I purchased QRecall on foot of the ecstatic reviews on the VersionTracker website. Setting up a backup strategy seemed reasonably simple at the time and I then settled back to allow the software to work its magic.

Today came my first challenge when I found that I had apparently deleted an e-mail attachment that I now need in a hurry. Off I went to the Help to find what I should do and - presto - instant brain meltdown! It's not that there isn't enough information - there's tons. My problem is that I don't understand most of it, nor did I find it easy to discover which help topic was relevant to my particular problem.

Some of this may be because I'm just plain dumb - although I don't think so. Some is certainly due to the fact that I'm extremely hassled just now and neither have the time nor the patience to read the manual from beginning to end so that I thoroughly understand what QRecall does and how it does it.

What I need is a manual that starts with a generic version of the problem I face and tells me how to deal with it. Something like "You have just discovered that you have deleted a file that you need in a hurry. You know that this file was in a certain folder on your HD on (date). Here is how to find it in the archive. If it turns out that it's not in the archive this is probably why".

I appreciate that the solution to this problem may be childishly elementary - and possibly staring me in the face too - but it doesn't seem so just now. I'd be very grateful for any assistance.

Regards -
Fergus

Dr Fergus J Lalor wrote:What I need is a manual that starts with a generic version of the problem I face and tells me how to deal with it. Something like "You have just discovered that you have deleted a file that you need in a hurry. You know that this file was in a certain folder on your HD on (date). Here is how to find it in the archive. If it turns out that it's not in the archive this is probably why".

You're in the right place.

That's the sort of thing that I thought the Cookbook and Q&A section of the forums would develop into. If we get enough of these common questions, it might warrant a new section in the on-line help.

Here are my suggestions for finding a lost file.

If you know what folder the file is/was in:
- Open the archive
- Locate and expand the content of the folder that contains/contained the document
- Hover over the "dot" for that folder's timeline. The dot will expand into a set of play controls. Click the up arrow to rewind the archive through changes made to that folder. Stop when the document of interest appears. (Make sure Timelines are being displayed)

If you don't know where the file is/was:
- Open the archive
- Enter a complete or partial filename into the search field (in the toolbar)
- Turn on "Show only matching items" in the search field options
- Use the bottom shader, or press Command+Up Arrow, until the item appears. Make sure you give QRecall time to finish searching each layer before moving on (all of the progress spinners will stop).

Fergus,

If you haven't quite grasped the QRecall paradigm and vocabulary, I would suggest taking a look at the screencasts on the home page under "Key Features." They helped me quite a bit in getting my head around some of the ideas.

Mark

Thanks James and Mark for your helpful comments. I begin to see that I may not be able to avoid engaging with QRecall in a way that has not been necessary with the other backup utilities that I have used in the past. Unfortunately I am just too submerged in urgent work at the moment to do this in the short term. I'll be back for more advice and information as soon as my situation eases.
Regards -
Fergus