Word 2000 problem PLEASE help

[panic_striken]

I'm running Windows XP and the Firefox browser. My question is

Hi, I know so little about computers that I may even be posting this in the wrong section - apologies if I am...

I have been busy working on an assignment for a while, and have been saving my word document on a memory pen with the file name "final assignment".  I just opened the document and did about 2 hours work on it, making some big changes - I just went to hit a final save before I finished for the evening, and suddenly my document sort of froze, and I noticed that the name of the document had renamed to something bizzare - a temporary file name (WR and numbers or something similar?!), and then I clicked on this box and my document vanished.....

.... and now it is knowhere to be found - not on my pen, not anywhere - not even the original SAVED document that I had been working on for a few weeks. 

Is there anyone out there for whom this rings any bells, and who might know if I have a single hope of recovering this document - at least to the point of the last successful save - or to the point it was at 2 hours ago when I started working on it??  Is there a chance that my computer could've just erased it?

Here's hoping this makes sense to SOMEONE....

Thanks in advance

 

[unlovedwarrior]

go to file and on the bottom of the menu is your most recent docs is it not there

[panic_striken]

Hi,  I'm not sure where you mean by "file", but I've looked in "my recent documents" and it's not there, and it's not on a file search either.... it's vanished from the folder it was saved in??  It just doesn't make sense!

[patio]

What program is this important document created in ? ?

[panic_striken]

Um - it's a word document - I'm guessing that's not the answer you're looking for, but I'm not sure what you mean!  Sorry, and I appreciate the help!

[panic_striken]

Does anyone think I'll be able to find my document anywhere, or should I just give up and start again? 

Thanks...

[patio]

Try Here...

[panic_striken]

Thanks for taking the trouble to find me a link - however my temporary file has vanished - there is no trace of the document I once had, so I think I have to acept a loss on this one!  I just can't believe it removed a document I had saved weeks ago!

Thanks anway for the help...

[contrex]

sounds like your pen drive crapped out. It happens. have you tried removing it and reinserting it, or putting it in another computer?

[patio]

Go to Start / Search and use the star dot method...this will bring up every file on the machine with the same extension...

In your case it would be *.doc and hit Enter.

This will show every Word document on your machine and you may get lucky...that is if you remember the title of the page you are looking for.

[soybean]

Hi,  I'm not sure where you mean by "file", but I've looked in "my recent documents" and it's not there, and it's not on a file search either.... it's vanished from the folder it was saved in??  It just doesn't make sense!

And, this "folder" is on the flash drive, right?  Did you have other files on the flash drive?  Can you access them? 

Such a dilemma should be an incentive to improve your procedures in the future.  For one thing, never work on a word processing file for a long time, e.g. for two hours as you did, without doing a save.  Getting in the habit as saving often, say, every 5 to 15 minutes, will help prevent such losses. 

Also, unless this file is a sensitive document (based on content), I would not work off the flash drive as a normal practice.  In other words, save that file to the hard drive and work off the hard drive.  Then, when you've finished a session, copy the updated file the flash drive.  However, if you prefer to work off the flash drive because you're working on someone else's computer and you want to leave no trace of the file on their hard drive, implement a procedure of periodically backing up the files on the flash drive to YOUR hard drive, or burn to CD, etc.