Clicked "Don't Save Changes" in Word doc - Can I Recover Info?
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Thread: Clicked "Don't Save Changes" in Word doc - Can I Recover Info?

  1. #1
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    Clicked "Don't Save Changes" in Word doc - Can I Recover Info?

    I just spent about 3 hours typing info. into a Word 2003 document and mistakenly clicked "No" to "Do you want to save changes" when I went to close it. I realized my error a second after clicking No. I opened the doc again but the changes are lost. Is there any way to recover my info? My o/s is XP SP3 and I also have SP3 for Office 2003.
    “If Ernest Hemingway was going to go big-game hunting in Africa, Hunter S. Thompson wanted to use a submachine gun to hunt wild boar in Big Sur, Calif. He was dangerous, like handling nitroglycerin, and he liked to keep it that way.”

    Douglas Brinkley, executor of the Thompson estate

  2. #2
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    Btw, I was adding info. to a document that had previously been created.
    “If Ernest Hemingway was going to go big-game hunting in Africa, Hunter S. Thompson wanted to use a submachine gun to hunt wild boar in Big Sur, Calif. He was dangerous, like handling nitroglycerin, and he liked to keep it that way.”

    Douglas Brinkley, executor of the Thompson estate

  3. #3
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    Can I Recover Info?

    Possibly. Word opens a tmp file while you work on it... it starts with a tilde and looks like this..

    ~$nk Invoice002.doc

    in this case the original was

    Fink Invoice002.doc

    It will have closed when you closed the doc you were working on but it would have the changes you made but didn't save. Download recuva file recovery from here..

    www.recuva.com

    and use it to scan the drive for that file. If it's found then you might be in luck.

    As with any file recovery situation the less you use the computer before you search for the deleted file the better chance of finding it before it gets overwritten.

    VirtualDr email notices are not working.
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  4. #4
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    Thanks for the tip, Fink. Unfortunately, Recuva did not work so I wound up manually re-entering the lost info.

    What are some "best practices" for working with a Word 2003 doc. that is currently 152 pages long and 7.96 MB big (and growing)? I am going to burn a copy of what I have to CD but I am adding about 10+ pages to it daily. Should I split it up? Make a copy of what I currently have on my hdd? Are there backup resources? I am now making myself use File > Save As... rather than simply clicking on the "X" Close Window button.

    Does OpenOffice offer any advantages?
    “If Ernest Hemingway was going to go big-game hunting in Africa, Hunter S. Thompson wanted to use a submachine gun to hunt wild boar in Big Sur, Calif. He was dangerous, like handling nitroglycerin, and he liked to keep it that way.”

    Douglas Brinkley, executor of the Thompson estate

  5. #5
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    alt+S
    Saves the present screen ( saves as a update rather)
    Without changing the name.


    currently 152 pages long and 7.96 MB big


    I would start a second set and like you said, archieve what you have.
    Burn to a couple CDs in fact.

  6. #6
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    fink--Would that ~$nk Invoice002.doc file not be retained in the Temp folder (or the location of the folder where Outlook automatically saves documents) at least until a reboot?


    307WRC--Open Office is pretty good. It is free, but since you already have MS Office, there is no savings there. Here are two articles that may answer your question
    http://www.techsoup.org/learningcent...e/page4765.cfm
    http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-...OpenOfficeOrg/
    Jim
    WIN7 Ultimate SP1 64bit, IE 11, NTFS,
    cable, MS Security Essentials, Windows 7 firewall

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Train View Post
    alt+S
    Saves the present screen ( saves as a update rather)
    Without changing the name.
    That's a good tip, thanks. Edit: Btw, it's Ctrl + S. I am separating the Master List into "A thru F" etc. Is it possible to make Word 2003 not recognise page delineations - meaning the translucent "..............." that separates the pages? I am never going to print this doc so not seeing the "......." is preferable.
    Last edited by 307WRC; June 13th, 2009 at 05:49 PM.
    “If Ernest Hemingway was going to go big-game hunting in Africa, Hunter S. Thompson wanted to use a submachine gun to hunt wild boar in Big Sur, Calif. He was dangerous, like handling nitroglycerin, and he liked to keep it that way.”

    Douglas Brinkley, executor of the Thompson estate

  8. #8
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    Ctrl + S is right, I was think Alt + F then S.

    DOS but works in Windows too.

  9. #9
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    Jim.. I've only ever seen it appear/dissapear in the same folder as the original doc file. I tried it again just now and nothing appeared in the temp folders. (Although it's possible that different versions of Office may put a copy there.. I'm using 2003)



    In any case Recuva would find it in any folder on the drive if were able to be found.

    VirtualDr email notices are not working.
    Check back regularly for responses.

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    cat lovers click here

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by 307WRC View Post
    Is it possible to make Word 2003 not recognise page delineations - meaning the translucent "..............." that separates the pages? I am never going to print this doc so not seeing the "......." is preferable.
    To not see the page breaks I went to View and selected Web Layout. Now there are no visible page breaks. MS has a nice demo for "Taking control of page breaks in your Word document" - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/wo...CL100636481033

    It wasn't exactly what I needed but it was informative.
    “If Ernest Hemingway was going to go big-game hunting in Africa, Hunter S. Thompson wanted to use a submachine gun to hunt wild boar in Big Sur, Calif. He was dangerous, like handling nitroglycerin, and he liked to keep it that way.”

    Douglas Brinkley, executor of the Thompson estate

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
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    THANKS! I was able to recover an important letter using information on this page, though I had to be a little creative. The letter was titled something like johnson, so I did a search on the entire hard drive (the first automatic Windows search wasn't enough) for ??hnson. More specifically, it said "see more results" and gave me some choices for searching, and I chose "computer". The search took awhile.

    A number of documents showed up including one that was not a Word file, and included the word "unsaved" followed by a long number. That document could not be opened without choosing an application (Word did not work) so I opened it with WordPad, and by golly my complete unsaved letter was there. I copied the text and pasted into a new Word document.

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