My Part Files Disappeared

[LawpRelim]

Hello All.

Prior to reinstalling my computer hard drive, I backed up with an external hard drive. I reinstalled and loaded my old files. All of my part (.SLDPRT) files are gone, off of my external hard drive, and my computer. For some reason, my external hard drive did not take them, I guess. I know that there is probably no answer to this, but my goodness is this important. If this has happened to anyone else, I'm all ears.

 

[JMirisola]

Standard questions that need to be asked:
How did you do your backup?
Did you verify the files on the external drive prior to wiping the hard drive?

Jeff Mirisola
Director of Engineering
M9 Defense
My Blog

 

[rollupswx]

If this has happened to anyone else, I'm all ears.

What do you want to hear?
There is no magical way to recover work you didn't (verify) backup.

 

[Jwouters]

@rollupswx,

I don't think you are 100% right. There are ways to recover deleted/rewritten data from a hard drive. I don't have any experience with it, but I know it can be done.

Try googling for terms like "recover hard drive data"

 

[rollupswx]

File recovery doesn't involve magic.
What part of my statement is not 100% correct.

I would recommend that the OP not try to do this since the original back-up was not verified and the data files appear to be missing now from both hard drives.
It would be better to turn them over to someone with experience in data recovery and a step-by-step explanation of what the OP intented to do as best they can remember.

Maybe I should have stated - There is no easy button or magical solution.

 

[MadMango]

Any chance you were working with PDMworks or similar?

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."


Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[mjcole]

Have you looked in The Cloud???

I've lost work before but not all of it because I routinely backup my data and then Verify it. If you had Pro/E you could runback your trailfiles trail.txt.1 .2 .3 etc and replay your previous sessions with inserted save lines. SolidWorks records Data in it's Application Data settings. But it's only for the previous session. SolidWorks Tech Support probably uses these files for performance and Automated Testing but I've never worked there so I can't confirm it.

Then again if Mark Martel looks at any of these Forums maybe he can Confirm or Deny that possibility or I'll ask him the next time I see him.

He gave me my CSWI: Certified SolidWorks Instructor examination where I presented
SolidWorks Essentials
Lesson 2: Sketcher

PDF by Mark Martel about certifications Certification Exam Insights
Mark is The... wait for it

Mark Martel, Major Accounts Technical Manager, Solid Works Corp g00g1ed it just to check.

I'd love to hear back When/ hopefully IF you recover the data.

"It's not the size of the Forum that matters, It's the Quality of the Posts"

Michael Cole
Boston, MA
CSWP, CSWI, CSWTS
Follow me on !w¡#$%
@ TrajPar - @ Shweep
= ProE = SolidWorks

 

[LawpRelim]

Sorry for the delay. No, I didn't verify when I backed it up. It's strange, because it's only part, and assembly files, all of them. Not one was put on my external hard drive. Since I reformatted my hard drive, I can't even use restoration to get them back. So whatever is on my backup is it. It sucks. I guess I just wanted to know if this has happened to someone else. I hate when stuff happens for no reason, well, a reason I can't figure out.

Wasn't working with PDM works.

mjcole, you think there is a chance using appdata folder on my external hard drive?

 

[ctopher]

How exactly was the backup done?

Chris
SolidWorks 11
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[Jwouters]

"Since I reformatted my hard drive"

I believe this still doesn't mean that your data is actually gone. Data recovery can go pretty deep. If you are really want your data back, get in contact with a recovery company. Like rollupswx said, it's prolly better to let some experienced do this, than to try this yourself.

 

[LawpRelim]

I have a "clickfree Automatic Backup" I used that to back it up. I just plugged it in and a timer started, well, I clicked back up before the timer hit zero, same would have resulted though.

The deepest that I have gone to recover files is using a program called Restoration, you can get it at downloads.com. When stuff is emptied from the recycling bin, you open this, and it shows everything that has been emptied. Being that I cleared the entire partition after the backup, well, reformatted, I don't think that anything would be recoverable after that. But I will check with rollupswx.

 

[rfus]

Format actually means to prepare a storage medium, usually a hard drive, for reading and writing. When you format hard drive, the operating system erases all bookkeeping information on the disk, tests the disk to make sure all sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors, and creates internal address tables that it later uses to locate information. The data is still there if you have not used the disk and started re-writing.

Stupid to use one touch backup and not check. I always manually copy even if it is just dragging the top level directory.

Mjcole, have you looked in the cloud. What kind of suggestion is that? If he wanted to recover from one previous session don't you think he could recreate. "It's not the size of the Forum that matters, It's the Quality of the Posts." Take your own advice please.

LawpRelim, you've learned a tough lesson. Cut your losses and move on or spend the big bucks and recover.

 

[ctopher]

Are assemblies and parts in the same directory?
If not, check which is backed up.

Chris
SolidWorks 11
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[LawpRelim]

I have gotten it back. Funny thing, sort of by accident. So, I did clear the partition, and re-write on it rfus. Thanks for the input. I searched my computer initially here - Start (or windows icon), then typed in the search .SLDPRT. For some reason, that has been searching only emails. I don't know, that's another stupid problem. I clicked on "My Computer", and clicked once on Local Disk C:, Then on the top right of my screen, typed where it says "search computer" .SLDPRT. After a couple of minutes, all of my solidworks part files started showing up. I traced the location and found all of them here:
C:/Windows.old.001/Users/Paul W. Miller/Desktop
That's my desktop from before I reformatted my partition. There is also a Windows.old.000, and Windows.old. Apparently everything gets saved under Windows.old exc., as a safety every time I have reformatted, in case this such thing happens. I have my desktop from three re-formats ago. I don't know if it's because of the way that I reformatted my hard drive, or if it's a Windows 7 thing. I don't care, I'm just super glad. Thanks for the responses all. And yes rfus, though I've found it, I've learned a lesson, and this will never happen again.