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View Full Version : Recovering from a 'Save As...' in Excel

MountainHawk
10-30-2002, 04:29 PM
Is there anyway to retrieve the original file if you mistakenly 'Save As... 'over it in Excel? I'm fairly certain the answer is no, but just checking.
Patience
10-30-2002, 04:32 PM
I assume you don't have a back up copy on disk, and it wasn't on a company shared drive which they usually back up daily.
Pseudolus
10-30-2002, 04:32 PM
Probably not through Excel itself, but possibly through your network system. Try going to the file in Windows Explorer and right-clicking on the folder that contains it. You may see an option to "salvage files" or some such. I know that's saved my bacon a few times.

(Unless you were on a local drive - which would mean you're probably scrod.)
MountainHawk
10-30-2002, 04:35 PM
Yes, it's a local drive... had a feeling we were hosed...
IMHO
11-07-2002, 12:50 PM
Yes, it's a local drive... had a feeling we were hosed...

No way then...
The main motto of a programmer - "backup, backup, backup".
Actuaries (everybudy who work with computers) must borrow it.
Double Down Trent
12-23-2002, 04:43 PM
You can get back the file you saved over. Bring up a DOS prompt.

Type in the letter of the drive the file is/was located at - e.g. "S:"
Hit Enter


Type in: "cd" then the path of the folder the file was saved in, e.g. "cd s:\excel files\stupid deletion\"
Hit Enter

Type the DOS function "filer" and hit enter.

Select "Salvage Deleted Files", then "View/recover deleted files", then type in the extension of the file you deleted or saved over, e.g. ".xls", then just select the version of the file you want to restore based on the date/time stamp.

This may not work for you anymore, not sure when you originally posted this, but keep these instructions around. This has saved me hours and hours of time since I learned this trick!
Obi-Wan Kenobi
12-23-2002, 04:50 PM
Coach, I think you've got some proprietary software running on your system. To the best of my knowledge, filer is not a plain-vanilla DOS command.
Cho Da
12-23-2002, 05:07 PM
Coach, I think you've got some proprietary software running on your system. To the best of my knowledge, filer is not a plain-vanilla DOS command.Sounds like Novell Netware.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
12-23-2002, 05:14 PM
I didn't know anybody still ran Netware. (Nor did I know filer was a Netware command.)
Brad Gile
12-24-2002, 12:42 PM
I didn't know anybody still ran Netware. (Nor did I know filer was a Netware command.)
Heh. Well, my company just deep sixed Netware last week in favor of Win2k Server. We have used Novell since 1988.
Oh, yeah. Filer IS a DOS based utility in Netware. See http://www.ohsu.edu/helpdesk/net/filer2.shtml


Brad