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Lost Word document.

Discussion in 'Other PC Software' started by leifk, 2007/11/08.

  1. 2007/11/08
    leifk

    leifk Inactive Thread Starter

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    Something strange has happened. I had just written a word document and, like i normally do I went to save the document by hitting the X in the upper corner. Normally it asks me to name the document, i do, then I get to save it. Well, this time, the document just disappeared. I looked for it as untitled, i did a search for it by key word, and i reopened word. It may be important to note other odd comp. activity; my IM box was about 3 screens long, i could not browse, there was a square hole in one of the IM related boxes allowing me to see the desktop behind it, and everything was working on and off. Eventually i rebooted and everything, thus far, seems fine. I am about to run some pc clean up stuff as it seems like a virus but my question is this; is there a way to retrieve a word document that didn't even have a chance to be saved?
     
  2. 2007/11/08
    nilpo

    nilpo Inactive

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    Word does have an autosave feature, however, the temporary file is removed when the application closes. Unfortunately, your only option at this point would be some method of forensic recovery of that autosave file.

    The odds are highly unlikely that you'll recover anything useful. Sorry.

    Have you checked the Recent Documents list? Are you sure it wasn't actually saved somewhere else under an unexpected name?
     

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  4. 2007/11/08
    leifk

    leifk Inactive Thread Starter

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    Is that possible? It would seem strange that it would be saved under any other name besides untitled but, then again, the whole incident was strange! So a forensic recovery may not actually recover the text? What about a recovery service or is that what a forensic recovery is? I would guess the text is in the registry somewhere but my guess could be way off target. The computer seems to be acting normal again. I would love to know what caused these mishaps in the first place. Thank you for responding!
     
  5. 2007/11/08
    DiggerP

    DiggerP Inactive

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    Hi ,
    There may be some hope yet:)
    check this M$ link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/107686

    It also mentions that it's even effective for power disruptions
    and I can vouch for that.
    I had a few like that and what a relief when you can recover your doc
    when the power returns and you open WORD again.

    Pete.
    PS. I'm sorry,i missed the fact that you rebooted,so you may have to use a recovery program and see if you have any luck locating the asd file.
    Try UndeletePlus http://www.undelete-plus.com/#ggviewer-offsite-nav-9118832
     
    Last edited: 2007/11/08
  6. 2007/11/08
    Johanna

    Johanna Inactive Alumni

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    In the future, you may want to bring up the "save" dialog by pressing the Control key and "s ". Clicking the X tells an application to close, and, unfortunately, this one time the save prompt failed to appear. Control S would prevent the inconvenience from happening again.
    Johanna
     
  7. 2007/11/09
    nilpo

    nilpo Inactive

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    Unfortunately, the autosave feature is a long shot. Had the program crashed, you would be okay, but a successful shutdown will involve removing those temp files.

    It's worth a shot, but I wouldn't keep my hopes to high. Consider enabling a form of disk shadowing to prevent this.
     
  8. 2007/11/09
    LostUser

    LostUser Inactive

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    You could try searching for any files on that day that start with the ~ or that end in .tmp. I can't remember if word uses one or both of these to save a temporary document. Sometimes, this type of file will be corrupted and you will have to try to extract just the legible text from it.

    And with the other poster that suggested actually saving the document rather than clicking the X...good idea. However, I must say that I have used the X 'Close to save option' on occasion. ;).
     
  9. 2007/11/09
    DiggerP

    DiggerP Inactive

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    Hi,
    Some more info regarding recovery:
    Recovery of MS Office Files from Temp Files
    http://www.amset.info/tips/office-recovery.asp

    Trick to auto save (I've never tried this,but it's worth exploring :) )
    Origin: (on this page) http://www.wintipz.com/XP/BrowseFast.htm

    Hope this helps someone :)

    Pete.
     
