Deleted recovered .bak file not recongnized

I had to reinstall a program and when I went to restore the data I stupidly hit backup, which I do every time I use the program, and over wrote my backed up data file with blank data instead of restoring the data file.

I used both FreeUndelete and Undelete Plus and recovered recently deleted .bak files of my data. They seem to be the correct size. When I try to restore them into the program I get en error message "not a valid Microsoft Tape Format backup set" and the restore terminates. The files were recovered from a USB flash drive where I do my backups to.

Is there something I can do with this file to have it be recognized as a .bak?

Thanks, Jim

 

What program are you using? I'm thinking it has it's own specification for the .bak files it creates and uses, and the undelete programs are using standard Microsoft .bak specifications when the .bak files are restored. Maybe if we knew what program you're using, we could figure out a way to do what's needed, but IMO it's a long shot, but we'll try.

 

I did not realize that all .bak files were not the same. I am a veterinarian and this was a program written to maintain a database of horse owner's address information and horse identification information to allow me to store and print out a Federal testing form for each horse. It was a small market program. I will try to contact the company Monday, but I do not think I will get much help. The programer who wrote it is no longer with the company and continued development has been abandoned as they move into the more lucrative small animal market.

Are there questions about the file I should ask that would be helpful? I right clicked and compared the properties of the original program .bak file and a recovered .bak file. The original only has a general tab with archive attribute checked. The recovered file has both a general and summary tab. You have to click on advanced attributes to see that the file is ready for archiving.

I appreciate your interest,
Jim

 

I'm not sure how thorough the uninstall process was but have you tried searching your HD for a copy of the data file? Not .bak but the normal extension.

 

I am afraid my uninstall was too thorough, but that is an excellent idea. I do not see a file in the program directory that I recognize as a data file. Also nothing in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data. I will call the company Monday to find out the name of the data file and the directory where it is stored.

Maybe I can get lucky using an undelete program to find the data file on my hard drive if the original data file, or a backup file, isn't still remaining.

Thanks,
Jim