How do I restore a Word file please?

[Belena]

I was working away in Word, and had a few Word files open that I was cutting
and pasting from, etc. I got up to get a cup of tea, and when I came back,
the doc I had been working on, and pasting copy to, had disappeared. I found
it, unopened in my files, but when I opened the doc, it had reverted to copy
I'd had in there 4 or 5 hours ealier. I have my pc set to save autorecovery
data every 10 minutes. I tried all the normal autorecovery stuff, but to no
avail. If anyone has any ideas, please help!
Thanks.
Belena

 

[Graham Mayor]

It has gone. My guess is that you allow Windows to automatically download
and install updates and one of those has forced a reboot, shutting down Word
to do so.
Auto-recover is not autosave! See
http://www.gmayor.com/automatically_backup.htm

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[kdrungilas]

If Word has been set up on the your computer with the Always create backup
copy option checked (click Tools | Options, then go to the Save tab), you
might be able to locate a backup file. Look for any file with a .wbk
extension. The full file name would be "Backup of missing file name.wbk".

No backup? You can try forcing an AutoRecover. When you select the "Save
AutoRecover info every" option in Word, you will cause Word to create an
AutoRecover file that includes the latest document changes. If this doesn’t
work, you can still search the computer for any .asd files and attempt to
open them with Word. (only attempt this with files dated between your last
save and the loss.)

If none of this does the trick, it’s time to turn to the temporary files.
Using the Windows Search feature (Start | Search), look for all *.tmp files.
When the search is complete, sort the list in date order and look for a file
that would’ve been created at the approximate time the Word file was last
opened. If that doesn’t work, try the search again, but look for all
tilde-prefixed files (~*.*).
kathy

 

[Graham Mayor]

If Word has been set up on the your computer with the Always create
backup copy option checked (click Tools | Options, then go to the
Save tab), you might be able to locate a backup file. Look for any
file with a .wbk extension. The full file name would be "Backup of
missing file name.wbk".

The OP says that the previous file was timed four hours earlier. There will
not be a later backup because the file hasn't been saved for four hours,
which is somewhat reckless. However this will be a good lesson for the
future.

No backup? You can try forcing an AutoRecover. When you select the
"Save AutoRecover info every" option in Word, you will cause Word to
create an AutoRecover file that includes the latest document changes.
If this doesn't work, you can still search the computer for any .asd
files and attempt to open them with Word. (only attempt this with
files dated between your last save and the loss.)

Autorecover does not work retrospectively and is not a catch-all. There is
no substitute for regular saving.

If none of this does the trick, it's time to turn to the temporary
files. Using the Windows Search feature (Start | Search), look for
all *.tmp files. When the search is complete, sort the list in date
order and look for a file that would've been created at the
approximate time the Word file was last opened. If that doesn't work,
try the search again, but look for all tilde-prefixed files (~*.*).
kathy

Unfortunately the chances of finding any temp file that contains useful
information about the file are slim - especially if, as I suspect, an
automatic update rebooted the computer. Preventing Word from automatically
installing updates without confirmation would be a next useful step.