# sick. stuffed important file up. can i get it back **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 27, 2014, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-stuffed-important-file-up-can-i-get-it-back/696614 "2014-08-27T06:00:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-stuffed-important-file-up-can-i-get-it-back/696614/1 "2014-08-27T06:00:19Z")
Hi I’m sick and that is my only excuse but I just did a save as file\*\*\*\* in Excell instead of opening the file and now I have saved over the top of it and don’t know how to get it back or even if I can get it back at all. Lots of work down the gurgler if I cant. Help! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-stuffed-important-file-up-can-i-get-it-back/696614/2 "2014-08-27T08:05:20Z")
Where is the file saved? On a network drive at your place of work, or on your local hard drive at home? ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-stuffed-important-file-up-can-i-get-it-back/696614/3 "2014-08-27T08:46:40Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Where is the file saved? On a network drive at your place of work, or on your local hard drive at home? on my laptop at home. ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-stuffed-important-file-up-can-i-get-it-back/696614/4 "2014-08-27T09:00:25Z")
so far I have tried S2 recovery tools for Excel - it finds two previous versions of the file but wont let me recover them. Perfect file recovery (for which I paid $60 panicked bucks) which find 1 previous version and guess what - says “you have recovered file blah blah” but the folder I recovered into is empty. This is my personal stuff. no jobs on the line. just too many hours i cant bear doing over but it is looking like i will and I feel like crap physically ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Bragg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Stealth\_Bragg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Bragg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-stuffed-important-file-up-can-i-get-it-back/696614/5 "2014-08-27T09:18:31Z")
This free utility may help: [Download Recuva | Recover deleted files, free!](https://www.piriform.com/recuva) I use it at work all the time to “undelete” files our users accidentally lose. ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-stuffed-important-file-up-can-i-get-it-back/696614/6 "2014-08-27T10:13:34Z")
oh my god something worked! I have (most of) my file and as I am typing this I just realised I could have got a copy off CrashPlan :smack: and saved myself hours and cash. file is now backed up out the wahzoo. Thank you to those who responded. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-stuffed-important-file-up-can-i-get-it-back/696614/7 "2014-08-27T10:18:14Z")
How did you get it back? ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-stuffed-important-file-up-can-i-get-it-back/696614/8 "2014-08-27T10:28:27Z")
used the expensive one. did a 3 hr deep scan. found a version from the 14th Aug that wasn’t too borked. recovered, added excel file extension and glory be it worked. Ok just maybe it was worth the $60 ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-stuffed-important-file-up-can-i-get-it-back/696614/9 "2014-08-27T16:58:45Z")
I’m glad to hear that it worked out in the end! For the future, I would strongly encourage you to get some kind of incremental backup system that can save multiple versions of files. On my office server, I actually have two running at once - [SpiderOak](http://www.spideroak.com)(for cloud storage off site) and Windows Server Backup (for a more complete and faster on-site recovery). That way, if any file is damaged I can at least recover the version from the end of the day when it was last changed.