10 Ways to Find a Lost Word Document (.doc)

Accidentally delete your work? Or save it somewhere and you can't find it? Or the power went out? Before you start frantically emailing your professor, follow these steps:

1. Send out a search party.
   In Windows, click Start, Search, All files and folders.
   Type what you remember of the name or simply *.doc to get all your Word documents.
   Select My Computer under Look in, and then under More advanced options, make sure Search hidden files and folders is checked.
   Then hit Search.


2. Still no luck? Check your Recycle Bin.
   Open it up and look through whatever files you've got. Did you find it? If so, right-click and choose Restore. Then if you're not sure where it actually restored to, perform a search for it.


3. Or you can pray for AutoRecover.
   Sometimes if Word crashes or closes unexpectedly, it'll still save what you had. Re-open Word. If a Document Recovery task pane comes up, double-click your document to open it and immediately Save As.


4. Search for AutoRecover files, yourself.
   In Word, go to Tools, then Options.
   Under the File Locations tab, double-click AutoRecover files and make a note of that path location.
   Click Cancel and Close.
   Open up that folder in My Computer or Windows Explorer and search for any .asd files. (Or another way to do this would be to run a search similar to step one but with *.asd instead of *.doc)


5. If you have Word set to automatically back-up your documents, there's still a chance here. Check the original folder for any .wbk file.
   In Word, click File, then Open.
   Navigate to the folder you think the file used to be located in and make sure All Files *.* is selected.
   Is there any .wbk file there? Select it and see if it's what you're looking for.


6. Still no dice? Send out a *.wbk search party.
   This step is the same as the first search party step, but now search for *.wbk files. You might find a few. Open them up, one by one.


7. Or search your temporary files.
   Again, this is like step one. But search for *.TMP files this time. You'll come up with a lot, so change the When was it modified? to the last week or so.


8. Or search even more of your temporary files.
   Some temporary files like to be unique. Search for those with ~*.* this time.


9. Open up C:\Documents and Settings\*USERNAME*\Local Settings\Temp
   This is a hidden folder, so you'll probably have to use Windows Explorer. Hit Start, then All Programs.
   Go to Accessories, then Windows Explorer. Navigate to that folder, where *USERNAME* is whatever your computer calls you. Do you see your document in that folder?

If none of those steps work, there are also programs that will help you recover deleted files. So this is the 10th and final option.

What's important to understand here is that if you delete something, it doesn't actually get deleted. Rather, it sits in a pile waiting to be overwritten. So the best way to recover a deleted file would be to try to find it right away --before it's overwritten.

If you'd like to use a program, I'd recommend: Restoration, Undelete +, or Recuva. All are free. [There's also a newcomer to the scene for Windows, UndeleteMyFiles. Thanks Lifehacker! ~Kelly, 6/25/08]

I hope this helps. And remember: Jesus saves, but Buddha does incremental back-ups.

So, to turn on the automatic back-up feature in Word, check out Tools, Options, and the Save tab.

Comments

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[sufyan]

Thanks dear, your recovery method really works. I just recored one very important file which i deleted by mistake. thankfully i recovered it in the 5th step.

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[Alex Krenvalk]

know how recover doc file - http://www.recoverytoolbox.com/word.html" rel="nofollow">recover doc file, this tool can recover information from corrupted Microsoft Word documents and templates located on corrupted media (floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, Zip drives, etc.), Export the recovered information both to Microsoft Word and to a plain text file.

[Ben]

I just recently had to find a document for my wife - and just for those searching...She was OPENING (not saving) a .doc attachment from an e-mail, altered the files and clicked 'Save' - not Save-As. So thinking the file was saved where she wanted it - she clicked close. After doing some research, the location Word stores these temp shortcut files that are opened and not saved: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent. Once you find the shortcut, Rt Click > Properties > Find Target. Just FYI

[Thank You Thank You]

Wow thanks Ben... I had the same problem.. for me though I found the file in . \Application DaTa\Local Temp

I hate word... this always happens to me when I am working on my paper the night before its due

[Vivek Chauhan]

My saved Word document vanished before my very eyes when I tried to save it for some 34-35th time. An error box popped, and whoosh....it disappeared never to be found in the most intricate and hidden directories.

Solution: Have Google Desktop installed. It's a life saver. Found almost 90% of my work through Google Desktop. Microsoft sucks. Google Ahoy.

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That's a great tip, You better expect a pingback coming your way;)

Cheers

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[Mark]

Thank you so much! You helped me recover something very important and now I really know the value of backing everything up!

[Alex]

Hi there. I found a review of RECOVER(By Brian Kato) in http://www.thereviews4u.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=29" rel="nofollow">www.thereviews4u.com
It seems pretty easy to use and effective. You can give it a try if you think you deleted your file recently.

Also you can use Google Desktop too to find it (but you have to complete an indexacion first)

Good Luck.

[Penny Stock]

I think 1st and the 4th point are the good option.

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[Paulo]

excellent info but no joy ;(
I opened a doc from hotmail...modified it...and then saved it but when i looked for it - nothing! Can't find any trace of it anywhere....not in word, not listed under recent docs, no temp file....like I said nothing!
The worst bit is that I can't figure out what happened and it's driving me nutz!!!

[Advokat]

Hi there,

This is some pretty cool thing you got going here. Gonna check out the remaining site pages to see if there are any updates. ;)

Cheers! :)

[Kate]

Thank you! Your search for *.asd files advice yielded the document I thought I'd lost. Many, many thanks.

[Dawn]

Thank you soooooo much! I thought I lost my statistics homework with tons of hand calculations, etc. It would have taken me hours to recreate. Number 9 completely saved the day!!!

[Katie]

Thank you so much! I am so impressed. I tried the first couple, then skipped down to 9 and retrieved my poor lil bro's paper for him! I was so surprised when it actually appeared I jumped out of my chair. haha

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[Alex S]

Thanks for the information. It made interesting reading but I still can't find my file.
I saved a document on my dektop and then emailed it to myself so that I could work on it at home. Then I emailed it back to myself thismorning so that I could work on it some more in the office. I opened it from Outlook and have been saving it regularly all day but now when I try to re-open it, none of the changes have been saved!
Oh well, I have set Word to make automatic back ups now.
You live and learn eh?