Minor emergency - system restore?

I just realized that I accidentally deleted a Microsoft Access file earlier today which took me about 12 hours to construct for a class. It is extremely important that I get it back.

My school has a server which I connect to through a VPN. I must have accidentally replaced a folder on the server with a similar folder on my computer and did not think about the contents of the folder on my computer and what I was replacing the one on the server with.

I emptied my trash earlier today and it is gone. I have not securely deleted it, is there anyway to get it back? Any type of system restore?

I know that this sounds weird, please let me know if there is any clarification I can give which would make this question easier to understand.

If it was deleted, then it is deleted and it is gone.

First step, STOP using your computer right now. Every second that you continue to use your Mac, decreases the chances that you'll get the file back (as you use it, the disk is being written to, possibly overwriting your lost data)

You'll need to invest in something like DiskWarrior or FileSalvage to recover your lost files. Neither is very cheap, but if your lost work is that important to you, then I'd say it's worth it.

For future reference, get out of the habit of emptying your trash all the time, for situations like this.

Osiris22x said:

First step, STOP using your computer right now. Every second that you continue to use your Mac, decreases the chances that you'll get the file back (as you use it, the disk is being written to, possibly overwriting your lost data)

You'll need to invest in something like DiskWarrior or FileSalvage to recover your lost files. Neither is very cheap, but if your lost work is that important to you, then I'd say it's worth it.

For future reference, get out of the habit of emptying your trash all the time, for situations like this.

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Thanks for the help, however it would be easier to reconstruct the lost file than go to the store, spend alot of money, figure out how to use the software correctly, etc.

I believe I saw on the Apple website that Leopard will have a "Time Machine" feature that is basically system restore. That would come in handy right now...

Sighh, Time Travel would be mint in a situation like this no?

DV'sG4 said:

Sighh, Time Travel would be mint in a situation like this no?

Click to expand...

yeah..i've had so many moments where i wished i had time travel..to simply go back to the file a folder or desktop etc..

I'm sure once it's released mac users would start going * how did we ever live without time travel!*