[cigdem6986]

i am going mad! i just spent the hole day writing up an essay for my dissertation on microsoft word from my hotmail email that i saved as an attachment to access when i get home from uni. i saved the document as i went along by hitting ctrl + s nearly at the end of every paragraph i typed, but went to open it after i shut down and i cannot find the document at all what so ever!!!! however i saved a document that i opened directly new from microsoft word and its there, but the one from my hotmail email isn't there. i need it back i cannot re write it im going to go mad. i searched everywhere and tried searching in safe mode i still cannot find it????? what am i going to do this is the third time its happened to me, im using a Dell laptop which runs on Windows Vista and i hate it now!!! can you please please help me???????? how would i search hidden files in safe mode? or how will i find the document at all??????? please please help.

[~Candy~]

I don't understand why you wouldn't have used Word, then saved it in that format, then attached to hotmail

In any event, did you check your draft box in hotmail?

And quite frankly, I don't think this has anything to do with it being a Dell, or the fact that it is running Windows Vista.

[cigdem6986]

That's what I did I saved it on word attached it to my email reopened it from my laptop and did work on it all day, saved it thousand times and its gone. This only happens wenever I use vista but when I use my mac its perfeclty fine. Now I cnt find my dissertation I'm kicking myself

[~Candy~]

Did you do a search for all *.doc files?

[cigdem6986]

i just tried that now too but it finds everything except the one i am looking for. how do i search hidden files in safe mode? because i tried doing a normal advanced search in safe mode and i couldnt find anything there either gave me the same results?

[DaveA]

This file is most likely in the Internet temp folder.
With IE open, go to "Tools, Internet Options".
Then click on the "Settings" button in the 'Browsing History' area.
Now click on the "View Files" button.
Now scroll down and watch for your file.

Hope this helps.

[cigdem6986]

nope that's not working either i can see everything except all the word documents that i did from a hotmail word doc attachment im so pissed off i cant believe vista is this crap i hate it!!! i knew i should have worked on my mac im the only one to blame!

[DaveA]

It is NOT a Vista thing, it is under the control of Word and/or hot mail.
You need to learn to watch and see where you are saving your files and what file name is being saved to.

[ddddangerous]

I opened an Excel file from an email I sent myself then spent a bit of time, well a few hours, adding data. I clicked the disk (save icon) regularly, then without thinking I closed the program. I can't find the file anywhere even when I search everywhere. How can I get to this secret place where it is saved????
I think it must be similar to this -
http://phaktor7.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/recover-outlook-attachments-saved-to-the-olk-folder/

but it's in Vista so I cant even get the dialogue box.

Help please!!!

[Gulo Luseus]

2 quick questions, firstly are you opening from th esame computer you worked on it originally? Secondly, did yo umail it to yourself, if its a diffeent computer?

If its yes and no to them, theres the prob. If not, its thinking time again

[arnec]

I went through this problem in Vista Mail a few days ago, and eventually, after some hard searching on help forums like this one, I learned how you find these hidden files you've saved from Mail without first "saving as." I decided to post a long, thorough description of the process to a blog I figured I'd start for the purpose. I'm hoping it'll save people time to just go to http://vistahelp.wordpress.com/ and read through the process I used, which should apply for everyone in Vista who's got this problem with retrieving hidden attachments. It's happened to me twice now.

[TheOutcaste]

Welcome to TSG!

Good article. You can save a bit of typing by using the %localappdata% environment variable. %localappdata% will expand to C:\Users\username\AppData\Local, substituting the currently logged on Users username. So use %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 as the path.

According to MS in this article, if you are using Outlook on Vista, the path should be %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\xxxxxxxx, where xxxxxxxx is a random name.

You may want to add that to your article to cover both Vista mail and Outlook.
Thanks for posting.

@ddddangerous: It's been awhile, but maybe the file is stil there, if you haven't already re-created it.

Open My Computer, then paste %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 or %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook in the location bar, then look through the files and folders.

HTH

Jerry