A month's work down the drain

[China_cat]

I was gone for a week and thought that my computer wouldn't be touched. (My husband has 2 of his own)

Today the union president emailed me with modifications and additions to a powerpoint presentation I've been working on for his organizing efforts. Settled down to modify the graphics tonight and the whole thing is GONE. Even the backup. I hadn't burned it to a disk yet because it wasn't finished.

I want to cry. I don't want to start over from scratch but I guess I have no choice. I haven't been this down since November.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

1. It might be able to be recovered. You say it's a PP Pres.

What's the Windows OS?

[DS1]

2. look in your temp folder

[amerikat]

3. was it deleted? You may be able to recover it.

You should post this in the computer help and support group. There is software (even freeware that may be able to recover the data.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Search everything, including hidden files.. look for anything with

*ppp

[katinmn]

5. maybe you saved it to the wrong folder?

[mike_c]

6. oh, that's terrible....

Are you absolutely certain it's gone? How did it happen? Have you tried restarting Pp to see if it loads a recovery file, in case the computer went down unexpectedly? Have you looked in the wastebasket for the deleted file? Even if it was deleted, it should be recoverable unless it was overwritten. Have you tried searching for all your *.ppt files, in case you saved it somewhere unusual? Best of luck recovering your work!

[Crazy Guggenheim]

7. Was it sent through Outlook?

[amerikat]

8. maybe this will help

55 Best Free Data Recovery Utility
PC Inspector File Recovery 3 is a free utility that does an impressive job recovering accidentally deleted files or files lost through corruption of the file system. It has some nice features, like the ability to recover files with lost headers, and to recover partitions even when the boot sector has been lost or damaged. It works with the FAT16/FAT32 and NTFS file systems. This is no home written utility - it is a serious product from a reputable German company with a long history in commercial data recovery. PCI is the ideal product for those who want the security of a data recovery program but are not prepared to fork our big bucks for the extra features of high end products. (2.8MB)
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

[Taxloss]

9. Oh no, I am SO sorry. That is awful.

I've lost two computer this month - the first a mechanical failure, the second in a burglary. I lost months worth of data, research and work and some short stories and a novel segment I will never retrieve. What I felt was like death - I grieved, and continue to do so. I feel very strongly for you.

[MuseRider]

10. Been there

but not with anything that significant. My personal policy is to now load my computer up with many passwords or my husband, also with 2 computers, will open up mine and look around then find something he thinks needs fixing and everything just disappears. Password protect everything.

[madrchsod]

11. system restore to an earlier date

may work...

[Crazy Guggenheim]

12. No. That's only for system fixes.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

13. Do NOT write ANYTHING ELSE to disk.

Take your computer to your nearest computer repair geek. They should easily be able to find your file-- if necessary they can pull the hard drive and do a software-based recovery on it. It's still there somewhere, but will not be for long (if it's been accidentally deleted) if your computer overwrites it. Shut your computer down IMMEDIATELY.

(I own my own computer repair business, and I do software-based file recovery on a regular basis.)

[China_cat]

14. My thanks for all the suggestions

All of which (except the system restore, which I know wouldn't fix it) I have tried.

The file is gone and nothing is going to get it back. I defragged all drives 2 days ago and I use Complete Delete so when something is erased it is automatically overwritten and can't be resurrected.

This weekend I set up a router for the cable modem to his computers. Or at least one of them. He keeps saying no, he doesn't want it but I figure from the browser history that he must have used my computer for the high-speed connection, tried to erase things to keep me from knowing it and screwed up my work. And still didn't clean out the browser history.

[mike_c]

16. ruh-roh-- somebody's on the shit list....

And deservedly so, it sounds like.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

15. Check where the PP files are saved. Also check in your deleted

items folder.

[gardenista]

17. Did you open PP and look ar "recent files"? nt

[China_cat]

18. I FOUND IT. I ACTUALLY FOUND IT

Last ditch effort...my sent mail box. I emailed it to the union president in several stages of development. I expected to find just a shortcut to the file that no longer exists but the whole thing was there. Never showed up in the searches I did even with the 'search hidden files' turned on.

Thanks for encouraging me to keep trying when I just wanted to crawl into a hole.

[Tsiyu]

19. Halle-freakin-luiah!

Bravo for China_cat.

That is the BEST feeling - not only finding the file, but knowing you saved yourself hours of work.

May your good fortune be shared by many of us who have lost things! :bounce:

[BikeWriter]

20. YeeHaw! Very good, I'm happy for you! :-)