FIX A FILE (NORTON FILE-FIX)

you have posted this question twice and should delete one to avoid confusion.  I'm personally not familiar with Norton anything but I think in the case that the old file was actually written over and not just deleted, you may be out of luck.

now wait a minute dew.
With all respect, wouldn't that be my answer.  Really, not trying to fuss and no disrespect intended but....

With all due respect to you Chris, you said, "I'm personally not familiar with Norton anything but I think in the case that the old file was actually written over and not just deleted, you may be out of luck."

"Not familiar" and "may be" are keywords here!

Barston2, Give it to 1cell.  I had a similar occurance and Dennis took the answer. It was a little reversed where he told a guy to look on an installation cd.  I instructed him to use the find command. It really was his idea to search for it, but I thought it was my suggestion that helped him. I sent mine as a comment and not as an answer.
Dennis, anybody who has followed the exchange knows you are vastly superior to all the "experts".  You have supplied countless individuals with answers and directions. It is almost like this is your personal "the doctor is in" area. You must live on this site. It is really hard to answer a question befor you.
 Don't get me wrong, you keep this thing reputableand informative, just as the other "experts" do and I thank you for sharing your knowledge. But-- Get some sleep and give him a break and say he was correct!

daddude, since you have opened the door, I'll walk through it.

If there was a question that you felt you contributed unquestionably to evenly with me, posted the URL for the question and I'll gladly look at it. If what you say is true, then I will do one of two things, either share the points with you, or give you the points outright. As you can see by viewing my stats, most, if not all, of the questions I post are to distribute points to those that have contributed with me. I started that practice quite some time ago and unfortunately was only followed by a handful.

As for my participation here, development is part of my business, therefore I am at the computer frequently and am able to review the questions that people post, but with that I also mentor several of the experts that participate here. Therefore you may see comments from me at many questions for no other reason tham to cause that proverbial light bulb to go off in someone's mind.

Last, and certainly not, least, I have no problem with Chris's comment other than two things, (1) his admitted lack of knowledge regardin Norton and this provides no help to the questioner, and (2) by saying "you may be out of luck" implies that there may be avenues to persue in order to achieve this recovery. This is misleading, as once overwritten, a file simply cannot be recovered. So, as you can see, there's a method to my madness!

bartson2, if you are still here, one way or another your question was answered and I'm sorry but I'm going to take some space.

I was going to post my last comment and then disregard other posts on this thread but now I feel obligated to add my two cents.

Daddude, thank you for your comments.

Dew, I have a few things to say and I hope I don't offend you as I do respect your knowledge and as you know, count on it at times.  Understanding your points regarding my post completely, I still have to express my thoughts.  I will try to do so briefly by telling you how I handle these situations understanding that each can do things their own way.

  In a question which someone has proposed a guess or a possibilty which holds the solution, I would comment that the advice was true and if needed, add some clarification with a comment.  Ultimately, this leaves the decision of who helped most up to the questioner.

   In this case, I proposed my thoughts in a way that others could, if possible, also add comments to maybe help the questioner in a way I wasn't aware of.  Instead, I came back to the thread to find that some one who has earned much of my respect had basically walked right over my comment for 100 points.  I am not here for the points and that's not what bothers me.  I am here to share and learn as much as I can to further my own experience.  What bothers me is the fact that it was more important for you to get the points than to just tell the questioner, "yes, it's true AND........." letting him make the decision.

   Now, I've taken too much space with this and I apologize if you take offense. I appreciate all of the help you have been to me and I know others feel the same.  I just wanted to vent and let you know how petty it looks.  I hope this doesn't hinder future shared involvements.

Chris, as I have said above, and to repeat myself, I have no problem with your comments and frankly have none with Daddude's either. If bartson2 wishes to reject my answer in favor of your own, I have not problem what so ever.

Most importanly Chris, (and daddude) you are missing the point of this entire exercise. First, instead of getting upset with me, you should have verified not only the question, but also its resolve, if any.

Second, you are intimately aware that I support you fully on all questions in which you participate, and by design post a comment that points to the obvious solution which you overlooked. On the other hand, I have also prompted you on many occasions which in turn led you to post further information.

Third, and although this may be inappropriate it is necessary, I recall your email to me in which you tols me what it is you would rather do for a living. If being a technician is what you want to do, then be the best technician possible. I've watched what you have been doing these last several months, and especially the last 30-60 days, and you've come a long way. Just don't let your youthful exuberance get in the way of learning. This isn't meant as a shot, but a comment to a person who has the right stuff!

Barston2,  how do you know you copied over it. did you do a defrag after.
 Dennis, isn't it possible the file is still recoverable if that area on the disk has not been written over?
(All else is in the past - keep up the good work.)
Dave

And again Barston, I am sorry for taking your space for what might seem to others as a flame.

Dew, I'm sure you don't see it that way and I feel I should clarify my previous statements.  Please understand that they are meant in a way not derogatory but to show you the other side of the ball which you control and hopefully display what others see in this site.

Many times I have witnessed and given my own rants for people who publish answers without warrant to questioners in need of help.  To reittereate, I understand why you are justified in your answer.  My problem was with the fact that it would have been more appropriately displayed as an addative instead of an over rule and with your knowledge and expertise, you easily could have walked out of this with all of the points from one "comment" which explained it all.  You have more knowledge than some of the best geeks I've ever met and the way I FELT was that you used the confidence which that yields instead of the knowledge which brought it.  I wont go on to drag this out.  That's it.  Plain and simple.

