Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Jason Komendat
Jason Komendat

asked on

Can data that was on a VM be recovered if not in Recycle bin

I realize the answer is probably no but doesn't hurt to ask. We have a VM file server (ESXI) that had a folder deleted probably a year or more ago. Its not in our current backups. Are there any VMware or windows recovery tricks we can to do recover that at this point?
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

You could use File Undelete tools, BUT - 1 year is a bit long, and the file space has probably been overwritten now.

Do you have backups from when just after the folder was deleted to restore the VM ?
Check if you have the Shadow copy enabled on that computer, that should probably help you if you have it enabled if not, it's lost since the data is there in the 1st days but the OS could have written on in one year of normal operation like Hancock said.
Avatar of Jason Komendat
Jason Komendat

ASKER

No our backups only go back 45 days, I did find an un-delete tool that could see the files on the disk so we bought it. I was able to export the files to my PC. The problem is none of them (mostly excel and PDFs) open. Its as if they are all corrupted. Might there be any tools that can repair these files or are we out of luck?
I think you will find, what you have retrieved is garbage, the files will have been overwritten with data, so the files are not complete.

have you had success in opening any intact files ?
Yea I think you're probably right. No none of them I have tried will open
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
I'm sure you're right, had to ask, thanks
Thanks for the confirmation