Need help recovering deleted server file from client

[Phil]

Here's the story. A user on a client computer opened a wordperfect file
off of the server and then accidently saved another file over the top of
it. We're trying to recover the original file.

As the original file was overwritten rather than deleted, I'm thinking
the use of some sort of undelete utility would not be effective. To
compound matters, defrag runs automatically on the server and did so
shortly after the file was overwritten. Word Perfect's auto-backup was
not enabled at the time this occurred, and the undo/redo history does
not contain enough info to get back the original file.

My thinking is that the only way to recover the file is from the client.
Since Word Perfect is kept locally on the client, it seems that the
document must have been moved from server to client for editing when it
was opened. I believe it would have been kept in the windows temp
directory. Of course, most files in this directory are deleted when
they are no longer being used, and this one is no exception. Could an
undelete utility run on the client possibly recover this file? What
kind of format would it be in? Does the windows temp directory
repeatedly save in the same physical locations on the hard drive, making
an undelete unlikely if the computer has been in use since then?

If anybody can answer or suggest alternative approaches to recovering
this data, I'd be very appreciative. Reconstructing the file could take
hundreds of hours, so that is definitely a last resort. Also, sorry
about the cross-posting. I did not know which group would be most
appropriate. Thanks.

Phillip

 

[Guest]

What server software are you running? If it is 2003, you
should be ok, if not...not sure I can help!

 

[Vaughn McMillan - Executive Software]

Hi Phil -

Sounds like it may be iffy, but if you do a Google search on
"undelete", you should see several utilities that may be able to
recover the file.

I hope this helps -

Vaughn McMillan
Executive Software

 

[Bee]

Here's the story. A user on a client computer opened a wordperfect file
off of the server and then accidently saved another file over the top of
it. We're trying to recover the original file.

As the original file was overwritten rather than deleted, I'm thinking
the use of some sort of undelete utility would not be effective. To
compound matters, defrag runs automatically on the server and did so
shortly after the file was overwritten. Word Perfect's auto-backup was
not enabled at the time this occurred, and the undo/redo history does
not contain enough info to get back the original file.

My thinking is that the only way to recover the file is from the client.
Since Word Perfect is kept locally on the client, it seems that the
document must have been moved from server to client for editing when it
was opened. I believe it would have been kept in the windows temp
directory. Of course, most files in this directory are deleted when
they are no longer being used, and this one is no exception. Could an
undelete utility run on the client possibly recover this file? What
kind of format would it be in? Does the windows temp directory
repeatedly save in the same physical locations on the hard drive, making
an undelete unlikely if the computer has been in use since then?

If anybody can answer or suggest alternative approaches to recovering
this data, I'd be very appreciative. Reconstructing the file could take
hundreds of hours, so that is definitely a last resort. Also, sorry
about the cross-posting. I did not know which group would be most
appropriate. Thanks.

This is precisely the procedure to deliberately deleting a file: overwriting
it and "Word Perfect's auto-backup was not enabled at the time this
occurred". Stop using the computer immediately: *any* operation at all is
going to compromise further the recovery. Have a commercial data recovery
firm to *uncover* the overwritten file, if the file is important to you.