oops!I deleted something and it's not in the recycle bin

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bwanaaa

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Dec 26, 2002
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I navigated to my server's desktop from a client XP machine. There was a .txt file there that I thought I no longer needed. I gave myself admin rights to the server desktop. I deleted the file from within windows explorer on the client machine. I restored user privs to what they were before and logged off the client. Neither recycle bin was emptied. There are no 'safe erase' utilities running.

Later, I decided I wanted to look at the text file but it wasn t in the recycle bin. Where do I look?

This reminds me of the situation when you navigate to a NAS. Anything deleted from the NAS is gone forever (unless I use a forensic app)
 

JustMe21

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Sep 8, 2011
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When you delete something from a network share, it is gone except under certain circumstances. If you have a Windows 2003 or newer server, you would also have to have the Volume Shadow Copy service configured and enabled. This would take scheduled snapshots and let you go back up to a certain number of days/weeks/months, depending on how much space you allocated for VSS. Then, you would also need to install the client on your Windows computer, then you can right-click the folder, go to Properties, click the Previous Versions tab, then restore the folder or open it and copy the file back.
 

bwanaaa

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Dec 26, 2002
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tnx fellas but recuva does not work on network shares.

even mounting the share as a remote drive does not allow recuva to search it.
 

sm625

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May 6, 2011
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Use a program like winhex. Open the network disk and do a text search for a word you know is in that deleted file, but is not a common word. When you find your magic word, you can copy the entire block of text and paste it into a new .txt file. I'm sure this has to be done on the host.
 

imagoon

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Feb 19, 2003
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tnx fellas but recuva does not work on network shares.

even mounting the share as a remote drive does not allow recuva to search it.

Being a server, the amount of time the deleted file sticks around is going to plummet as time goes on. Since it has been about 2 weeks, odds are high that it is gone.
 

bwanaaa

Senior member
Dec 26, 2002
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really,? This is a nas which doesnt get a lot of writes- just occasionally. The nas is usually just for shared material.
 

imagoon

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Feb 19, 2003
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Any writes lower the odds that a file can be recovered.

Since you are 3-4 weeks out, I would expect the odds to be pretty diminished. A "few" writes add up. The NAS OS is typically writing logs, might be doing clean ups etc. When you lose something important, #2 thing is take the system offline. #1 is restore from your backups.
 

mindless1

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Aug 11, 2001
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Is it just me or is the highly technical subforum now populated with posts that don't belong there.
 
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