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Old 24th February 2015 | 12:01
  #29 (permalink)  
mixture
 
Joined: Aug 2002
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From: Earth
Compare the contents of the recovered 'test.doc' with the renamed original 'test1.doc'. You can either do this by opening both files with the appropriate software package or have the computer compare the two files.

In the case of a '.doc' file, Microsoft Word has an option to compare two files and report on any differences. I expect there are free Windows programs available which do file comparisons.
The technically correct answer, both in terms of reliability (i.e. helping avoid human errors & omissions) would be to get the computer to calculate cryptographic hash of "original" and "backup" versions and compare the hashes either with Mk1 eyeball or text diff.

There are innumerable free pieces of software that can calculate hashes (and indeed OS X, Linux, and versions of Windows with Powershell) can calculate hashes on the command line with built-in tools with no need for third-party software.

For critical sample files, of course, the human could (and should) take a quick peek at the restored version .... but for most instances, you can trust crypto hashes.

(just make sure you choose a decent hash so you avoid collision risks, SHA1 minimum but preferably one of the longer SHAs)
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