Recover Deleted Tab - I think we are out of luck

[Maureen5433]

Ok, so one of our executives often works on excel files straight from email - in other words, he opens an excel file straight from an email and DOES NOT save the file before making changes. He will have 20 excel workbooks open all in READ ONLY status. Well, he worked on a READ ONLY file for about 2 hours then went and deleted a tab - the wrong tab. He is asking me about getting the deleted tab back. I have tried everything I can think of to recover a previous version of the file but, because it was never properly saved, I can't find any previous versions. I am assuming autosave wouldn't have kicked in since the file was READ ONLY but maybe I am wrong.

Additionally, while I was trying to find a solution, he did a SAVE AS of the file without the deleted tab.

I believe he is using 2010 (I know, I know - I am trying to get him up to 365)

I think he is just out of luck, as a last resort, I thought I would pick your genius brains. Can you think of anything?

Trust me, I have explained the need for him to save each file before he makes changes - I have implored. I don't know what else to do to force the issue but I guess losing work will be a good lesson.

I appreciate any ideas.

Thank you all!

 

[Fluff]

If it was opened from an email, then get the file from whoever sent the email.

 

[Maureen5433]

If it was opened from an email, then get the file from whoever sent the email.

I apologize, perhaps I should have been more clear. His goal is to recover a version of the file that contains the deleted tab with all the changes he made.

 

[jasonb75]

If it wasn't saved then the only (very slim) chance of recovering the deleted data would be from a temporary autosave recovery copy, if one exists.

However, the purpose of this is to recover unsaved changes if excel closes unexpectedly for any reason (pc crash, power failure, etc.) so as it stands now, if there was a temp copy then it would have most likely been saved since the sheet was deleted. I believe that the default save frequency is 10 minute intervals.

http://office-recovery.com/excel.asp

 

[Fluff]

If he did a save as, then you can get the missing tab from the sender of the email & copy that across to the Saveas version.

 

[Maureen5433]

If he did a save as, then you can get the missing tab from the sender of the email & copy that across to the Saveas version.

The deleted tab is where all his changes were made. He is trying to recover the tab WITH the changes he made to it.

Getting an original of the deleted tab is a no-brainer.

 

[Fluff]

Apologies, I didn't realise he was that much of an eejit, to delete the sheet containing all his changes. Unless there is an autosave version as mentioned by jasonb75, you're out of luck.

If he has autorecover turned on, you could try some file recovery software, but I've no idea how reliable they are.

 

[jasonb75]

If he has autorecover turned on, you could try some file recovery software, but I've no idea how reliable they are.

That would only recover a deleted file that wasn't sent to the trash can. (not sure if that happens with autorecover files when the workbook is closed cleanly).

From the link that I provided, it appears that you might be able to find the autorecover files in the temp files folder, but if the workbook was left open after the tab was deleted then the autorecover version has most likely been saved post deletion anyway.

As the recovery is really only meant to protect data loss resulting from system failure, not user error I can't see it being much help, especially this long after the data was deleted.

If I had deleted an important tab in error, then my thought would be to immediately force close excel from the task manager, then open the recovered version in the hope that I might have lost minimal data. Not saying that it would work, maybe I'll try it one day but I don't plan on needing to.