austraLasia
1485
"Can I get that
lost file back, or is it gone
forever?"
ROME: 11th March 2006
-- Every problem (almost) has a solution. Two things prompt this
austraLasia: a request from a desperate confrere with a corrupt Word file and
the arrival of a 'Dear ...' letter from a data recovery firm offering
'free-to-try' data recovery software. The request was easily solved; the
letter - well, according to a principle espoused in #1475, why should one pay
(after trying) when it is possible to do the same for nothing? As everyone
at some time or other unthinkingly deletes a file then needs it back, or suffers
some form of file corruption, I thought maybe some simple practical advice might
be helpful. At a certain point, however, simple solutions don't work and
you either get expert help or give up!
The solution to the
confrere's problem was simple. Not always but often, a corrupted Word file
will open in another, similar program. I use OpenOffice anyway, as often
as I can, and that's free. On this occasion OO had no trouble in opening
the 'corrupt' file. But there was another method we could have used - and
most people don't know they have it! Select a file to open in the 'open'
window, and once you have selected it go down to the 'open' box where you see a
little down-arrow. Left click the arrow and you will find an 'open and
repair' option. Excel has the same option.
Yet
another solution was to save a copy of the offending file but as .txt instead of
.doc. Then try opening that - it often works.
What
if it is a case of a deleted file? That too can be easy enough, especially
if it was recent. Let's presume you've looked in the recycle bin and can't
find it there (since looking there is the best way to begin). No file is
actually really deleted for quite some time, even if all visible traces of it
are gone. The trick is to know how to find invisible traces! There
is a very simple little zip programme, free of course, that you can
download. I keep it on my desktop - or rather, I unzip it to the desktop
where it is easily visible and usable from a folder, since it involves several
small files. It is called Restoration.zip. http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/Restoration.zip
Just follow the directions once you've unzipped it. You don't need to have
lost a file to try it. It will find all your recently deleted files for
you. That's a Hungarian effort. If you prefer a Japanese one and
want something also a bit more sophisticated, then DataRecovery at http://tokiwa.tomato.ne.jp/EN/DataRecovery_EN.zip
should help. One step further up the ladder is PCInspector, still free at
www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/download.htm
There are still other solutions of this kind, also free, but enough is
enough!
These will not solve all your problems, and you
may have additional ones anyway, like a failed disk. But for mine, it's
worth keeping a copy of Restoration.zip since it adds nothing to your computer,
doesn't fiddle with the disk, and simply finds what you've lost, most of the
time.
_______________________
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Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome.
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