Thank you Tristan, for your concern. And Rene too.
There are no files in the Recycle Bin.
In my message I said that Windows Explorer still indicates that the
files are there.
If I double click on to any of them (in Windows Explorer), askSam is
initiated then a message saying that it "cannot access the file (or one
of its components) - make sure the path and filename are correct, and
that all required libraries are available".
HOWEVER
(I just discovered this!!!!!!!!)
If I have askSam 5.1 UP AND RUNNING, and then double click on any of
the "lost" files shown in Window Explorer, I CAN ACCESS THEM ! (And
safely save them in a directory far away!)
This is despite askSam 5.1 continuing to refuse to acknowledge that
they actually do exist in its Browse function when opening a file.

I think that I have tripped over a (not very pleasant) bug in askSam 5.1
Upgrader beware!

David Wilson



----- Original Message -----
From: "Tristan Jenkins" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2003 10:05 PM
Subject: Re: Assistance please - file recovery


> Hello,
>
> When a file is deleted it is not completely removed, but rather it is just
> marked as being ok to overwrite. So to minimize the chance that you have
> lost the data, you should use that particular PC as little as possible.
>
> When you say that the lost files are "displayed as usual" , what do you
> mean? Where are they displayed? What do you mean by "I cannot access
them"?
> Are they stored in the recycle bin? If so you should be able to simply
> selecting the restore menu item.
>
> There is a lot of commercial software that can help with recovering files.
> Norton undelete seems to be popular.  I don't know which software is best.
>
> Regards,
> Tristan Jenkins
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Wilson" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2003 9:24 PM
> Subject: Assistance please - file recovery
>
>
> > Help!
> > I upgraded to askSam 5.1 from 5.0, and uninstalled as requested before
> > downloading and installing.
> > To my horror, I have now lost EVERY file I had stored under the
directory
> > askSam5 (I had 5 subdirectories and a total of about 40 very valuable
data
> > files I use in my business).
> > Foolishly I had not first made a cop of the akSam5 directory, and there
> was
> > no warning to do so. I would not have thought that user data files would
> be
> > deleted in the uninstall process.
> > Recovering from (the unsystematic and infrequent backups) will be a
> > nightmare.
> > Interestingly, Windows Explorer still has the lost files displaying as
> > usual, but I cannot access them.
> > I recall that there might me some commercial software to help me
undelete
> > these deleted files? Can someone please help me?
> >
> > Health to you!
> > David Wilson
> > Prahran Naturopathic, Melbourne,  Australia
> > www.users.bigpond.com/deedub/prahran.htm
>