# Solved: Emergency: Need to Recover Overwritten Powerpoint File



## SonofSorry (Mar 10, 2010)

Hello:

I have an absolute emergency on my hands. I transcribed an entire presentation from microsoft word into powerpoint (which took roughly 8 hours of work today), and I just overwrote the powerpoint file on accident--completely replacing it with a 100% blank powerpoint file. What happened is that I opened up a blank powerpoint for a file that I was going to rename to file name that is very similar to the other powerpoint file referenced above. So when I had this blank powerpoint open, I hit Save As, selected that powerpoint presentation and rather than modifying the file name and then saving, I just hit "Save As" and then when prompted to replace file, I accidentally said "Yes." I was on the phone as I was doing this obviously, and not thinking.

Anyways, is there any possible way to get this old presentation back even though it was saved over with a 100% blank presentation? I have Windows Vista and Powerpoint 2007. I have not turned off my computer.

Is there any way to get this thing back? I legitimately might get fired if not. Would a temp file of the old version be saved anywhere? Could I do a system restore to recover it--my help menu says no? Could a data recovery service somehow get it?If so, which one would you recommend


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

Hi SonofSorry, and welcome to TSG.

I found a possible solution using Google but have no way of testing it to see if it applies to a file specifically overwritten by MS-Powerpoint 2007.

http://help.med.unc.edu/faq/operating-systems/recovering-overwritten-files-in-windows-xp-and-vista


> *Recovering a file that has been overwritten in Windows Vista:*
> 
> * Open Windows Explorer
> * Navigate to the folder where the file you would like to recover resides.
> ...


EDIT: Just read another web page that says that the method above is only available in some versions of Windows. Here is a link to that page that also has information on getting back to a previous file version for other versions of Vista.

http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/ar...-to-restore-files-you-thought-you-d-lost.aspx


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## SonofSorry (Mar 10, 2010)

Thank you, Chuck. Unfortunately, no option for "Previous Versions" is available. I tried this process on numerous other files (powerpoint, word, etc.) to see if "Previous Versions" would work but to no avail. I think that perhaps UNC has a special file recovery system in place to make that possible. 

Does it work for you or anyone else?


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

What version of Vista are you using? If it is not Business or Ultimate, did you try Shadow Explorer mentioned in the second link of my earlier edited post?


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## Alternatech (Feb 24, 2010)

The shadow copies feature may be turned off


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## SonofSorry (Mar 10, 2010)

This is great, Chuck. I've got the Home Premium version of Vista. I'm giving ShadowExplorer a shot now. 

Alternatech, is there a quick way to turn the shadow copies feature back on? I think that I might not even have that option with my version of Vista, unfortunately. But certainly let me know if not.


I really appreciate the help. I couldn't even sleep last night stressing about this.


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## SonofSorry (Mar 10, 2010)

AMAZING, CHUCK! I am in complete disbelief. ShadowExplorer totally worked. You basically saved my job. 

My sincerest thanks to you. I was in a deep, dark hole up until now. So happy.Thank you very much.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

what a great bit of information - I have been following this since first posted - but was unable to find a possible solution to post - also tried the previous version in vista - did not work - where is shadowexplorer - as i google it.....

:up: 

you can mark solved - button at top of first post


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

You're Welcome. Glad to hear that Shadow Explorer was able to find the previous version of your file.


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## SonofSorry (Mar 10, 2010)

So in conclusion for all future folks who run into the issue of saving over an important file, use Shadow Explorer if you do not have the Business/Professional or Ultimate version of Vista.

Here's the link to the free download of Shadow Explorer:

http://www.shadowexplorer.com/

Shadow Explorer is really quick and easy. You just go to the date box and change it to an earlier time, then you look up your file in the appropriate folder.

Again, this seems to be for Vista users only. I'm not sure about other OS releases.


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## Alternatech (Feb 24, 2010)

Congrats SonofSorry! To attempt to answer your question about the service, its called Volume Shadow Copy. My work's policies has it turned off, probably because it takes up a lot of disk space eventually. 

To clear the space (not that you want to do that!), you rightclick on your hard drive volume(s) and go to Properties. Then click the Disk Cleanup button. Then go to the More Options tab. We've had a couple folks that had huge hard drives but were filled for no reason - deleting the shadow copies here really freed up the space!


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## cwwozniak (Nov 29, 2005)

Alternatech said:


> My work's policies has it turned off, probably because it takes up a lot of disk space eventually
> ....
> We've had a couple folks that had huge hard drives but were filled for no reason - deleting the shadow copies here really freed up the space!


A compromise between no copies and an HDD full of very old copies may be possible. I had thought I had read that you can limit the amount of hard drive space used by Shadow Copy so that it does not slowly overwhelm the disk. Once the limit is reached, the oldest copies of files are deleted to make room as new ones are created. If your workplace has some type of backup procedure in place for files stored on individual workstations. the shadow copy storage limit might only need to be large enough to keep and older copy or two between backups.


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