How to undo "copy and replace"?

[ElDebugger]

I just transferred an Excel file from one folder into another folder that had a file with the same name. Windows Vista recognized the matching names and prompted me with a choice...I clicked on "Copy and Replace" and realized that I had unintentionally overwritten the file. "Undo" did nothing, and the file was not sent to the trash, either.

I did a normal Yahoo/Google search, and no one has answers. The file took a long time to create. I really need to recover it. Anyone know any tricks for this or a link that I can read?

[GiantDouche]

Sorry I think you're fucked on this one.

[ElDebugger]

I'm really good with my computer and I am the master of the keyboard shortcuts. I've never lost a file or done something this silly. I would laugh at stories like this...

...and now it's me! I'm hoping to find computer gurus and wizards on this site who know more than I do with an answer that I can use. Please help. I won't pull my hair out for this, but it would be so time consuming and tedious to have to recreate the entire file from scratch.

[ClockworkCopper]

Deleting a file doesn't delete it permanently. The file is still technically "on" your HDD, but it's gone as far as Windows is concerned. There's programs you can buy to recover files like these, apparently Uneraser is the best on the market right now. Free trial here.

Directly from a website I got this from,

If you're running Microsoft Windows then Uneraser is the best undelete software you can buy. It is developed by a company that specializes solely in data recovery products. Uneraser uses the deepest search methods and the most sophisticated recovery algorithms to give you the best possible chance of recovering your files. It also has powerful tools including thumbnail preview for all files which allows you to quickly identify the files you need to recover. Other deleted files recovery programs have very limited preview capabilities, forcing you to recover files before you can examine them and see if they are what you want.

Uneraser has the widest range of built-in "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" viewers to let you fully examine the files it finds before recovery. You can try it with no risk. A free trial version lets you see for yourself whether it can recover the files you lost. If a file looks perfect in the viewer then recovery is 100% guaranteed.

[Kwing]

I don't think you can get it back. When you delete a file, even from the recycle bin, it stays on the computer but is coded as 'overwritable' material or something like that. But if you replaced it I don't think you can get it back. Maybe certain fragments or parts of it are still there if the filetype of the original is bigger than the one that replaced it, but even within those parameters it would be corrupted if you tried to open it.

This is speculation, though. Don't lose hope... At least not because of me.

[ElDebugger]

I'll try System Restore, but I think that doesn't affect files as much as it does changes to settings. Nevertheless, I'll try that.

I'm not sure I would call the file "deleted". It's more like "overwritten". The problem is, and I'm speculating, that the original file is stored in memory and the memory address is the name I give to the file. Now, if I overwrite the file like I have done, then the new file is now the one which corresponds to the memory address. In other words, if it was deleted, there is hope as long as I can locate the file. When you click its name, the memory address goes out and fetches whatever is stored in the memory. But with an overwritten file, you click the name and it goes to memory and finds what is stored there...not what was previouslythere.

The issue is not "getting back something that was thrown away", but rather "undoing a modification". I'm good with analogies, but this doesn't mean I know about computers. This is my interpretation of what might be going on.

I can't give up searching for the answer for the moment. By tomorrow, I'll have to start fresh if I haven't found a way. Keep posting guys. I appreciate the help.