Recently my laptop had to be taken to my local computer shop for some work to be done on it. I was in the middle of working on a Word file. As I did not have access to it I found the copy of it on my external hard drive via my desktop. I did many hours of updating to the copy of this file on my external hard drive. As soon as I got my laptop back and opened it the programme that automatically daily updates my external hard drive came into operation overwriting the updated version with the earlier one. My external hard drive is presently with the computer shop who tell me that they may be able to recover the overwritten file. They are starting by scanning the drive. There are thousands of files on it and each file must have at least a thousand daily copies. So far the scan has been running for over 40 hours and it is not known how much longer it will take. I see free software advertised for recovering overwritten files. Does anyone have any experience of this type of software and know if there is any easier way of dealing with the problem than that being used by the computer shop? David

Hello David, Just a question... did you not rename the Word File you were working on, on the external hard drive? I am not sure if a Data Recovery program will be able to recover the file, as it was overwritten. That said, you may be able to recover a Word file as it may save ongoing backups in TMP files... try looking here... http://drm-assistant.com/datarescue/restore-overwritten-word-excel-powerpoint-file.html http://logiqstiq.com/2012/10/accidentally-saved-over-a-word-document-or-other-file/ http://smallbusiness.chron.com/restore-overwritten-word-file-54156.html You can try this too.. http://www.wikihow.com/Recover-Overwritten-Files Just for an overview ... There are numerous, excellent, Data Recovery programs out there, as shown in the following links... http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-data-recovery-file-undelete-utility.htm I think everyone should have one of these utilities installed, just to be ready for the day that an important file is deleted. When a deletion happens, it is critical that an "undelete" be performed as soon as possible to avoid overwriting the file with new data, so installing an Undelete Program after you have already deleted the file in question could actually overwrite the file information you are trying to recover. There is a Portable Application called Wise Data Recovery which you could install on a USB Drive, from another computer... then you could scan your drive fromn the USB program. Wise Data Recovery http://portableapps.com/news/2013-08-19--wise-data-recovery-portable-3.37-released As far as having your "computer shop" attempt to recover your information, the success will be in direct proportion to their experience with doing this kind of task. If the information is critical to you, there are many Data Recovery shops out there that will probably be successful... but they can be costly. I hope this helps a little ! I know that losing data is not fun ! Regards, Kevin. On Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 12:22 PM, David Railton <railton.david@btinternet.com> wrote: > Recently my laptop had to be taken to my local computer shop for some work > to be done on it. I was in the middle of working on a Word file. As I did > not have access to it I found the copy of it on my external hard drive via > my desktop. I did many hours of updating to the copy of this file on my > external hard drive. As soon as I got my laptop back and opened it the > programme that automatically daily updates my external hard drive came into > operation overwriting the updated version with the earlier one. > > > > My external hard drive is presently with the computer shop who tell me that > they may be able to recover the overwritten file. They are starting by > scanning the drive. There are thousands of files on it and each file must > have at least a thousand daily copies. So far the scan has been running for > over 40 hours and it is not known how much longer it will take. > > > > I see free software advertised for recovering overwritten files. Does anyone > have any experience of this type of software and know if there is any easier > way of dealing with the problem than that being used by the computer shop? > > > > David > > > > > :-~:-~:-~:-~:-~:-~:-~:-~:-~:-~: > > Please refrain from posting commercial URLs and from discussing prices on the list. You can buy/sell for free on the Genealogical Materials lists. > > This list is for peer-to-peer support and discussion of computer problems incurred in genealogy research. Use caution when following any advice. > > :-~:-~:-~:-~:-~:-~:-~:-~:-~:-~: > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to COMPUTERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- -------- K. Ross kr5927@gmail.com