Computer Question

[doogalman]

Can anyone give an answer to this:-

I have overwritten something and yes I've overwritten the wrong thing!!! and No the back-up on the flash drive was not right upto date so I couldn't just overwrite again with the old details. So the question is can you turn back time on the computer's system to the day before the original overwrite??? Or am I completely stuffed???? Yes I have learnt the hard way!!

[david.hicks]

You need a 'temporal time-shift' PCMCIA card - should be able to get one from PC World. I think HGWells Computers and DeLorean both make them (I think DeLorean's is called the "Back to the Future" card) - careful how you use it though as you could find yourself back in time before the invention of the motorcycle!;)

Seriously though mate - you are b*ggered. One slim hope is that the when you overwrote the file the data was actually saved to a different physical place on the hard disk and the original file (or some of it) is still there. In that could maybe use a low-level utility by Norton or similar to access the disk-drive directly. Not sure what Norton is calling this utility at the moment - they seem to change the names of their programmes every year or so. Last time I lookedit was called Norton Disk Doctor I think. Best of luck!

[doogalman]

Thanks for coming back so quickly. I just had that feeling I was seriously b**gerd!! If only DeLorian could have saved my bacon!! Oh well, I'll just have to restore from the flash drive that last saved time and re-do whats needed. Thanks again.
PS: This stupid mess up was not doogalman - it's me, doogalman's missuz (yes a senior or blond moment was had).

[Nigel C]

are you running XP? and if it is turned on you can use a system restore point

[doogalman]

Tried the system restore on a differant pc to see if it would work. to no avail.

[Paul James]

Was going to suggest system restore as you are supposed to be able to go back to a "snapshot" of the PC at the time you took the data collection.

[antonye]

Depending on how long ago it is / if you've rebooted / etc, you may be able to just to CTRL+Z (undo) as this will also undo any file changes you made, like deleting, overwriting, etc.

[Iconic944ss]

Hi, from memory there is a basic app called 'recover my files' that lets you recover a few files for 'free' in a demo mode.

Try a search for that term - or if needed I have a few other utils laying around :)

Frank

[t5mission]

System restore only does system files not your work files.

[JPM]

Originally posted by t5mission
System restore only does system files not your work files.

Absolutely... it only takes a snapshot of the registry and system files, not user data.

Youy might be lucky (very) and it's created a temporary file while you were updating... check your temp folder(s) and maybe do a search for *.tmp and ~*.*

[guest1]

Originally posted by JPM
Originally posted by t5mission
System restore only does system files not your work files.

Absolutely... it only takes a snapshot of the registry and system files, not user data.

Youy might be lucky (very) and it's created a temporary file while you were updating... check your temp folder(s) and maybe do a search for *.tmp and ~*.*
and add a date/time criteria for all files done today.

Restore WILL remove exe and dll's but not the data associated with the install - e.g. log files.

Seems you have suffered a BIKE. (Blond Interface Keyboard Error)

[Edited on 13-2-2006 by guest1]

[doogalman]

Hi All. I definately did suffer a B.I.K.E. All sorted now!!! Went to restore the file from the back up on the flash drive and all hell broke loose!! The flaming thing was corrupt!! Lessons learned today boys and girls are ALWAYS DO TWO BACK UPS AND DONT GOSSIP WHEN YOU ARE RESTORING INCASE YOU OVERWRITE THE WRONG ONE. Thanks to all for your help. Doogalman's missuz xx