how do i find a deleted file on my hard drive

[karik]

i was moving an excel file to a flash stick and somehow in the process the
file has been lost. it is not on the stick and it has gone from my folder. is
it still retrivable from my hard drive. i have done a search and it didnt
turn up.

 

[tim m]

Did you do a search for the file name on your computer via windows
'start'...'search'...'for files or folders' You may have dropped it into a
different area of your computer.

 

[David McRitchie]

Excel should be closed or at the very least the file should be closed when you copy.
You can't count on being able to recover a missing file, and that is the reason
that having backups is important.

I find the XCOPY command to be very reliable for copying files.

The thumb drive is essentially a disk drive itself, so I would run a utility on it first,
and then on the hard drive to see if you can get back the missing file.
Disk Utilities - backup, recovery, status (#refUtil)
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/backup.htm#refUtil
You are trying to locate fragments of file for which there is no longer a directory
item, you may have success or failure, but its about as reliable as losing a $10
bill on a city street and seeing if you can find it again after a few hours. Some
cities are known to be windy. Good Luck. I've managed to recover files
that I needed. But I expect if I "really, really, needed the file" that I probably
wouldn't be as lucky. In any case it is best to already have the utilities you
need already installed so you don't overwrite what you need, and to run them
as soon as possible..

 

[MABeatty]

Try "My Recent Documents"

 

[David McRitchie]

Good suggestion, for those that have that folder on their desktop, and ...
That's the only way my Dad could ever find his files on his Macintosh. <grin>

MRU (Most Recently Used) list within a PC version of Excel is found in Excel
under File menu, and a maximum limit of 9 entries can be set in Tools, Options, General

Also system Start button, Documents has shorter lists from several appliations.

From the system Start button and search "lost documents" you will see a list,
which can be expaned and is also available online as "Locating Lost Files":
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ddocs/en-us/locating_lost_files.mspx?mfr=true

 

[karik]

thanks tim, i have tried this several times but still can't find the file.
thank you for taking time out to offer advise.