Accidental File Overwrite

[kish]

I had a huge .txt file that was a database dump and very valuable. I was trying to extract the data from it with a third-party program, but made a mistake. It basically wrote over the file with a 0-byte file of the same name. I have no backup (obviously or I wouldn't be posting here ). I can't imagine that all of the 1s and 0s were written over, so how can I get back the data? Thank you!

[GDH]

Download Recover My Files from www.recovermyfiles.com. Run a "Complete File Search" of the drive for .txt files only.

This search will bring back thousands of files, because fragments of data left on your drive from the normal operation of the computer will be found.

Either during the search or at the end of the search, use the FILTER button to filter the search results to find the contents of the file that you are interested in.

[kish]

Thanks! (I already purchased... great program!)

.... I did that, but there were hundreds of thousands of files and it took 8 hours to get about 20% of the way. Question: if I use the filter to filter for files sized 100kb and greater, will that speed up my search? It also makes me feel like I am missing data. If I run NO filter it ads like 3 files per second, but if I enable the filter while it is running to with files sized 3kb and up, then it doesn't add ANY files (though I know some are there). So, point is: does the filter make it run faster, and if so, is it possibly skipping data?

[kish]

It has now taken 26 hours to get about 55% of the way. Obviously it is taking exponentiallly longer as it goes on... so I expect it to take 60-70 hours to finish.

Can you please help me understand the filter? Does the filter make it go faster? I have found 661,759 text files so far... if I enable the filter will it erase the ones that don't fit inside my parameters? Or just hide them and they will reappear when I un-click the filter?

[kish]

Sorry about all the questions....

I have found at least 75% of the text file I am missing, but it looks like it is broken down into c*****. I found that part (through preview) about 12 hours ago. My question is: is the rest of the file most likely physically very close to it on the hard-drive, or could it be at the end of the search as well? I am asking because I am just nervous about working on my computer until the search is done, which could be another 40 hours or more. I am contemplating just stopping the search if you tell me that the other fragments of the file are probably right near the large portion I have found.

[john]

Hello,
One thing you can do is restart a search from any sector/cluster. So you could write down the current cluster/sector number that is being searched, then stop the search filter and save some files then restart where you left off after you have saved what you need. The option for starting a new search from any sector/cluster is located in the Manually Set Options page.