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I keep an Access database in My Documents. We have a Group Policy redirecting documents to "\\server\userhomes\%username%\My Documents".

I was experimenting with a Group Policy to redirect My Documents to "%onedrive%\Documents", so that our My Documents would be stored in our One Drives. I did make a backup of My Documents before I applied this policy.

That Group Policy didn't seem to take effect, and I decided against it. So I put myself back into the security group that the original redirection Group Policy applies to. And my database seemed to be happily returned to its home on our server, or so I thought.

Then one day my database was gone. Nowhere to be found. There's the backup of it I made, but it's months old.

We have a three-pronged backup system: tape, external hard drive, and cloud. All three only have the old database.

I'm nearly desperate to recover my database. I'm the IT guy here, the one constantly preaching that if you data doesn't live in three places, it doesn't exist. Now I'm eating my words!

Any recommendations would be most welcome.

Matthew

ErikE
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Matthew
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  • Do I interpret you correctly that you changed the redirect back to the well used original setting, then several months later your file disappeared whilst all backups reflect the state of several months back but no later? – ErikE Jul 13 '15 at 23:52
  • Yes. Other documents of mine have been successfully saved, by default, in the original server location. I *would* conclude that this file got errantly moved or deleted, but then it would still exist in the backup locations. What's more mysterious is that the version of it that does exist in the original location and backups, with a date modified from March, has a file size of 0 KB. – Matthew Jul 14 '15 at 14:53

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My first recommendation is to deal with what seems to be the primary problem of not having:

  • backup monitoring
  • backup restore testing
  • backup restore monitoring

All three steps can be automated without greater headache. If backups are incomplete or cannot be restored you should be alerted to that fact the very same morning.

Second, I would recommend doing a block level clone of a hard drive where your file has been and hope the sectors where the file was stored have not been overwritten by something else. Then either attempt to scan for orphaned (deleted but not overwritten) files yourself, or commission a professional restore service and hope for the best. The more hard drives you can identify where the file has been, the greater hope of success I guess.

That is, unless you luckily find a location like the offline files Client Side Cache or similar where a copy of your file happens to reside.

ErikE
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Thanks ErikE for your sound advice and perspective. This makes sense.

Howevey, I already do monitor backups daily. And I do test restores monthly. But clearly I don't check every file, I've been assuming that random, spot checks of files would adequately represent overall viability of a backup.

I've looked at the offline files on the two workstations I've used, and sure enough, they have the months-old version of my database.

I am completely flummoxed at this file's disappearance. I've already begun re-creating the data as best as I can remember it, the loss is a large headache but not a tragedy worthy of data recovery specialist.

I am intrigued by your suggestion that backup restore monitoring can be automated. Right now, I just randomly find some files to restore from tape and external hard drive (backed up by Backup Exec), and from Amazon storage (I wrote a small script to use S3Sync to sync changed files). I can't imagine what would be required to automate these tasks.

Thanks again! Matthew

Matthew
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  • You're welcome. Automated restore testing howto is of course very much dependent on what backup solution you use and what constitutes a meaningful test of a successful restore. I got the idea from the way devs run unit testing and nightly builds in continuous intergration solutions. Turn it over in your imagination for a bit and I'm sure you'll start generating ideas. – ErikE Jul 14 '15 at 21:18