleting it, and rapidly
go downhill from there. If you've been using the computer since
then (for example to write this question and read this answer),
your chances are probably very poor by now.

But if the file is important enough, it's worth a try anyway.
Stop using the computer in question immediately, if you haven't
done so already. Download an undelete program on a friend's
computer and bring it yours on a floppy to try.

If this fails, your only other recourse is to take the drive to a
professional file recovery company. This kind of service is very
expensive and may or may not work in your case.

 

[Lou]

http://www.recover4all.com/

In



System restore restores system files. It does nothing for files
you create.

"Deleting" a file doesn't actually delete it; it just marks the
space as available to be used. There are third-party programs
that can sometimes recover deleted files. The problem is that the
space used by the file is likely to become overwritten very
quickly, and this makes the file unrecoverable.

So your chances of successfully recovering this file is decent if
you try recovering it immediately after deleting it, and rapidly
go downhill from there. If you've been using the computer since
then (for example to write this question and read this answer),
your chances are probably very poor by now.

But if the file is important enough, it's worth a try anyway.
Stop using the computer in question immediately, if you haven't
done so already. Download an undelete program on a friend's
computer and bring it yours on a floppy to try.

If this fails, your only other recourse is to take the drive to a
professional file recovery company. This kind of service is very
expensive and may or may not work in your case.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I accidentally deleted a word document from the recycle
bin. I did a system restore to the day before, but it
did not restore the file. Can I get it back, and how?

If you leave the machine untouched, so as to reduce the possibility of
the deleted file being overwritten, you *might* still be able to recover
it. One possible program is
Restoration
ver. 2.5:
http://hccweb1.bai.ne.jp/~hcj58401/REST2514.EXE

but if you look at recent posts here you will find other suggestions.

System Restore BTW is for putting the state of the *system* and
therefore explicitly excludes data files: you would not want to have it
put the state of such a document back to that of five days ago. But
running it may have caused enough activity on the drive to overwrite the
deleted data - so prospects are not good