Lost a file when dragging it from the dock

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Hey, I feel a tad stupid for managing to do this. I dragged a file down to the dock, so it sat next to the trash bin. Deleted the file that was still sat on the desktop, so I just had it on the dock.

Now, I then decided a bit later to not have it on the dock, and move it back onto the desktop, where (and I should have known it'd do this) it went 'poof' and disappeared... completely. Uh, file gone, and I'd really like to have this file back. Can anyone help direct me to this parallel universe it has gone into so I can retrieve it please?
 
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The dock doesn't really "store" files. It's more like for shortcuts to the original file. For example, if I have a file stored and I move it to the dock it's going to create a shortcut to that file wherever it's stored at on my computer. If I delete that file (not the one in the dock) then the shortcut shouldn't work anymore because it can't point to the file.

So if you deleted the original file the dock icon shouldn't work anymore and now you don't have either.

Correct me if I am wrong Haha
 
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matty-j
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****, I thought that might be the case. Oh well, lesson learnt! Won't be doing that again with my important files!
 
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It's probably not gone, yet. Retrieving it might be difficult however. Not something I've ever tried. The more you use the computer, the less likely you'll be able to recover that file. Depending on what type of file it is, it might be easier to start from an older backup, if you have one.
 

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