I lost a file. Need to restore My Documents to an earlier date.

[DebbyR]

I have accidentally lost or deleted a Word file that I needed. It is not in
my recycle bin (which has not been emptied for the past year), and I cannot
find it by performing a search for any of the words that I thought I had put
in its file name. (I had recently renamed this file.)
I know that it "disappeared" on or about 6/7/09, so I tried a system restore
for 6/2/09, but of course that had no effect on My Documents. If I could
restore My Documents to 6/2/09, I am certain that my lost file would be
there. Is there any way to do this?
I am running Microsoft Office Word 2007 on Windows XP Home Edition.
Thank you for any help!!!

 

[VanguardLH]

I have accidentally lost or deleted a Word file that I needed. It is
not in my recycle bin (which has not been emptied for the past year),

Look at the properties that you configured for the Recycle Bin. It
doesn't store everything that has ever been deleted. It keeps up to
the maximum number of bytes configured as a percentage of the partition
space (but up to a max of 4GB). FIFO = first in, first out. As new
items are deleted, the oldest items have to be removed to make room for
the new item.

This assumes that the Recycle Bin is enabled. If not, no copy of the
deleted files are saved in the Recycle Bin.

and I cannot find it by performing a search for any of the words that
I thought I had put in its file name. (I had recently renamed this
file.) I know that it "disappeared" on or about 6/7/09, so I tried a
system restore for 6/2/09, but of course that had no effect on My
Documents.

System Restore does NOTHING regarding your *data* files. It is a
*system* restore function.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial56.html

If I could restore My Documents to 6/2/09, I am certain that my lost
file would be there. Is there any way to do this?

You will need to recover your lost file by restoring it from your
backups. If you don't do backups, you deem your data as worthless or
reproducible. If you're sitting there frozen like a deer in headlights
at the mention of restoring from backups (because you don't do them)
then now is a good time to consider doing backups.

I am running Microsoft Office Word 2007 on Windows XP Home Edition.

Okay. Late, but okay. See above inline comments. The default install
of XP Home does not include the NT Backup program. It can be installed
from the install CD (I'd have to go Google on it but you can do that).
However, there are far better 3rd party backup solutions, like Acronis
TrueImage or Norton Ghost.

 

[Elmo]

I have accidentally lost or deleted a Word file that I needed. It is not in
my recycle bin (which has not been emptied for the past year), and I cannot
find it by performing a search for any of the words that I thought I had put
in its file name. (I had recently renamed this file.)
I know that it "disappeared" on or about 6/7/09, so I tried a system restore
for 6/2/09, but of course that had no effect on My Documents. If I could
restore My Documents to 6/2/09, I am certain that my lost file would be
there. Is there any way to do this?
I am running Microsoft Office Word 2007 on Windows XP Home Edition.
Thank you for any help!!!

Do an advanced search for any *.doc files modified between 6/6/09 and
6/8/09.

 

[Jose]

I have accidentally lost or deleted a Word file that I needed.  It is not in
my recycle bin (which has not been emptied for the past year), and I cannot
find it by performing a search for any of the words that I thought I had put
in its file name.  (I had recently renamed this file.)
I know that it "disappeared" on or about 6/7/09, so I tried a system restore
for 6/2/09, but of course that had no effect on My Documents.  If I could
restore My Documents to 6/2/09, I am certain that my lost file would be
there.  Is there any way to do this?
I am running Microsoft Office Word 2007 on Windows XP Home Edition.
Thank you for any help!!!

Many factors come into play for efforts to recover a deleted file.

Here is a free tool that may help:

http://www.recuva.com/

You can choose the options of what to look for, where to look and then
it will scan and show you results and a recovery probability - even if
the Recycle Bin has been emptied.

System Restore is not a time machine and will not help you recover
lost documents (as you learned).

 

[Gerry]

Debby

Searching for a specific file name unless you get a result is never
proof that a file is not present on the drive. It is easy to depress an
adjoining key e.g. a T for an R. Using wild cards e.g a * you might look
into if you often have to search for files.

I would try Elmo's suggestion. Search My Computer.

Do you ever use Shift+Del? This method bypasses the Recycle Bin.

If you use Save As in Word where does it default to? Have you looked
there?

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~