The bottom line really:
This isn't something I want to dwell on.  I honestly appreciate the comments ( all of them ) that you have made in regards to this thread and our previous correspondence.  I appreciate the knowledge which you have shared , the help you have given and the more informed this site has made me.  When I said "all respect" I mean I have all respects for you and your obvious experience.  I just don't shut up to watch things happen and I wanted to express how the other 99% see things.

I'm done
(.)

It might not be the best occasion in putting such a comment, a lateral thinking of the question triggered me to put a word here just for the reference of bartson2, if helpful.
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1cell (and daddude), calm down and raise above the point issue to the level of expert-exchange as we walked to the mountain top and you’ll see a paramount scene. Besides the question nature, we have to consider the questioner, the organization of expert-exchange and the future question buyers and the role of a Q&A site in the world, if we are one of the members here who is participating in providing answers.

Dennis is not walked over your first comment for 100 points. As far as I knew, you’ve posted him a zero point question and he has provided the answer willingly at his usual highly speedy speed.
There is a goal for him to mentor (directly or indirectly) more and more people (active participants and observers or future participants) as best as he can. It was not difficult to comprehend that he has put a lot of effort in showing to all in his participating here.

Dennis’ proposed answer is affirmative and right with theory attached. The questioner or future buyer of this question will be eased from their queries apart from the case the questioner him/herself may even know either one of these Yes/No or Maybe.

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bartson2, in supplement to what Dennis as explained in detail that <<there's no way to recover old media once it has been overwritten>> physically.
There is a lateral thinking in development.
Some trend is in developing any real-time back up of files so that people can retrieve from the backup files/program if they are accidentally overwritten the file. Power-Quest and “Goback” have such kind of software. The theory is using a partition of hard disk and stored all your working files and old copies in case for your retrieval.

However, whether it is worth to invest the resources for such purpose, it depends on users. I’ve met one questioner who have used but set at retrieval 18 min. Unfortunately, he found his problem at about 19 min and he could not retrieve. The outcome is good news but not recovered from those programs. Thus, it has some criteria of usage. You may consider to having a study on these, if deemed necessary.

IMHO!    pslh

I know I said I was done but pslh's comments hit the nail on the head for the point I was trying to make even though he/she doesn't realize it.  

pslh, as I believe that I offended you before with a bad joke, I will try to keep it straight.  Though I don't get paid by this site, I am interested in it's longevity as I use it for my own purpooses.  As I've said and Daddude expressed beautifully, Dew and a few others bring an incredible resource to this site for others to share.  I am grateful and respect not only his experience but the fact that I knew I could post a zero point question and he would answer.  As you may have noticed, I've had Dew's help on a few occasions.  I am simply trying to express how some one might feel on the other side of the ball, coming in new.  

bartson2, will you accept the answer so we can all get on with our lives and eliminate possibilities for dragging this on further?
 

1cell, I’ve forgot that issue about the joke (as it is very difficult to identity which one is a joke and which one is a sarcasm). I comprehend your feelings as we all passed that stage – coming to E&E as a helping hand. However, when you have fallen in love with the E&E, you will be part of it if you have set your role as an answering expert (not participant and not questioner nor user) or one day you may be part of the management of the organization. You will have the feeling of responsibility to make it looks better, to make every post of answer in one hit and technically presentable to the whole world.

When you have that feeling and responsibility, you will comprehend what Dennis is doing and was done, has been done. You’re right that as 99% people might not have that approach as that of Dennis or some few others. These people will jump in and out without follow-up and post piece-meal comments or answers. It would be a very tedious and hard job and painful to see that and to deal with it if you’re a daily answering expert here. One day, you would most probably be wondered why not Dennis joining in so that you can both work together and he have shared your burden to take away 8 questions out of your 10 questions on hand so that you could take a break for a coffee and have a happy goings outside but you’ve on hand still 10 more questions here waiting for you to clear it up from the orphan questions left over by lost experts to make it straight again.

Try to learn the presentation skill from Dennis’ way of approach would be good for your future presentation of technical essay in your own words. Our idioms: The biggest enemy of oneself is oneself.

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This is the question of bartson2, we have to listen from him about his situation after expressing our own. Otherwise, we are just enjoying chatting with our own words and have neglected the main role of this question.
pslh

Bartson, by now your mailbox must be streaming with emails of all of these comments and you're no doubt thinking that "ah, my problems are solved".

Unfortunately they aren't, but please try not to be too hard on the participants here, as we do work together to provide accurate information, which is to your benefit.

At times, experts meet head-on on principles and at times it creates a lengthy thread as is evident here, but in the end, you, the questioner, ultimately benefits.

As I mentioned above, please do feel free to reject my proposed answer and do feel free to award the points to whoever, as they really can't be used to purchase anything.

1Cell, while you think I may have missed the point, I haven't missed it at all. Although you may not be willing to admit it at the moment, and I do not blame you for that, your desire would have been for me to add to your comment as a reinforcement or confirmation, or maybe even a nudge in the right direction. Unfortunately I am not willing to do this all of the time, and the reason is obvious. There is no substitute for knowledge, for with knowledge comes self confidence. If you come away from this with anything, come away remembering these four words, "who, why, where, when". These will keep you alive in this business when everyone else has fallen away.

PS: Thanks Pat! (Pslh) ;o)

I seem to have stirred up considerable debate with my last question.  Without trying to figure out how each of the participants contributed, I will simply accept the first answer that came to me.  If someone can tell me how to do this, I would like to give another 100 points each to each who responded.
This site is extremely helpful to me.  I hope it continues to prosper.

Bartson, you only need to post a points question with the topic as "Points for (the name of the individual) and then assign the points and store it.
Den

PS: Thanks!