Overwritten files - is there hope?

Overwritten files are gone. Ungettable. Here's why. When you delete a file, all you really do is tell the disk that the space has become available. To give a physical example, it's like removing someone's name from the phonebook. The house still exists, but there's no way to find them.

When you overwrite a file, the file is completely gone. The actual data of the file is replaced with new data. In the house analogy, this is like when the house is destroyed and a highway is put in its place. The house no longer exists.

Exceptions may include journalling filesystems and WORM disks, where the original data has not been overwritten. But.... for a regular hard drive, no dice.

There may be some hope depending on exactly how the file got overwrote.

If the file was actually modified you are out of luck unless you want to pay for a real serious professional recovery.  It is actually possible just very expensive and not something that just any professional service may even do.  Kinda like re-assembling a massive puzzle that is all black,  in the dark.  Very likely not worth the effort.

If the program re-created a database as a new file and slapped it on top then the original file could be there like a deleted file would be. All depends on what the install actually did.

Here's a couple programs you can try,

http://www.active-undelete.com/

http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/file-recovery-software/

Most have these 'demo' versions that will show you the files that it may be able to retrieve.  To actually get the files you have to pay.

Basically nothing to lose checking with a demo.  If you find a file that matches the name and size then it might be worth buying it.  Though if the system is in use that reduces the likelyhood of success.

In what sense did the installer overwrite the database? If you mean that you accidentally formatted the disk (or deleted existing files in some way) and then installed new files, then there may still be hope in the sense that the new files may not have been written over the exact same blocks occupied by the old database.

In any case a good program to try is the free trial version of GetDataBack:

 http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

There are separate versions for NTFS and FAT.

if you need those files, try contacting a

if you need those files, try contacting a recovery Cy with your problem (no recovery, no fee) :

http://www.gillware.com/                                    data recovery Company
http://www.drivesavers.com/services/estimates.html                     "           "           "

This is the best I've seen so far.  I've seen this program recover data from a hard drive after a full format.
http://www.restorer2000.com/

Try On-Track's Easy Recovery software.  You can use a trial version to test it out.

http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/file-recovery-software/

Cheers,

Brian

Hello CSSROSS

I am afraid that you data is lost, as the basic of data recovery says that overwritten files cannot be recovered back. If you have overwritten a file name or data with in it, you cannot get it back because you have added some new data over the old one.

Its impossible to recover back. The data recovery software will give you back the files but not the data which you require. Its something like erasing a sentence with eraser and then expecting to get it back. Its impossible, isn't it ?

 I would suggest to again search for the backup files on your system otherwise ITS GONE!

ComputerBeast - please do some more research into data recovery.  When data is "deleted" the pointer to where that data is is deleted, the data itself is still on the hard drive.  When data is "overwritten" it isn't always physically overwritten on the hard drive, the new data may have been written in a different location.  Even if the data was physically written over, many data recovery programs can still find the underlying (original) data.  One way data recovery programs work is to scan the hd sector by sector, then try to put the pieces together.  Some better ones can even look at data that has been written over a few times.  Typically data can still be recovered until the physical addresses where that data resides have been overwritten two or three times.  The federal standard for data erasure is to overwrite each sector of a hard drive seven times.  If you'll read my post, I stated the program I suggested had recovered data (word docs, excel, etc) from a hard drive that had been FULLY formatted.  That means a complete overwrite of the entire hard drive, and I was still able to pull the data off.  And, this program is still not as good as the ones professional data recovery services use.  Bottom line - data IS recoverable after is has been overwritten.  

michko

Its ok michko....:-)

Good Luck to CSSROSS for data recovery...

Sorry for the long delay in response but the network has been demanding attention.
Like most of you Iam not holding my breath for this data but the disk is now awaiting a Data recovery center to advise if they can recover the data for me.

If all is good I would like to split points between ComputerBeast and Michko.

Thanks all

Best of luck.  Thanks for the assist.

michko

Thanks CSSROSS and Good Luck