Windows XP : [SOLVED] Bring Back Overwritten data after save...

I've got a question which is indirectly related to excel.and XP

A friend of mine is accountant. She uses excel on daily basis. I\ll try to explain what she's done.

Let imagine she has a folder in My Document named as January. There is an excel file named as January as well In the folder.

She copied this file onto desktop and renamed it on February.xls and changed all data inside. But when she opened January.xls all data were the same with February.xls. (She overwritten all in January.xls).

I did check what she'd done, and turned out that she created shortcut of January.xls on the desktop.

After changing she saved this workbook.
Now she asks me to bring all data back in January.xls. I told that it's impossible, because you created shortcut of January.xls and changed it and original file had been changen as well.

Now I ask you to tell me. Is here any way to return data back. I'm thinking System Restore, but I don't sure she has created system restore point for yesterday, and not sure that system restore can resolve this issue at all.

So What to do. Is it really impossible....???

hello,

sounds like that wont be happening in a hurry again.

to the best of my knoledge.

system restore.
the systems restore feature is flies located within c:\system volume information.
this folder is a hidden system folder. so go view folder options View all system and operating files and folders.
also this folder is mostlikley locked, so you will need to grant the privliges to be able to open it (applys for administrator as well) Here is some information on the CALCS program that is used to do this.

This folder has saved me more than once, and been a pain more than once.

if your information is worth it acronis true image does a great job at creating full bootable HDD clones or local system images. ive found this to be a better option in the long run over the system restore. use this once a day/week/month whatever and turn off system restore.

all the best with finding the data you need.

There may be other ways though this is about all i know.

cheers

I don't think system restore is your answer. System restore can be used to undo settings that were made by installers, updates, etc. System restore will restore the installed software on your computer to a state where it was previously, but it will not do anything for data files that were saved by an application. If you don't have a backup of the spreadsheet, I don't see a way to bring back the previous version.

I also knew system restore to undo system settings. But I don't really think that system restore is able to bring back the previous spreadsheet data

BTW I don't sure that she had created system restore point at all, so it's not an option. In any way I advised her to back up every her file and keep copy on separate removable drive.

Thanks for your replies once again...

Once the data has been replaced there is no way to restore it if a Save has been carried out. If the spreadsheet has been emailed as an attachment previously to anyone then a copy may exist in the email client's Sent folder

It's not a Saved As file, the original data has been saved in situ, no data recovery program will be able to recover the data if the PC has been shutdown/Used since the error, i'm afraid it's an expensive lesson to learn...........BackUp!, BackUp! and BackUp again!