Word 2003 deletes doc file from flash drive entirely when crashing

[Bardicvoice]

Twice now, my Word 2003, for no discernable reason, has crashed while I was
working on a document file opened from a flash drive. Each time it crashed,
it actually totally deleted the original file from the flash drive, and
couldn't find the "recovered" file anywhere in order to open and re-save it -
not even from the specified timed backup location. The two files this
happened with were entirely different ones.

How can I stop this from happening? Saving my work in progess doesn't help
when the bloody program goes and deletes the saved file while it's crashing!

 

[Jay Freedman]

Twice now, my Word 2003, for no discernable reason, has crashed while I was
working on a document file opened from a flash drive. Each time it crashed,
it actually totally deleted the original file from the flash drive, and
couldn't find the "recovered" file anywhere in order to open and re-save it -
not even from the specified timed backup location. The two files this
happened with were entirely different ones.

How can I stop this from happening? Saving my work in progess doesn't help
when the bloody program goes and deletes the saved file while it's crashing!

The most important bit of advice is this: NEVER open any document directly from
any kind of removable drive (flash, USB, CD-RW, etc.). Always work on documents
ONLY on the built-in hard drive. When you close the document, then save the file
to the flash drive.

If you want to save the documents automatically to the flash drive as well as to
the hard drive, use the macro on Graham Mayor's page,
http://www.gmayor.com/automatically_backup.htm.