I need an Excel/computer expert

[GB]

I have a temp working for me on a very important project right now. She was making entries on an Excel spreadsheet and said she hit save after every entry. Today she went to pull up the spreadsheet and it is nowhere to be found. We are scratching our heads trying to figure out what happened. I ran a search on the file name and found entries from previous days, but nothing from yesterday. I saw her working and trust that if she says she hit save then she really did. Any ideas where I could possibly look or any tricks to recovering this file?

 

[Andy M.]

In Excel, go to OPEN RECENT FILES to see it it's there. She ma have inadvertently hit a key and changed the file name or location. Do a search on Excel files only with a date parameter of yesterday.

 

[GB]

I tried both of those with no luck I doubt we will ever be able to recover it. I am now just more interested in what could have happened. I am completely baffled. It is an entire days work gone and I know she was doing the actual work.

 

[Andy M.]

Could she have saved it to a different drive in the network? Could someone else have moved it?

 

[GB]

I searched all drives in the network. The only other people who would have access to move the file were not in the office yesterday or today.

 

[Andy M.]

I searched all drives in the network. The only other people who would have access to move the file were not in the office yesterday or today.

Did you search all drives by file type and date or just by name. Don't mean to be redundant, just trying to think of all options.

Clearly the 'normal' things didn't work so now you have to try the "that can't be it' options.

 

[Andy M.]

Did you look in TEMP files and trash?

 

[GB]

I only tried by name (with wildcard). I will try those other ways too. Thanks Andy.

 

[GB]

I checked the temp files, but not the trash. Great suggestion Andy. I will have her look there now.

 

[GB]

No luck on the trash.

 

[Andy M.]

Can you have the techies restore to last night and check that?

 

[GB]

Our tech guy is on vacation this week. We sent him an email but I doubt he will check it.

 

[blissful]

On the network drive, if it is Windows Server, there is a 'shadow copy' I think it's called, and it would have copies of work, every so many hours, by date and time. Pick a time at the end of the work day from yesterday and ask to have that filename restored from that time period. This information is time sensitive, so the sooner you restore it the better. After a while, it's gone.
If the network has backup tapes/storage, there should be a copy on the backup from that date.
If it is like the drives I worked with at my last job, that would be my answer. The problem is I don't know if your situation is the same or similar. Good Luck!

 

[GB]

Oh I hope that is an option Blissful. When our IT guy gets back next week I sure hope he can do this!

 

[blissful]

Any news?

 

[GB]

We were unable to recover it. She ended up doing the work again so that we had it.