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deltone · ‎05-07-2004

I keep ALL my records on Excel. I created a spreadsheet for the whole year, and had separate sheets for each month. I was tweaking it a bit and was actually going to send a version to someone on here (I believe Phoenix). Well, anyhow, last night when I was shutting down my Excel did one of those "not responding" things and it closed on it's own. I wasn't concerned as this has happened before and no damage was ever done, as long as you have saved everything.

MSWord has a nice restore feature but I don't think Excel does. Anyhow, I wasn't concerned. So, today I go to open my spreadsheet (which contains ALL my 2004 records) and it wouldn't open. All other files open but when I go to open this one, it does it's normal little "virus scan thing" down on the status bar but it doesn't open. I've tried opening it out of My Computer, and all kinds of ways but it seems that it's gone. Kaput!!! Finito.

What makes me such an idiot is that I did NOT make a backup copy. This is something that I know is crucial but being my typical careless self, I didn't. Now I have to "try" to rebuild all of my records back to 17 Feb. as thankfully I have a file that I had backed up till then.

All my records of what was sent, when it was sent, the costs, everything. Who I filed NPB and awaiting FVF etc. GONE!!!!! I just CANNOT believe this. I feel like sitting here and crying but then I realize that it's not the end of the world.

My daughter just went into town to visit her best friend, a dear, sweet little angel of 20 who is fighting a horrible battle with cancer (the kind Terry Fox had) and sadly it seems she is losing her battle and I don't think we'll have her much longer. :o(

So anyway, I now feel like a bigger idiot for getting so upset over something as stupid as an excel spreadsheet. (Even though it's going to mean hours and hours of work for me and I'll never be able to get every bit of info in there.

My reason for posting this is mainly to whine, and vent, but also, more importantly to remind all of you out there who use Excel, or any other application. BACK UP EVERYTHING, daily. 99.9% of the time you will not have any problems, but it's that .01% of the time it messes up that will cause you major headaches. Back up to a separate disk. There is no excuse to not do so and I don't want to see anyone coming on here and complaining about being an idiot like I am right now. You've been warned!!!

amberwoodottawa · ‎05-07-2004

Call a computer hard disc recovery company. You would be surprised at what they can get back for you. It might cost you about $40-$75 but cheap in the long run.

Malcolm

muminlaw · ‎05-07-2004

Thanks for the reminder Deb! I've just finished bringing my Excel spreadsheet up-to-date for the first quarter and have been sitting here congratulating myself for a job well done! Thanks to your reminder, I remember the job's not done until it's backed up! 🙂

Malcolm's advice is spot on, as usual -- your favorite computer store should be able to point you in the right direction. Good luck and thanks again!!

Glenda

Glenda

deltone · ‎05-08-2004

Thanks Malcolm, and Glenda. I still can't believe this happened. grrrrrrrrrrrrr (I'll keep you posted on what happens.

gloriaguides · ‎05-08-2004

Too bad Deb. Good Luck with the recovery.

systemagic · ‎05-08-2004

If you're going to have a recovery specialist look at your system it would be best to to as little writing, or creation of new files, as possible because it may write over otherwise recoverable files.

I know that there used to be an "Undelete" command you could use in DOS but you'd have to know in which file to run the program.

mevans_dot_net · ‎05-09-2004

There is an undelete command available in OS's that still utilize DOS, ie. Win95, Win98. I've used it to get back entire directories for people that deleted by accident. However, Win2000 and XP are different because they are built on the NT kernal, they use a different type of DOS emmulator which is not true DOS which is why they are much more stable, they retain control of the system. I use Win2000Pro and my system never crashes, it bounces back from almost any problems.

Now, the undelete command is only useful if it IS a deleted file - and yes, you don't want use the system because as soon as you delete a file those sectors become open for use and can be overwritten.

My understanding is that Deltone's file is still there but corrupt. There is an auto-save function in Excel and if you use that you may be able to pull up the last saved copy of that file. I've done it in MSWord before when a system crashed. I was able to get back the last auto-saved version before the crash.

If you've set your Excel to auto-save (must have been enabled first), search for "archive" in your help files from Excel and you'll find the instructions under "Open a backup copy of a workbook" there. I believe the backup file should be called "autosave.xla" if you have it. Run a search on your system and see if its there.