Help! I’ve lost an important file. How can I get it back?
You’re working on an important document or worksheet, and all of a sudden, the lights go out, or the computer accidentally gets unplugged, or some other unfortunate circumstance occurs. All your hard work has just gone down the drain. Or has it? Fortunately, sometimes it’s possible to retrieve files that might otherwise be lost.
The majority of the tips discussed in this article apply to Microsoft Word. See the Help files for the program you are using (click Help, and click About [Microsoft product]) for specific steps if you’re using another program.
Search for the original document
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1.Click Start, then click Search.
2.Click All files and folders in Search Companion on the left side of the Search dialog box.
3.In the All or part of the file name: box, type the file name that you want to find.
4.In the Look in box, select My Computer, then click Search.
If the results pane does not contain the file you’re looking for, go back to the Search Companion and click Change file name or keywords, clear the box, then type *.doc (if you’re searching for a Word file; otherwise, type the file extension of the program you were using, such as *.xls for Excel). When you click Search this time, Windows will look for all files of that type.
If you’re not certain of the file name, another trick is to try the part of the file name that you do know with an “*” representing the part you’re not sure about. For example, if you know the file name has the word “work” in it but you can’t remember the rest, you can try *work or work* to have Search look for files with that word plus other characters before or after it, respectively.
If you find the document that you are looking for, right-click the document, and then click Restore. This returns the document to its original location.
Look in the Recycle Bin
You can also look for lost files in the Recycle Bin.
1.On the desktop, double-click Recycle Bin. On the View menu, click Details.
2.On the View menu, click Arrange Icons by, and then click Date Deleted.
Try the AutoRecover feature
Most Microsoft programs have an AutoRecover feature that saves copies of all open files at a fixed interval. These AutoRecover files can be recovered if a program closes unexpectedly (for example, during a power failure), although this isn’t always the case. By default, an AutoRecover file will not be saved until ten minutes after you start work on a document.
Keep in mind that the AutoRecover feature is not a substitute for saving your file. Once a document is closed, the AutoRecover file is deleted. There is no way to recover the document if you closed the file without saving changes. Stay in the habit of saving your changes regularly while you work to ensure the best chance of recovering your file if something unexpected happens.
To keep from filling up your AutoRecover location with unneeded files, AutoRecover files are automatically deleted when:
·You save the file manually.
·You save the file with a new file name using the Save As command.
·You close the file.
·You exit a program (regardless of whether you chose to save the file or not before exiting).
·You turn off the AutoRecover feature.
If you want AutoRecover to save copies of your work more or less frequently, you can change the AutoRecover time interval in a given Microsoft program.
To change the AutoRecover Save duration:
1.On the Tools menu, click Options, then click the Save tab.
2.In the Save AutoRecover Info every: box, change the number to the time interval between AutoRecover saves that you want, then click OK.
Manually recover AutoRecover files
To search for AutoRecover files:.
1.Click Start, and then click Search
2.Click All files and folders in Search Companion on the left side of the Search dialog box.
3.In the All or part of the file name: box, type *.ASD.
4.In the Look in box, select My Computer.
5.Click Search.
6.If you find any files that have the .asd extension:
§Start Word (or the program you were using).
§On the File menu, click Open.
§In the File of type list, click All Files.
§Locate and select the .asd file for the document you want to recover.
§Open this recovery file.
§Click Save.
§In the File name box, type or select the file name of the existing document.
§When you see a message asking whether you want to replace the existing document, click Yes.
Any recovery files that you do not save are deleted when you quit Word.
When you open Word after a crash or other unexpected event, Word looks for AutoRecover files. If it finds any, the Document Recovery task pane will open on the left side of the screen, and you’ll see the file listed as document name [Original] or as document name [Recovered]. If this occurs, double-click the file in the Document Recovery task pane, click Save As on the File menu, and then save the document as a .doc file.
Search for temporary files
Some programs (such as Word) create temporary files as a safety net to prevent data loss if a program closes unexpectedly. To search for a temporary file:
1.Click Start, and then click Search.
2.Click All files and folders in Search Companion on the left side of the Search dialog box.
3.In the All or part of the file name: box, type *.TMP.
4.In the Look in box, select My Computer.
5.Click When was it modified?, then select Specify dates. Type the from and to dates to include the time period since you last opened the file.
6.Click Search.
7.On the View menu, click Details.
8.On the View menu, click Arrange Icons by, then click Modified.
9.Scroll through the list of files to find any that match the last dates and times that you edited the document in question.
If you find the document that you’re looking for, see How to troubleshoot damaged Word documents for more information about how to recover information from the file. The whole document may be lost if you have not recently saved the document. If you have saved your document, you may lose only the changes that you made since the last save.
