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Really need help please

evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Really need help please

I was working on a very important document and suddenly the blue screen of death came out of nowhere and the computer has failed to go into windows ever since.
Anyhow, I now have the hard disk out of the laptop and am using as an external drive, but when I opened the file i was working on, I found it hadn't saved my 2 hours work that i had done on it. How can i access the most recent version of work. Sometimes when the computer used to crash, i could get the last version in c:windows/TEMP- however when i tried finding it on the hard drive, there is nothing there.
Where has the most recently saved version of the file gone? I would really appreciate some guidance advice here as this I am desperate to get this work back.
Thank you so much in advance,
evie Cry Sad
43 REPLIES 43
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Really need help please

Have you tried searching the whole drive for *.tmp files created in the period when the computer went down
evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Re: Really need help please

Hey oldjim,
thanks for your reply. Would you tell me how to do that please?
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Really need help please

Assuming you are using XP
Double click on my computer (usually icon at top left of screen) and then click on the drive you want to search.
There should be a menu item looking like a magnifying glass. Click on that and follow the instructions.
If it still isn't clear come back and I will provide some screen prints
evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Re: Really need help please

hey oldjim,
thanks a lot, i'm using vista at the moment, and there's nothing i can find that allows you to search. Sad
evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Re: Really need help please

i'll try and find a puter with xp. will be back
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Really need help please

Vista is a pig. Due to Microsoft being blocked from including their search system in an obvious place they had to hide it a bit so that the didn't have an unfair advantage over things like Google Desktop Search.
OK here are some instructions.
Open Windows Explorer, go to the disk drive and then press the  F3 key followed by Advanced Search
It should look like this - I selected the 😧 drive and partly filled it in
evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Re: Really need help please

hey oldjim,
Thank you so much for that, I didnt' realise you also knew vista.... I just nipped down to my nearest internet cafe to get a comp with xp on it . Don't know if you're still there- but i'm on xp now and there is no magnifying glass thingy in my computer ...... Embarrassed
shutter
Community Veteran
Posts: 22,206
Thanks: 3,769
Fixes: 65
Registered: ‎06-11-2007

Re: Really need help please

In XP
Bottom left corner of screen    START  click on that.... should bring up a Pop up menu
find "search" and you will see it has a magnifying glass next to it..... (its only an icon)  you click on search, then enter what you want to find.... in the relevant boxes  etc etc etc... with luck, it will find what you want and give you the location....
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Really need help please

Start, search?
MikeWhitehead
Grafter
Posts: 748
Registered: ‎19-08-2007

Re: Really need help please

It would help if we knew what application it was that you were working on (various applications save temporary files in various places, with some quite unusual names).
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
Fixes: 20
Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Really need help please

That will teach you to work on an unsaved document for hours!
Always save every 10 minutes or so (don't rely on any "autosave" features).
If it were me I would save and shutdown the application every hour on a Windows machine, then reopen the whole thing.
If I was paranoid, I would (and do) send the partial document to myself as an attachment (gmail is good).
That way if the system totally collapses, I can go elsewhere.
Of course, why not use Open Office (also with the above protocol) and you can use any PC - no need for Windows at all.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

MikeWhitehead
Grafter
Posts: 748
Registered: ‎19-08-2007

Re: Really need help please

Quote from: axisofevil
If I was paranoid, I would (and do) send the partial document to myself as an attachment (gmail is good).

Sorry to hijack the post somewhat, but why not simply set up a RAID with a decent number of disks?
evie
Grafter
Posts: 64
Registered: ‎03-09-2007

Re: Really need help please

thanks hp and shutter, i'm trying to locate the file but no luck so far.....
mike, it was a word document, 97 version of word. i was thinking it might have saved it under some weird name, any ideas
axis of evil- you really know how to kick someone when they're down-don't go into counselling will you- the tips would have been appreicated more, if they'd come without the barbs. thanks nonetheless
MikeWhitehead
Grafter
Posts: 748
Registered: ‎19-08-2007

Re: Really need help please

evie, are you able to search the disk? Ensure the "Show Hidden Files" option is selected within your Folder Options (Right-click Start button, select Explore. Go to Tools > Folder Options, and go to the View tab).
Search for:    ~wrd*.tmp
This will probably bring back quite a few files (I think it will work for Word 97 also, but if that doesn't bring back any meaningful results, let me know).