Decoding a recovered deleted word document

[Ziggy]

Hi, I accidently deleted, emptied the trash and used a restore software to
recover the document, which is unreadable (boxes, dashes, etc). Any one can
help me figure out how to convert it back to a readable Word or RTF document.
I am a non-technical person, so simple instructions would be greatly
appreciated. It is a critical document that I must recoved (learned my lesson
to create backup copies). Some one pleeeeeaaaaassssseeeee help

 

[Nimbus]

Hi, I accidently deleted, emptied the trash and used a restore software to
recover the document, which is unreadable (boxes, dashes, etc). Any one can
help me figure out how to convert it back to a readable Word or RTF document.
I am a non-technical person, so simple instructions would be greatly
appreciated. It is a critical document that I must recoved (learned my lesson
to create backup copies). Some one pleeeeeaaaaassssseeeee help

 

[Ziggy]

Hi

Thank you; I saw that you responded, but no content came through in your
response. Could you please resend? I can also be reached on
(e-mail address removed). Thank you

 

[Klaus Linke]

Hi Ziggy,

Make a backup (... better late than never), then in the File>Open dialog,
set the file type to "Recover text from any file".
If that doesn't get you anything, the recovered file is really hosed.

You could then search your hard disk for temp files (*.tmp,~*.*), backup
files (*.wbk) and AutoRecover files (*.asd), then look at those from the
right date and approximately the right size, to see if you can find
something from your file, even if not quite the latest version.

Good luck,
Klaus

 

[Nimbus]

Sorry I did not get back sooner. I got interupted during my reply and when I
finally tried to send what I typed, it was not accepted.

I was going to say what Klaus has said. Basically it looks like your
document is no more, but, there are one or two options you may try. If you
store your work on a company network it might be worth talking to the network
administrators who may (if you are very lucky) have taken a backup of the
directory with your work on it. The other option is talk to the originator
of the document, if that is not you, who might have an old copy somewhere.

Having lost or corrupted my fair share of documents over the years I now
NEVER delete any document immediately. I always move them to a directory
named something like "For Deletion". Six months or so later if I really
need the space on the disk, I will then delete the document and even then
only after copying to a cd or dvd. Telling the Chief Executive that you've
lost the document is never pleasant.

ps don't put email addresses on an open forum like this.