Hello, I seem to have lost data. Here’s the history: I purchased a new Macbook Pro this year, which came with a trial version of MS Office 2004. I used it to set up a spreadsheet. Later, when the Office trial ran out, I wanted to try Parallels. I installed the demo and used it, with MS Office Pro 2003, to modify and add data to the spreadsheet. The first time I opened the spreadsheet, it looked as I had left it, and each subsequent time I opened it it had all the data I had added. So I thought I was using, and modifying, the original file. However, I later decided not to use Parallels but purchase MS Office 2004 for the Mac, and uninstalled Parallels. Now the spreadsheet has none of the data I had added. I don’t know if Parallels saved to another file I was unaware of (I never used Save As), which then was lost when I uninstalled Parallels or not, but I am trying to find a way to recover the lost data. If I download and re-install Parallels, will I be able to recover the data (that is, is there another file that Parallels could find that my system doesn’t know about)? Is there another way to try to recover the data? Thank you for any help. Michael
Chances are that your spreadsheet was saved in your windows virtual machine. By default, when you uninstall Parallels, it will not delete your Virtual Machine or your data. So chances are, if you reinstall parallels, you can start up your old VM and find your data. If you manually deleted your .hdd file, your data is probably lost. If you set up a shared folder, you could look there, too.
Also, don't empty your trash until you check there for your files. I would suggest keeping your data files in your shared folders. That way if anything happens to your VM, your data is safe. Good Luck... Lew
How did you open the original spreadsheet with Windows Excel? Did you copy the file into the Windows machine (C: drive) and then open it? In this case the file is located within the disk image file. Did you open it from your Mac home directory as shared to Parallels? In that case Windows Excel might have saved it on the C: drive within the disk image file anyway.
I've done a search and cannot find a file with a .hdd extension. I expect, therefore, that it's gone. All this happened a while ago, and I simply didn't need to use this file until now, so my trash has been emptied since then. I originally opened the file from the shared folders (using the icon on the Windows desktop withing Parallels to the shared folders). I backed the file up, of course, but not from within Parallels, as I thought the file in my Mac home directory was the one being updated--and I had no way to look at the file except with Excel in Windows, which always showed all the data, of course. If Windows Excel was saving to another spot (to the disk image), then I was backing up the old, unmodified, file--which indeed seems to be the case. So if there is no .hdd file on my drive, then I'm guessing there is no reason reinstall Parallels as there is no VM for it to find and load. The only other thought I had was to get a file recovery tool. However, if the file I'm looking for was stored inside another file (a disk image, the .hdd file, etc.) would the recovery software be able to find it? thanks, Michael
This is really a sad thing. If you can use other methods to retrieve Excel file while doing more data entry and deletion on your Mac, you won't lose them. Like Trash Bin, iPhoto Mac, Time Machine.
