HELP! THESIS LOST IN WORD!!!

[kristiane66]

Hi,
Praying someone can help me.Was typing my thesis in word, I copied and pasted 4 seperate appendicesonto the end of my original document and all of the sudden all of the previous text was gone and page one started with the appendices!! Months worth of work, devastated and crying all day! Dell Tech unable to find it, and I purchased Recovery wizard and unable to see it it there although it is a complicated program and not sure if I'm doing it right, but I did a complete reocivery and nothing!! Please any advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kristiane

[Aegis]

K -- I'm gonna ask a couple of lame questions until someone with real expertise at file recovery comes along and sees this thread.

What version of Word / Office are you using, and do you know the file format?  Was Word saving your file as a .doc file?

Thanks -- and hang in there!

[kristiane66]

I'm using Word 2003. I've just hung up with Microsoft  support and they say I'm basically screwed because I must have saved it and now the file is basically overwritten and the new document only has the appendices in it and the original is nowhere! I'm crying my eyes out...I think it is a lost cause! Can't beleive this...if you hear about some lady jumping off a cliff in Connnecticut you'll know it was me!!!!!!

[Aegis]

Don't jump yet.  I don't want to get up your hopes, but I don't have the expertise to say, There is no way.  There are people on here who've forgotten more than I've learned about certain areas when it comes to computers. 

I don't mean to waste your time by not being able to help.  Others will see this, and respond.

[kristiane66]

Thanks for the support...I won't really jump...but I want to!! Can't beleive it...I thought nothing was ever lost on a computer...maybe I should call the FBI or something!

[pcsourcepoint]

Maybe check out these free recovery programs from Snapfiles...

Maybe your thesis was saved as a dot rather than doc format in word. Hence try searching for *.dot word formatted document....

I learnt to back up important documents online for free, when I accidentally (or stupidly) erased a few word documents for my thesis a while back. You can too...Contact your ISP who should be able to provide free space of about 20 to 30 MB (needs to be activated). Also use the free Google Pages (need Gmail account), where you can upload files for free - up to 100 MB...


Maybe visit tech Pro for a few tips for recovery...

All the best...

From pcsourcepoint, Auckland, New Zealand...

[kristiane66]

Thanks for the tips! I will try searching as a *dot too.

[Aegis]

What version of Word are you using?

[Dias de verano]

What version of Word are you using?

She answered that before.

Reply #2 on: April 07, 2008, 11:10:39 PM »
I'm using Word 2003.

[soybean]

I learnt to back up important documents online for free, when I accidentally (or stupidly) erased a few word documents for my thesis a while back. You can too...Contact your ISP who should be able to provide free space of about 20 to 30 MB (needs to be activated). Also use the free Google Pages (need Gmail account), where you can upload files for free - up to 100 MB...

Other options for keeping a backup copy of your files somewhere other than your main hard drive:

• external hard drive
• CD/DVD-RW drive so that you can burn files to a CD or DVD
• flash drive
  

Always keep a backup copy of such important files somewhere and overwrite those copies periodically with a recent version of your main/working file.

[Dias de verano]

I usually save by pressing alt - F- S after every completed paragraph of typing and back up to a different hard drive at the end of every work session.

[Aegis]

Many word processors have settings which will automatically save your documents at a default or user-specified interval, to a default or user-specified destination.  I manually save (occasionally) out of habit, but I let the software do it for me.

[Aegis]

You're right, Dias De Verano, I asked the same question twice.  I'm sorry.  Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa maxima.  It is not logical, but I'm trying for something, anything, that might save this -- and it probably can't be saved.  The file probably was overwritten.  I don't mean to waste anyone's time.

So now we all get to explain to this poor person how to avoid this in the future, so I'm going to chime in with the standards that I know:  A person wants to have at least two backup copies of important work, with (ideally) one of those copies being off-site.  The USB flash drives, being inexpensive and portable, are extremely popular for this sort of thing.  My warning would be, if the work or material is important enough, to utilize at least two flash drives.  I had a flash drive fail last year.  They are durable, and sturdy, for the most part, but they are not infallible.

[Bromide]

For anyone who uses the Vista operating system, this program might help recover older versions of files. http://www.shadowexplorer.com

See this article. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/recover-files-with-shadow-copies-on-any-version-of-windows-vista/#comment-38960

[kristiane66]

Thanks for all of your input! I have Micorsoft XP so the vista tricks probably wont work. I wil defintely backup my stuff very concientiously from now on!! Boy have I learned the hard way!! THanks everyone.
Kristiane

[daniel_b]

kristiane66,
i did this for a customer with a similar problem,
may be kind of a weird way to do it,
BUT, it worked, try this:
are you using xp/vista?
if so,
use your 'roll-back / recover / restore' function,
in other words,
go back to the day before you did the 'lame' copy-paste-save thing,
B-U-T
make sure anything you've done since is backed up,
because it sure will be gone!!!

[brett74]

Kristiane66: Did you try and do a file search yet if not try doing that to see if anything comes up.

[NOT ADMIN :P]

try looking here for a version of your document that has been auto saved.

C:\Documents and Settings\*(your user)*\Application Data\Microsoft\Word

You will have to allow hidden files/folders to be viewed

TOOLS > FOLDER OPTIONS > VIEW (tab) > select the "show hidden files / folders radio button

Hope it works*

[michaewlewis]

You can send your computer into a data recovery company and see if they can find it. It will likely be very expensive, but may be worth it, especially if it's for a masters or doctorate.

[daniel_b]

guess OP either jumped off that cliff,
or just lost interest in the thread,

[Aegis]

I think she decided to start over on her work.  I'm guessing she hasn't been back to check.

[winsky]

if  u computer using NTFS,try out this software : getbackNTFS and if  u computer using FAT32, try out this software : getbackFAT32.

today i lost my document after format the pc, but thanks god that i had recover my document back by using this software.