Finding
Word Files that you lost
1. In Windows, click Start, Search, and
then For Files or Folders.
2. In the Search for files or folders named box, type
the file name.
3. In the Look in box, click My Computer.
This searches your entire computer. If you know that the file is in a specific area,
for example, My Documents, then change this accordingly.
4. Click Search Now. If the Search
Results box does not show the file, continue with the following steps to search for all
Word Documents.
5. In the Search for files or folders named box, type
*.doc.
Tip: In computer terminology, the asterisk * is used to select all options. By entering
*.doc youre telling the computer to search for all files with the .doc extension.
6. Click Search Now.
Searching the Recycle Bin
If you still cannot find the file, open the Recycle Bin and follow these steps:
1. Open the Recycle Bin.
2. On the View menu, click Details.
3. Click Arrange Icons and click by Delete
Date. This allows you to filter this list according to the date when the files
were deleted. If you know that your files went missing yesterday, you can look at this
date.
4. When you find the document that you are looking for, right-click on
it, and click Restore.
This returns the document to its original location. Open the file and examine its
contents.
Search for Word Backup Files
Many users rely on the Always create backup copy setting (see Tools > Options >
Save tab) to automatically create a backup copy of their files.
While the obvious advantage is that it always creates a backup file, the downside is
that it makes Word work very hard. As it has to continually save backup copies, it will
reduce your computers performance.
Quite often, Word will freeze when it backs up a large file.
Personally, I dont use it, but I know many who swear by it.
To find the backup file, follow these steps:
1. Open the folder where you last saved the missing
file.
2. Search for files with the .wbk extension. (Word
BacKup)
When you find a file that has the name "Backup of" followed by the name of
the missing file:
a. In Word, click File > Open.
b. In the File of type box, click All Files *.*,
select the file, and then click Open.
If the .wbk file is not located in the original folder, search the computer as follows:
1. In Windows, click Start, point to
Search, and then click For Files or Folders.
2. In the Search for files or folders named box, type
*.WBK.
3. In the Look in box, point to the arrow, and then
click My Computer.
4. Click Search Now.
Search for AutoRecover Files
Word creates AutoRecover files of the documents that you were working on whenever it
crashes. When you re-open Word, it displays these AutoRecover files in the Document
Recovery task pane.
If Word finds the AutoRecover file, the Document Recovery task pane opens on the left side
of the screen, and the missing document is listed as "document name [Original]"
or as "document name [Recovered]".
1. Double-click the file in the Document Recovery pane.
2. Click Save As.
3. Save the document as a .doc file.
Using Task Manager to close Word after a Crash
When Word crashes, the Winword.exe file may still remain open. You need to close this
before you re-open Word as otherwise system conflicts may arise, i.e. you may not be able
to open Word, as the system sees that Winword.exe is currently running.
To close Winword.exe using the Task Manager, follow these steps:
1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL. In the Windows Security dialog
box, click Task Manager.
2. On the Processes tab, click any instance of Winword.exe,
and then click End Process.
3. Close the Windows Task Manager, and then re-start Word.
Other ways to search for files
You can also manually search for AutoRecover files:
1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the File Locations tab, double-click
AutoRecover files, and write down the path. Click Cancel and
Close.
3. Close Word.
4. Open the AutoRecover file location (based on the
path you wrote down).
5. Search for files that end with .asd.
Search for Temporary Files
If these methods do not find the file, you can search for temporary files:
1. Click Start, click Search, and then click For Files or Folders.
2. In the Search for files or folders named box, type *.TMP.
3. In the Look in box, point to the arrow, and then click My Computer.
4. If the Search Options are not visible, click Search Options.
5. Click to select the Date check box, click in the last n days, and
then change n to the number of days since you last opened the file.
6. Click Search Now.
7. On the View menu, click Details, point to Arrange Icons, and click
by Date.
8. Scroll down searching for files that match the last few dates and
times that you edited the document.
Search for ~ Files
Some temporary file names start with the tilde (~) symbol. To find these files, follow
these steps:
1. In Windows, click Start, click Search, and then click For Files or
Folders.
2. In the Search for files or folders named box, type ~*.*.
3. Click Search Now.
4. On the View menu, click Details and then sort by Date.
5. Scroll through the files for documents that match the last date
that you edited the document.
How to recover text from any file
Microsoft Word tries to automatically recover a damaged document if it detects a
problem with the file. You can also "force" Word to try to recover a document
when you open it.
1. On the File menu, click Open.
2. In the File of type list, click All Files
*.*.
3. In the Open dialog box, select your document.
4. Point to the arrow on the Open button, and then click Open
and Repair.
Your Thoughts?
What are your thoughts on this? Drop me a line at ivan
at klariti dot com |