  10. 2007/11/09
    leifk

    leifk Inactive Thread Starter

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    I did run the undelete. It offered to recover 10 word documents (as well as a ton of other stuff) and I was able to preview the ones under 10mb. I did not find the document in question which is (was?) about 10-15kb thus I'm certain it wasn't one of the ones not available for preview. It's good to know that for 30 bucks you can recover all this lost stuff.

    I am wading though the other link and thinking it does promise some possibility in recovering the lost doc. I have not been able to locate the temporary directory spoken of in the link. I ran a help search in my comp. to no avail. I do know that if the comp. shuts off, when i boot it, the open unsaved word documents will reappear upon opening word. It will do this even if they are "virgin" documents yet to be saved. This situation is different in that the document was not only not saved but lost in some kind of bizarre computer mishap. I have little faith in restoring it but I am going to turn all the stones I find.

    It should also be noted that I did try searching all my word documents for an odd title that may have been generated by the computer.

    Thanks again!
     
    Last edited: 2007/11/09
  11. 2007/11/09
    Johanna

    Johanna Inactive Alumni

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    leifk,
    Which version of Office are you using, 2003 or 2007 or ? We can probably find the default path it should have been saved to, if it ever was. Another thing- and this is a stab in the dark- since we are looking for temp files made by MS, have you enabled the "show hidden files" in Windows Explorer? You have more patience than I do, I would have rewritten the document while kicking myself. If it exists to be found, we'll help you.
    Cheers from Ohio!
    Johanna
     
  12. 2007/11/09
    DiggerP

    DiggerP Inactive

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    Hi leifk

    You're welcome.
    Actually this app is free,as are many others.
    I could give you a whole list of "free file recovery programs ".
    If you're happy with it,consider a donation :)
    However,if you do a search for the above in quotes,you'll find many of them.
    Some are better than others,some depend on your personal preference,
    being similar in to what they recover.

    You didn't mention if you had explored the link in post #8
    That gives you many of the extensions which might arise in a case like yours.

    Pete.
     
  13. 2007/11/13
    leifk

    leifk Inactive Thread Starter

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    I'm fairly certain it would be 2003. I would love to hear more about how you can help me! Ha ha! kicking myself in the butt? Yes! I will never be able to duplicate the document though. Sorry it took me so long to reply. I finally got a second wind. I lost my word dictionary somehow. That brought me back to this struggle. T%hanks for responding. I hope to hear from you soon. I will check back several times over the next few days.
     
  14. 2007/11/13
    leifk

    leifk Inactive Thread Starter

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    Well, I tried to use the search box to search word documents, with both ~ and tmp, but nothing came back.
    Thanks for the suggestion though. I hope i followed it correctly. Incidentally, what is ~ anyway?
     
  15. 2007/11/13
    leifk

    leifk Inactive Thread Starter

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    I have now! They both appear to have good advice. I found ~wrdxxxx.tmp to be something else to search for and i did, without positive results. "Search is complete. There are no results to display." Ahh well, I'll keep trying. Thanks!
     
  16. 2007/11/13
    leifk

    leifk Inactive Thread Starter

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    In all actuality, I still save things by Xing them away. If anything else should prove to be truly important to me I'm going to copy it and email it to myself. At the time of the loss I was in an IM with someone and thought about copying it and sending it to them. I wonder if my copy would have even worked. Everything else was going crazy! I wish I could upload the picture I took of my screen. After I lost the document, I took a picture of the odd square hole in the IM box. I had never seen anything like it! It sure would compliment the thread!
     
  17. 2007/11/14
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Either become a Contributing Member or upload to Photobucket or similar and post the URL here.
     
  18. 2007/11/16
    leifk

    leifk Inactive Thread Starter

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    I just noted that it says Home Edition Vesrion 2002 Service Pack 2.
     
  19. 2007/11/16
    leifk

    leifk Inactive Thread Starter

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    Thanks! If anyone cares to see the photo, I'll be happy to email it to them.
     
  20. 2007/11/16
    leifk

    leifk Inactive Thread Starter

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    I just checked. Yes.
     

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