I was working on my notebook the other day when i made a really silly mistake: I overwrote a file with another having the same name. I was worried, angry and felt really stupid because once you overwrite a file, you can never find it in the recycle bin. I didn’t know what to do and I ran a google search. Some said my case was hopeless, some said I needed to purchase some expensive data recovery software but I finally got a solution that looked rather too easy at first. I ignored it thinking it wouldn’t work but it did! I recovered the file I accidentally replaced.
Unknown to many, Windows 7 and Windows Vista both have a common in-built feature called Volume Shadow Copy which creates something like a snapshot of documents saved on your computer. This makes it possible to recover files replaced by another file with the same file name by mistake.
How To Recover Overwritten Files In Windows Vista & Windows 7
* Open Windows Explorer
* Go to where the overwritten file is located
* Right click on the file you intend to recover
* Select Properties
* Click on the Previous Versions tab
* Select the version you would like to restore.
* Click Restore.
If you select Copy, it will prompt you for a location to restore the file to. This will allow you to retain the original in case you restore an incorrect version.
Will This Work On Windows XP?
I’m not sure this will work on Windows XP as I didn’t see any Previous Versions tab when I right clicked on properties. There are suggestions that only certain data recovery softwares can recover overwritten files on Windows XP but the one I tried didn’t work at all.
Nice
I use this on windows 7, but hv bn tryn 2 get it on Windows Vista and itz nt working 4 me. How do i achieve it on Vista am using Home Premium.
Thank you so much, works fine on Windows 7.
WOW! thanks thanks thanks for that. Just retrieved an important work. (Windows 7)
You deserve a gold medal, thanks a million! This is the first post I have come across on a forum that has been brilliant.
@Poster 5. A gold medal?? I'm flattered…thanks for the compliment.
Helped me recover important content from a Word file I had accidentally deleted content for. Thanks!
That’s great, Jitesh. The pleasure’s mine.
Thanks, I saved my time….
im very happy ive just deleted my files and i found this blog … very hopeful appreciated it.
thanx sir…. you my job!!!! thanx very very very much.
thank you so much! this saved my time!
Thanks a lot for the suggesstions…… really helped a lot.
it’s not showing any results on windows 7 please help
((
I have many photos which I replaced by mistake and now I’m lost!
is there any other way I can dig them out of the hard drive???
please help:(
showing no previous files