[wendy1301]

Please can anyone help my son deleted a book i was writing in word its not in the recycle bin and I dont know where to start looking or if it is even worth looking I would be very very grateful if anyone can help or advise me Please !!!
I have windows XP

[OBP]

Are you sure it was deleted, rather than just moved?
Have you used the Windows Explorer "Search"?
Try not to save any other files.

[wendy1301]

It was all highlighted and when asked do you want to save changes to document he clicked yes and it all disappeared then he clicked the cross !!
Have checked Windows explorer search nothing but the empty file

[jimr381]

Did you open the original file from Outlook? If your answer is yes do not open from Outlook again, but instead come back and tell us.

[wendy1301]

No It was in Word saved in my documents.

[jimr381]

If he saved it he had to save it somewhere.

Do "Windows Key" which is the bottom right-hand corner of your screen and hit "F" at the same time. In the "Search for Words" section type in something you remember being in the book and it should find it for you. Then move the file to where it should be and give him a glaring stare after you are finished. Finally buy a new PC and do not have him work on yours when you are writing a book for work.

[wendy1301]

Can't find anything I think he saved a blank document so my book is gone

[kiwiguy]

A bit late now, I know, but you should never rely on a document on the hard drive as secure.

You should frequently have a backup copy off the PC, using something sucg as a CD-R or a USB flash key.

Hard drives can and do fail, just as errors occur which delete files as in your case.

[simpswr]

Do a search for *.tmp . . if you are lucky, there might be a backup of the file with at least some of the data intact. You will have to look in hidden and system folders

[1002richards]

Hi wendy1301,
Have you tried any recovery software yet? I'm not sure if it'll work but maybe it's worth a try? There are good free progs out there - or already listed in threads at TSG.

To protect my docs as I work on them (in addition to backup on USB) I use the personal version of DocShield which is my extra safety net.
From their website:
"DocShield is a software program for Microsoft Windows operating systems that is designed to prevent or remedy the catastrophic loss or accidental modification of important electronic documents. It protects these documents by continually monitoring them for changes, then creating and storing compressed snapshots of those documents as they change through time." ... "DocShield 2.0 is 100% free for personal, non-commercial use, subject to the terms of the license agreement."

http://www.docshield.com/overview.html

You keep a seperate password-protected backup away from MS Word.

I hope this is of use for the future?
Richard.

[Ambrose]

Hi Wendy

Never fun when this happens.

Hopefully this document can help you some on the way:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249793


Thing is that in that directory the other office family also stores stuff, thing is you might have to look around a bit since you might have a different version etc.


Good luck anyway.


SeYa/Ambrose...

[slurpee55]

DocShield is great for the future, but not for now, alas. Also, this has nothing to do with Outlook - strictly a Word foulup. Specifically, it sounds like the OP's son highlighted all the data, deleted the text and saved it with the same name as before, thus overwriting the previous file with that name.
However, try this. Open up Word and go to Tools, Options, File locations.
There should be a line listed as AutoRecover locations. Double click on the line and it will open up that location. See if your file is in there (perhaps with a .tmp file extension). If not, go up a folder level - you should find yourself in a folder called Microsoft. Find the Office folder and click on that. There should be a shortcut called Recent. Click on that. and see if you can find a copy of your file older (according to the modified date) than when your son changed you file.

[jimr381]

The reason I mentioned Outlook and this is fairly common here as well is that sometimes someone receives a document via email and opens it, edits it and saves it, forgetting that they are saving it in a hidden folder that they might not find later on. If someone looked over her book then sent it back to her and she opened it from said email then she would be in the same boat. I was having her not open up the attachment from the email message since it would have overwritten the one she worked on.

If Wendy is using Windows XP password protect your account and make one for your son. If you are going to leave the computer for an extended period of time you will hit "Windows Key"+"L" to bring you to the log-in screen allowing him to get into his account and not mess around in yours. I like how you can have multiple users logged in at the same time within XP.

[alfredo.zaher]

You can download the TuneUp Utilities 2008 trial, and will come with a tool called recover deleted files. You will be able to recover it entirely if you haven't create or deleted files in your computer. This is because you can overwrite the area of disk were your file used to be. Hope this helps, and good luck finding you're book!!