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I didn't delete my file, but rather, overwrote it on the hard drive. I'm on Windows XP. Is there a way for me to rollback to the older version, a utility (Windows built-in or 3rd party) that will do the job?

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Sadly you need Vista or Win7 for the "Previous Versions" feature which would have proven useful... I'm not sure if system restore in XP would roll back the changes, I suspect it won't. – Mokubai Dec 14 '09 at 22:24
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2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

I did this recently - had notepad open and overwrote a file whilst skipping through screens!

I used Recuva and it got the file back fine.

Just be warned, the bigger the file, the less likely you will get it back.

I recommend you download the portable version on another machine, put it on a usb stick and then run it on your machine.

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Recuva works well, and there are some alternatives. Emphasis on downloading it to a portable drive or something. In fact, if you could stop using this machine immediately and go download it on a different one, I'll strongly recommend it. The more you use this drive the less likely you are to restore the file. All that said, if your drive/partition is not terribly full, you have good chances of getting your file back. – Bruce Connor Dec 14 '09 at 22:42
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up vote 0 down vote

It depends on how the software saves existing files.

If the file was created new, the old one deleted, and the new one renamed, then the old file might be recoverable.

If on the other hand the file was overwritten directly, then chances are slim to none.

In my experience, the latter is usually the case.

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