This is topic I feel so stupid . . . help! in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
Yesterday at work a coworker emailed me a 90 page document to format for her. I downloaded it and began working on the document. I saved it periodically, but I never did Save As, which means I was saving it to a temporary location.

I got 80% of the way through the document last night. I turned off my computer.

Of course it's gone this morning. My question is, is it still saved somewhere on my computer but with a broken path? Or is it gone for good?

I just want to be sure it's gone before I do all that work over again. [Frown]
 
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
 
What program were you using? To my understanding the difference between "Save" and "Save As" is that with "Save" you are saving over the original, but with "Save As" you can give it a new name or save to a different location (or both). Using "Save" will be a permanent save over the original document, which then is not retrievable (except by special means, perhaps). Using "Save As" is when you want to keep the original and keep the new version, as well.
 
Posted by Choobak (Member # 7083) on :
 
Try to look into your personnal profil and in Document and setting.
I suggest you to make a research on your disk (if you have a network disk) and into the local disk.

I think he must still be in your computer.
 
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
 
Word should list the last few documents you've been working on. Click on File, and they should appear just above Exit. The file should still be on your computer, most likely in a temporary folder somewhere. Those things don't disappear when you turn the computer off, so the path won't be broken, though.
 
Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
Jon Boy, I did that. It says the path is invalid.
 
Posted by BunnV (Member # 6816) on :
 
Hmm. If you clicked "Save" it should have been saving your changes to the original document. Do you mean you "Turned off" your computer by not properly shutting it down? In any case, the file should still be on your computer under the original name including all your changes. Hope you find it. [Smile]
 
Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
The original document was a download, so it was never saved anywhere permanent.

I just searched my computer for a Word document with the name of the original document. It wasn't found.
 
Posted by Choobak (Member # 7083) on :
 
try just the name, and everywhere (all disks). If there is no result, you lose it.
 
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
 
If you saved it - and had just opened it from Outlook, then Outlook has saved it in its temporary cache.

You will need to have SHOW HIDDEN FILES turned on in order to find it too

For instance, in mine, Outlook's temp save is
c:\\Documents and Settings\{myusername)\local settings\temporary internet files\OLK2D

It will probably have it named as a TEMP file (.TMP) instead of as a .doc or .xls or whatever it was. But it will be there.

Farmgirl
 
Posted by Choobak (Member # 7083) on :
 
You can try in a last hope to look all the ".doc". Maybe the name is not exactly what you think.
 
Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
And what if my company email is Novell Groupwise and not Outlook? Would it do a similar thing, Farmgirl?
 
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
Download it again, and click Save. It will save it with a long,nonsense title that makes sense only to the computer in some obscure folder.

Click Save As..., and it will show you where it saved it.

Click Date to reorder the files. You should see yesterday's file at the top of the list.
 
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
 
Well, one way you can check is re-open the file from the e-mail. With it open, immediately go to FILE-SAVE AS and see where it tries to default to.

FG
 
Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
Katie, I love you! Remind me to send you chocolates when you get back in the country!
 
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
Yay! Does that mean it worked? *crosses fingers*

*also, totally back in the country* [Big Grin]
 
Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
Dang it. Yesterday's file is there, but with none of my changes. I guess it's back to the beginning, then.
 
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
Oh. [Frown] I'm sorry.

I suppose it would be tacky to ask if this means no chocolate.
 
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
You know I'm kidding, right?

Added: But not about the sorry. That does suck. [Frown]
 
Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
[Smile] Yes, I know you're kidding. But you made me smile, which makes me want to send you chocolate anyway. I haven't done much smiling this morning.
 
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
 
It's possible you saved it to the email. Does the version from the email have your changes by any chance?

(Or, what FG said.)
 
Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
No. Sadly, no.
 
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
 
Huh -- just had a helpdesk call exactly like this thread. Luckily, we were able to find and revive it for them.

Hope you get yours

And you're NOT stupid -- I get a call like this at least once a week..

FG
 
Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
 
Your best bet is to replicate the situation and see what that can tell you. Send yourself an email with a doc attachment then open it and change it somehow and save it. Then see where that file gets stored (possibly by using a save as after you save it). It's possible that your work is still floating around in a temp folder somewhere.

The thing that worries me is that if you followed kat's advice, it's not unlikely that you actually saved over the copy that had the work you did.
 
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 
It doesn't do that on my computer - every file saved gets a different name, even if it is the same file.
 
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
 
Well, MrSquick -- I think Kat (and me) were trying to say to not actually SAVE it again (or save over it) but to hit the SAVE dialog box to see where it defaults to -- to see the path it recognizes as being the previous save directory when checking "save in"
But not to follow through and actually re-save it.

FG
 
Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
Yes. I followed Kat's and Farmgirl's advice and saw the file from yesterday, "Compliance.doc," sitting in that folder. Word suggested that I save the new one as "Compliance_1.doc." So I wouldn't have saved over it, even if I had saved the new one.

The problem was, Compliance.doc looked exactly like it had when I downloaded it.
 
Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
 
It wouldn't be the saving in Word that would cause the problem, but rather the downloading the file again. If the email program you use doesn't alter the folder or name that a temp file would be saved to, donwloading the same file will overwrite the earlier one. You can probably check to see if this occured by checking the last date modified property of that file. If it has yesterday as the date, your work is probably stored somewhere else, but if it has today, you likely wrote over it.
 
Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
>.<
 
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
 
I didn't know that was you, Ruth. (just read GC and figured it out)
 
Posted by Diosmel Duda (Member # 2180) on :
 
Hehehe. I can never remember who knew me under this name.
 


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