URGENT HELP PLEASE - folder deleted, no backup - how to recover?

[FenceFurniture]

I have a backup pgm that I wrote in Visual Basic some years ago. Unfortunately this computer swaps around the drive designations.

I wanted to backup a file on the external drive )used to be "E") to a flash stick (used to be "I"). They have been swapped around so that I is E and vise versa.

The problem is that the code reads:
fso.deleteFolder Tosh & ":\0. TOOLSHOP", force:=True

and I entered a value of "I" when it called for it (Tosh = entered value of I). So that means it has deleted the very folder that I wanted to backup.


My partner suggested Norton Utilities might be good for this (don't have it, unsure of cost at this stage), but are there any other avenues I can explore please?

Running Windows XP.

The really weird thing is that it didn't actually delete 0. TOOLSHOP, but heaps of stuff from inside it is gone.

[Fuzzie]

I've used https://www.piriform.com/recuva previously with good results.

[Evanism]

100% agree with Fuzzi.

Recuvva is the best.

[_fly_]

and don't do anything on the drive until you do recover.
best to not even use the machine until you do.
Anything you do on the drive could write over what it thinks is now blank space but is the folder you want to recover.

[FenceFurniture]

Thank you chaps. Will get on to it today

and don't do anything on the drive until you do recover.
best to not even use the machine until you do.
Anything you do on the drive could write over what it thinks is now blank space but is the folder you want to recover.

Yes, understood Peter (and why). I've only saved an existing file a couple of times since (before i knew what had happened). As I continued working on that file I saved it to another drive.

[Glenn.Visca]

Did you look in the recycle bin ?

[_fly_]

Thank you chaps. Will get on to it today

Yes, understood Peter (and why). I've only saved an existing file a couple of times since (before i knew what had happened). As I continued working on that file I saved it to another drive.

your hard drive is a bit like a book with an index at the front.
When you delete something it does not go to the page and erase whats on it, It just updates the index to say the page is OK to use as its empty.

When you update a file it does not save it back where it was (original page).
It looks in the index for a empty page and writes a NEW updated copy to that empty page, then it deletes the original old version of the file (marks the old page as now being empty).

So if you save something it may be writing over the top of what it thinks is empty (it doesn't clean it, it just writes over the top).

What these recover programs do is look at each page and try to work out what it was, if it finds what you want, its may just restore the folder in the index to say its not empty, or it may force you to copy it off to another drive (advanced recovery).

This is basically what happens or an easy way to understand what is happening.

So even if you think updating something that is already on the drive can't hurt a recovery, it can.

Peter

[FenceFurniture]

Did you look in the recycle bin ?

No need to (but I did anyway). When folders or files are deleted with code don't seem to go to the bin, especially with "force=true" or "kill".

[FenceFurniture]

So even if you think updating something that is already on the drive can't hurt a recovery, it can.

Yes, totally understood. I only saved one file twice, and that was because I didn't know at that stage.

[Glenn.Visca]

No need to (but I did anyway). When folders or files are deleted with they don't seem to go to the bin, especially with "force=true" or "kill".

Oh ! Of course .. forgot about your script .. ugh ..

[FenceFurniture]

Just before I ran the backup that caused the damage, I had run another version which backs up the most critical folders into another folder "I/Backups/", and because of the "Backups" prefix this routine cannot delete the folder that is being copied.

What I hadn't realised until 30 minutes ago, was that I had included the "i/0. TOOLSHOP" in this routine (perhaps a year or so ago). That means that everything has been backed up correctly immediately before the error. That made it a simple copy & paste recovery.

So, I had inadvertently taken anti-dill measures

It's just as well too - when I ran recuva there where no files from the folder to be found. The force=true seems to do an excellent job of deleting files beyond recovery (wonder if the FBI nows that?). Mind you, I didn't do a deep search because it was then that I had the twinkle to look for the "Backups" version after checking the code.

Ain't backups a wunnerful thing? Think I might add "Backups" to the other routine......

Thanks to all for the help and suggestions, even if it wasn't needed...........this time

[Christos]

Your life is too complex.


Go to the shed and make something.

[FenceFurniture]

Your life is too complex.

Yebbut it keeps me off the streets.

Go to the shed and make something.

Heh heh. Just wrestling 3600 rare earth magnets apart. Slippery little suckers they are. Talk about a mind of their own.....

[Uncle Al]

Heh heh. Just wrestling 3600 rare earth magnets apart. Slippery little suckers they are. Talk about a mind of their own.....

It's got something to do with their personality

Glad you sort of fixed the back-up problem. It wasn't really broke, just looked that way!

Alan...