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

[Course]

Great site. Well done.

[Louann]

Thank you so much for the information - I was able to retrieve my word document.

[Pablo]

THANK YOU! I've been using word for many many years, and have never lost anything. (lucky?) Today I find that a LOT of hard work had somewhow not been saved, after all the hard work my brain was a bit frazzled, I must have forgotten to hit 'save'... thanks to your advice I found the '*.ASD' file- ALL my work was there... THANK YOU!!!!!!

[banshii]

Rosario Doriott i can't thank you enough! i'm a transcriptionist and lost 6 hours of work, i was ready to give up after searching everywhere, but i did the .asd search and it popped up. You saved my ass, i wil never forget you, i love you-i love you-i love you! kisses!

[anne jaa]

Wow that's really works!I lost all my project documents and i thought i have prepare all the documents again but luckily i came across your post and its really helpful for me.Ne ways thanks for sharing such a helpful information.

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[michael]

Yo man you just saved my whole life with this

[Skylar]

YOU JUST SAVED MY LIFE SO MUCH!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!!!!!!!!!! MY 32 PAGE THESIS PAPER DISSAPEARED 3 HOURS BEFORE IT WAS DUE!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cammie]

Thank you so much for this post! You saved my bacon.

[Irina V.]

Thank you SO much! I thought that when I lost my file, I lost it for good. But thanks to step 4, I recovered it! THANK YOU, you are a lifesaver.

[mac user]

why are the tips only in windows!?? same for microsoft websites need help here. not everyone uses wndows.

[cordless speaker]

Well, this is a nice tip for people who are working with important files stored in their computer. Actually, you can easily find in recent documents.

[mcse]

I really like your blog very much and i hope you will continue this good work in the future as well .....................
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[computer table]

Thank you for this helpful 10 tips. Sometimes it comes to the point where I will need them - so I bookmarked your site. Thank you for posting.

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[Lakranath]

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[Firm Rehberi]

Yes. I can pray often generally. I can't use Recycle Bin because I usualy use shift+delete kombination while delete file.

[cornerstone university]

Great post! We recently had a blackout at our office and i thought i was going to loose my docu files for good. Good thing theres an auto restore and i managed to retrieve my files.

[ronks]

so this is VERY helpful because the only methods i knew by myself were steps 1-3. thanks!

[HIDDEN CAMERA]

There are many free auto recovery tools available.

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[Ash]

Thanks tip 9 worked! Crisis avoided

[marty]

i start computor, dell laptop w/xp home edition and word 2003 comes up every time,dont know how to make it stopi hardly ever use word, help

[j]

...and remember Jesus is Alive but buddha is dead.