I've made a slight error in that I've spent a week or so workin gon a drawing, saved it to the server, then without thinking overwritten it with onother file through "file>save as>overwrite"

As my last place this would have been easy to resolve because you could go to Windows Explorer, choose file properties and restore a previous version.

The IT consultant who comes in here claims thats not a windows feature and its not possible to recover my file because the backups are on a tape and he can only restore an entire folder (not practical because it was overwritten last week some time)

So, is there any way to recover my drawing? It was saved in "my documents" which is synchronised with the server at log off.

AutoCAD has kindly created a backup version of the NEW file so I cant access it through that either.

We had an instance last week where a colleague accidentally deleted an entire folder and the IT guy restored it from the tape no problems, but it was so much hassle.

We had an instance last week where a colleague accidentally deleted an entire folder and the IT guy restored it from the tape no problems, but it was so much hassle.

I don't know about any other packages, but with Veritas (or Symantec as it is now), you can restore files or folders, but the restore location must not have a file or folder (as applicable) with the same name in it. It took me ages to figure this out when 'time-slipping' like you're trying to do. It's no hassle; it's just IT trying to make it difficult. I have had similar experiences when working on-site for clients... :thumbdwn:

Although having said all that, if the backup tape isn't recent enough (as your post seems to suggest), then all the above is academic... :(

If your real name is Lucky McLucky Jnr, son of Lucky Snr, and heir to the fortunes of the Lucky dynasty (rather than Phil Gooch ), then trying an undelete might just save you because even if the file system says the file's been overwritten, the actual 0s and 1s might still be there. That's a real shot in the dark, especially on a server though, I'm afraid. And it relies on you having administrator rights so that you can install the undelete software...

Double post - oops!

I don't know what backup software he's using but the standard NT backup program (which is really Arcada/Seagate/Veritas) can restore single files with no problems, or you could restore the folder to a different (empty) location and copy the file you want across. WRT "restoring a previous version" no, that's not a standard Windows feature - you must have been running some kind of delete protection software at your old place. There are commercial undelete programs out there but the chances are that if a week has passed (and you overwrote the original, as opposed to just deleting it) that there is no chance of recovering it.

Admin rights isn't a problem I gave them tp myself a while ago afetr watching the IT guy put in his password.

As it happens this guy has no qualifications in IT - he is a solicitor who's turned to IT after setting up a network in his former workplace.

Thanks for confirming what I thought, Nick

Admin rights isn't a problem I gave them tp myself a while ago afetr watching the IT guy put in his password.

:nono: Good man!

Any backup / restore program can restore a single file.

Depending on how old the backup is you may need to retreive the catalogue from the backup media before you can restore an individual file, otherwise you may only see a snapshot of folders.

did the IT guy first ask you to try turning your computer on and off again

also did it sound like a recorded message :P

it souns like the IT guy is just being lazy

or he thinks the restoring of the picture will take just as long as you redoing the picture so feels its a waste of time

Well I re-drew the "picture" and it took about 4 hours :( Cant see how it would take that long to restore the backup.

WRT "restoring a previous version" no, that's not a standard Windows feature - you must have been running some kind of delete protection software at your old place.

Wow, this is unusual: I get to "out-Microsoft" Nick :P

The feature is standard (with Server 2003, at least). See the Word document in this link for details:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/scr.mspx

(Doesn't help you now, though :()