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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think my IT department are fobbing me off?

37 replies

MrsWarleggan · 02/01/2021 19:47

Posting here for traffic and hoping some IT bods might frequent here!!!

Desperately need a deleted document recovered. It was deleted early November. My IT department have told me anything deleted more than 28 days ago is a no go.

With hindsight I shouldn't have deleted it but felt there was no need for me to keep it.... Turns out now I really really need it.

Is there really nowhere for me to go? Are IT right? I've been online and it suggests there MAY be a way, but it has links/pathways I don't have the access level to go into.

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 02/01/2021 19:49

Not sure sorry but you definitely didn't email it to anyone?

LaMainDeFatima · 02/01/2021 19:51

Was it saved somewhere ? Our IT dept save everything each night so they can go back to a few weeks ago and find it

Original poster
MrsWarleggan · 02/01/2021 19:51

@StealthPolarBear

Unfortunately not. I have got an email saying that it had been created, which I will be using but the actual document would be bliss at the moment!! 🙄

OP posts:
Original poster
MrsWarleggan · 02/01/2021 19:52

@LaMainDeFatima

Yes saved in my documents. I know exactly what it was called too.

OP posts:
Original poster
MrsWarleggan · 02/01/2021 19:53

Thing that is royally pissing me off is that I've got documents from YEARS ago sitting in my recycle bin.... But not this one!!!

OP posts:
AlwaysCheddar · 02/01/2021 19:53

Can they restore a back up from the day you last saved the document?

Original poster
MrsWarleggan · 02/01/2021 19:54

@AlwaysCheddar

Apparently not. If more than 28 days ago its a goner according to them 😢

OP posts:
Cadent · 02/01/2021 19:57

I think YABU. It’s not that easy to recover files and don’t think it’s fair to ask them to dedicate hours to finding something that you actively deleted.

SlippersForFlippers · 02/01/2021 20:00

Did you email it to anyone can you retrieve from the deleted emails?

Original poster
MrsWarleggan · 02/01/2021 20:02

@Cadent

I don't underestimate that it would take work, I asked if it's possible, despite what I've been told (that made sense in my head!)

OP posts:
vanillandhoney · 02/01/2021 20:05

I suspect it IS possible but it's probably a huge amount of time and effort.

Theunamedcat · 02/01/2021 20:05

When was your computer last backed up do you delete to the cloud or totally delete? I've got my sons pc set so everything goes into cloud storage nothing is permanently deleted unless I actually go in and delete it myself

HarrietSchulenberg · 02/01/2021 20:08

Is there anything here that's of any use?

docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/word/recover-lost-unsaved-corrupted-document

nosswith · 02/01/2021 20:11

So what would they do if it was needed for legal reasons?

I think you are being fobbed off. Is there only a limited number of their team working at this time?

goldierocks · 02/01/2021 20:11

Hi OP

It really depends on what your company/organisation records retention policy says. Some organisations (e.g. financial services) are required to keep/restore certain documents for up to 7 years.

Do you know how document backups are done in your company? Many years ago now my former company used tapes. There was one tape for every day of the month (31 in total). The tapes would be overwritten every month. You may have been lucky if it was a 30-day month, as the '31' tape wouldn't be used again until the following month.

Having said that, I'd be shocked if anyone was still using tapes for backups these days! It's perfectly possible they overwrite digital backups every month.

Did you use a Microsoft programme to write the document? If so, do you have an auto-save location on either your C:\ or network 'home' drive?

GloGirl · 02/01/2021 20:14

Is it a work computer? It is a right faff but possible. Do you work in sensitive data? Could you contact a local PC repair?

bungaloid · 02/01/2021 20:14

There is always a chance of some recovery (e.g. forensic type tools) but your IT department probably don't see your document as being so important that they are willing to spend serious money trying.

Original poster
MrsWarleggan · 02/01/2021 20:16

I'm in local government.... Not sure how often they get backed up 🤷‍♀️

OP posts:
DepartFromTheIllegitimateChild · 02/01/2021 20:17

MrsWarleggan I don't know if your IT department are fobbing you off or not but I do know that it's definitely possible that they are not. You must be aware that things can be permanently deleted? For something to be restorable it would have to be stored in some form somewhere, imagine if we stored everything we ever deleted in some form somewhere forever...

(Obviously incredibly bloody annoying for you though - I do hope that in this instance, your file hasn't been hard deleted and that your IT bods are deceiving you or are wrong and that there's still a back-up somewhere)

Frequency · 02/01/2021 20:20

I work in IT. Back-ups are deleted periodically in order to make new, more recent back-ups. If your document was deleted over 28 days a go it's probably that your IT do a full back up every 28days therefore deleting the previous full back up.

If your document was stored locally you can retrieve it from your hardrive. If it was stored on a shared drive it is gone.

Kleptronic · 02/01/2021 20:23

When a file is deleted, the pointers to finding the file on disk are switched off - although the file data remains, the operating system cannot find the segments it is written to any more.

As long as those segments haven't been overwritten with other data, there are forensic applications which can scour a drive for deleted blocks and piece them together. No standard IT department will have that software. There are companies who can be called in to do it.

Calls to IT are usually graded according to severity and the service level agreement. So if a major application goes down affecting hundreds of users, that is usually a high priority call which must be solved with say 4 hours, or a financial penalty paid. There probably isn't a service level agreement for retrieving files a user deleted after the retention policy expired.

So unfortunately, unless you have committed a major crime, or are extremely high up in the the company, if your IT department's retention policy is 28 days, no-one is going to run out and buy that software and learn how to use it to recover that file, or pay a 3rd party to do it. Especially not if you deleted it yourself.

Original poster
MrsWarleggan · 02/01/2021 20:25

@Frequency

Thankyou for this. It was saved on my home drive in my documents.

OP posts:
Original poster
MrsWarleggan · 02/01/2021 20:28

@Kleptronic

Thankyou so much for your detailed response. Very much appreciated 😊

OP posts:
Yorkshirebornandbread · 02/01/2021 20:37

Hi - you could try downloading and installing a programme called Recuva, once installed you then run it and follow the instructions.
Hope that helps.

Nuttyfellalovesnutella · 02/01/2021 20:40

Is your home drive in the network or do you mean your local c drive?

In the past I’ve used a programme called Recuva - sometimes with good success. Just the free version.

As a poster said above - it could possibly be retrieved but might take more work than normal - maybe a nice email to the IT Manager or an IT engineer you are friendly with by yourself or your manager - usually they like good feedback from users.

It may well be that they can’t retrieve too - just depends on how it’s set up.