Document Name or Path is not Valid

[Katie]

Is there any possible way to recover a document in Word 2003 for which I get
the above error message? I had opened it from an email attachment, modified
it, and hit save while failing to hit "save as". I searched for the document
and it came up at "unavailable location: http://www.msnusers.com/" Is there
any way to access this document? Is it saved anywhere? (It is my Honors
Thesis!)

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

When you save that way, it's usually saved to a temporary/working folder on
your computer. These folders usually are hidden. But, files inadvertently
saved to them can reside there for several days (or longer) depending on
your settings).

Are you comfortable working at the DOS command line? If so, open an MS-DOS
command line session, go to the root folder (i.e., C:\), and try the
following to see if you can locate the file:

dir filename.doc /s

where filename.doc is the name of the file. If it appears, note the location
of the file, and use Windows Explorer to go there so you can copy the file
to a different location. If mulitple copies show up, copy each to a safe
location, then compare them to see which, if any, contains the latest
version you saved.

Alternatively... open an email containing a DIFFERENT WORD ATTACHMENT. This
is important -- don't open the same one. Open that file's Word attachment,
then in Word choose File - Properties and see where that file resides. Use
Windows Explorer to navigate to that location to see if the missing file is
there, as well. If so, copy it to a safe (non-temporary) location, then open
it in Word and see if it's what you're looking for.

Good luck!

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

PS... if you closed the email after saving the file and you said Yes to
saving changes at that point (i.e., changes to the email itself, which would
contain the saved attachment), then the email will contain the changed
version. But, don't open the file from the email in the same way--otherwise
it will overwrite any existing copy that might be in the temporary internet
files folder. Instead, right-click the attachment and use Save As to save it
to a different folder.

 

[Amy]

Katie,
If you had it as an attachment in an e-mail, and saved it without ensuring
that it was saved in My Documents, (which is how I understand your dilemma),
then it has been saved in an Outlook folder, which are usually unaccessible.
Try this: Open Outlook, open any e-mail with an attachment, and try the Save
As on the attchment. The folder is probably named OL*****. Check to see if
your document is in there. Also, did you delete the original email that it
was sent in? Check your Deleted Items, and also the Recover Deleted Items
folder. To access the Recover DI folder, open your Deleted Items folder,
then go to Tools, Recover Deleted Items. If the e-mail is there, highlight
it, then click the Recover Selected Items (yellow envelope with blue arrow in
the top left corner). It will put the message in the Deleted Items folder.
Good luck on finding your document, from a fellow Master's student!

Amy