Comments | goldfish42: lost data: help?

goldfish42

lost data: help?

Oct 11, 2007 16:50

A week or so ago I apparently made changes to a document instead of using "save as" like I usually do. Two documents, actually. My resume and my cover letter. I often tweak both a bit before sending them in, to shift the focus to the specific needs of the job I'm applying for. I now find I've lost the best standard cover letter and resume for ( Read more... )

work, support/help

Comments 5

ex_celendis388 October 12 2007, 00:28:09 UTC

I am going to assume that this is using Microsoft Word. While word does have this lovely version tracking ability, it has to be turned on first.

Since it wasn't...

goldfish42 October 12 2007, 03:17:14 UTC

Yeah, I realized after I posted that I should have been more specific. I can't tell if this is turned on or not. The option "Save AutorRecover Information every [10] minutes was checked, is that it? If so, it saves to a place I can't find. The directory path specifies a folder that does not seem to actually exist. Or is that just the auto-save feature and not a version tracking thing? If so, I can't find the version tracking enable.

And why, of all dumb things, is the default initial setting not "on"?

(The comment has been removed)

goldfish42 October 12 2007, 03:19:46 UTC

Good idea, but I just checked the outbox and the jobhunt folders, and I seem to have deleted everything useful. :(

ford_forgotton October 12 2007, 05:20:38 UTC

Try looking in your C:\windows\temp, or c:\temp directories. There should be some weird numbers .TMP files and if you find one with yesterdays date next to it, try renaming it as a .DOC file and see if it opens correctly.

Check the file size. Anything less than 2 or 3 kilobytes usually isnt gonna be your document. Look for larger ones.

Sometimes WORD will create the temp file in the same place as the original file, but its HIDDEN. You'd need to go into your file preferences (my computer: tools : folder options : view: show hidden folders/files). Again, just a rename to .DOC should bring it back.

Do a global search of your C drive for * .DOC . This will find every single word file on your C drive.

There are some windows UNDELETE programs out there, but they work best if you dont do ANYTHING on your computer. The more you use your computer, the less likely you are to recover the deleted file.

goldfish42 October 16 2007, 01:45:59 UTC

Thank you all for the suggestions. I found a hard copy and re-typed the changes back to the way they were.