….is there any way I can do an ‘undo’ once I’ve saved in Photoshop? I had all my layers and then flattened the image and (stupidly) clicked save. I neeeeeeeed those layers. Can anyone help?
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an undelete util will be useless in this situation.
they operate on the principle that when you delete a file it’s not really erased. the entry in the file allocation table (i don’t know what the terminology is for ntfs but the principle’s the same) is just marked as erased. in fact, the file is still on the disk, but in the table, the first letter of the filename is replaced with a "?". this tells the os that hte space is MARKED as empty, even though the file itself MAY still be there intact. so as it’s marked as empty, there’s no guarantee of recovery. the very next disk write access MAY overlay all or part of the space on the disk that was occupied by the file you’re trying to recover.
BUT when you save the file over itself, that file is never marked as deleted or as empty space. it simply starts where the original started and continues writing until it reaches the end of the output stream.
the layers are toast UNLESS you had previously saved a copy of the file WITH the layers under a DIFFERENT file name.
I guess a system restore doesn’t recover it right?
no. that’s for system files and settings only.
if you had a full system backup with that file saved with layers you could restore the file from that.
some utilities create real time backups when you create or modify files. i believe symantic/norton? ghost does this. but it would have had to be running on your system before you overwrote the existing file.
I think you should pursue the un-delete approach (quickly before the space is reclaimed). I don’t believe that Windows saves over the file because the file handles are still open.
Only specialized programs re-write blocks(a.k.a. data) in the same place (done for performance reasons.)
(Not meaning to put salt on the wound, just trying to help for the future)
I always save incremental versions of my files every few hours. I end up with lots of disk space used up (which is cheap anyways), but never more than a few hours of work lost.
The point is to have your file rescue utilities and procedures in place before you need them.
The more you write to your hard drive (this includes browsing the web looking for answers to your problem, which caches files to your drive) after you’ve ditched a file, the less chance you have of recovering it. This means that as soon as you realize you messed up, you should stop ALL activity on that system except for file recovery attempts.
It’s a lesson almost everyone has learned, and it usually leads to another revelation, that is: It almost always takes less time to redo a project the second time, and you often find that the second build is better than the first in execution and/or organization.
May 2, 2007
always save incremental versions of my files every few hours
That’s is why I mentioned the recovering of deleted files. But I doubted the OP was doing that or something similar.
May 2, 2007
1. The point is to have your file rescue utilities and procedures in place before you need them.
Oh, yes, sir!!
2. This means that as soon as you realize you messed up, you should stop ALL activity on that system except for file recovery attempts
Absollluuuutelly, sir!
3. It’s a lesson almost everyone has learned.
Up… not me, sir. I am perfect. Believe me.
4. It almost always takes less time to redo a project the second time
I couldn’t have said it better, sir!!
5. You often find that the second build is better than the first in execution and/or organization.
Yes, YES, YEEEESSSS. Keep that coming, sir.
Now, rookie. Relax, go, print these five points and stick them in front of you.
They are The PhosSpell v.1.0 And they are the damned truth harvested in the dangerous seas of experience.
The more you write to your hard drive (this includes browsing the web looking for answers to your problem, which caches files to your drive) after you’ve ditched a file, the less chance you have of recovering it.
A good reason for keeping your data files on a separate drive.
If you save a file with the same name as what you saved previously then there are NOT 2 versions living anywhere on your hard disk. So there’s nothing there to undelete.
The only way undelete would be useful is if you had saved a layered version of the file to the hard disk and erased it. But if you saved a flattened version with the *same* name then that’s all you have -> *one* flattened version of the file on your hard drive.
Nearly any program, except databases, write their files to a new file before deleting the old version. So if you are quick, you usually have a good chance of recovering the old version. BUT: it might not be where the original file was, but in some obscure temporary folder under an even more obscure name …
The best method to avoid this situation is this: When you open a file to create a new version, IMMEDIATELY – BEFORE DOING ANY MODIFICATIONS save it under a new name. That way you are sure that even with an unwanted save you will still have the previous version.
Posted by Carlo Didier: "The best method to avoid this situation is this: When you open a file to create a new version, IMMEDIATELY – BEFORE DOING ANY MODIFICATIONS save it under a new name. That way you are sure that even with an unwanted save you will still have the previous version."
Exactly what I was going to post. I learned that the hard way several years back. I do that in Premiere and Audition and everything. Sometimes, if I KNOW that I like and am happy with the changes, I will walk away for a while, come back, make sure I still like, save and delete the old. Then, if not done yet, I repeat with the next session.
Nearly any program, except databases, write their files to a new file before deleting the old version
I don’t think so. I believe it’s standard to start at the start location then write. If there’s not enough room in the originally allocated location, additional storage is allocated for writing. That’s how disk fragmentation occurs.
It depends. Could be good, but if it’s like the auto-save Quark XPress has had for ages, it’s the kind of things most people disable because of being a pain in the neck to work with.
And afterwards you do really repent because of errors [-70] and ‘unknown’.
"I don’t think so. I believe it’s standard to start at the start location then write. If there’s not enough room in the originally allocated location, additional storage is allocated for writing. That’s how disk fragmentation occurs."
I don’t think so. The application doesn’t know about this low level. It just opens a file in a folder and writes to it. That’s how the app can run on different file systems.
Depending on your OS, you have different solutions. Under Vista, the earlier version is saved automatically when a new version is created, and you can revert.
On Win XP, your best bets are the superb ZAR (Zero-Assumption Recovery) which is free and will take a while, but will recover every recognizable file on your hard drive; and Executive Software’s Undelete (highly recommended) which will prevent you from ever losing a file that way again. There’s a utility you can run even before you load it to try to recover an already lost file. It’s downright impossible to lose a file once you’ve got it running, unless you really work at it.
FYI: on saving, a new file is created by writing to a stub created when when you opened the file, then marking the file as "erased" in the old directory entry. No sane file I/O code overwrites an opened file with new data with no possibility of recovery or rollback.
I lost a 12-hour job once. Had recorded an action for "flatten, downsample(!), convert to grayscale, save & close." Accidentally played that action. It did what it was supposed to. Oh, the feeling in the gut … the desperation … the bleak despair … the absolute stupidity and self-loathing …
If you have invested significant time in a big piece, MAKE BACKUPS MAKE BACKUPS MAKE BACKUPS MAKE BACKUPS MAKE BACKUPS MAKE BACKUPS.
Good news is, I started from scratch, had learned a few things on the way, and made a better v2 than I lost in v1.
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