Question:
HI
Hope you can help. My father in law has been typing up a story he wrote on to Word.He has been saving it everyday and it was 80 pages long. Today something went wrong in it and I believe he pressed the delete key- it then asked if he wanted to save- and he said yes ! ( not prob realising he had just deleted it all) .Now all his work has gone and it is his first atempt at using technology .I looked through the search under computer but could not find it. I vainly tried resetting the computer- no luck. Is there any way of getting his word file back ??
ps he said it is all he wants for xmas is to get his story back
Answers:
Try
If he deleted all of the text then saved it well all he will have is a blank document.
As he saved nowt, thats why it is always best to back up or email a trusted friend
with the work at the very least..
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Try
This worked for me on photos deleted from camera memory card.
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For a website he might try which is quite simple to use, I'm not sure what the limit is though if he intends to put a lot of writing there. Someone did put a link to a list of free websites but I can't find it. Also there is a limit on photos on freewebs, not many at all.
I believe allows more space for photos.
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Any thing is worth a Down load file scavenger follow the instructions takes a bit of time mind
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I managed to recover a friends 'lost' document by using the windows search function and searching for all *.tmp files. One of these was the document that she thought was unrecoverable. All I did was re-open (I think using Word) then save properly.
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Easy recovery my company uses it all the time as part of investigations - However its not cheap but it should work.
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if you have restore points on your pc ( xp ) then try restoring yesterdays settings, it may work although doubtful.
have you searched your hard drive for the files ( not just word)?
have you got something like norton security installed on your pc, because i remember that having the option to undelte things you had previously deleted.
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@Cat72
Can you confirm.
The File was deleted.
Or
The File was saved but all text in the file was deleted.
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Typical file recovery software may not recover it, since it's not a 'deleted file' as such. Professional file recovery serviced may be able to get it back, but can be pretty pricey.
It's possible there are some fragments of the documents saved as temporary files. Use a search utility to search for a unique word or phrase in the document (a characters name is a good idea for a novel). Make sure you search all files.
Grep is a pretty good tool for this, but I've not really used Grep for windows (except under cygwin), so I'm not sure how useful it will be in this case. Also, searching the entire harddrive may take a while.
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I did similar with an entire chapter of my thesis. Absolutely soul destroying.
I hope you find it.
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The File was saved but all text in the file was deleted
Yip this is what he seems to have done.I feel really sorry for him he is 62 and just started to use the computer.I think deep down he is veryupset as he phoned me immediately and i was 40 mile away - plus he phoned my mobile when he hates mobile charges ! oh so no hope then... i tried the system restore and he hasnt got norton.
I searched under hard disc d and c and my computer under its saved name but no luck either.
Would the pc inspector work then ??
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If the text is gone im afraid its gone it will never be recovered.
As if you recovered a deleted file with no text well youll recover a blank document.
Its bad news im afraid.
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Oh thanks- i think im going to cry for him.
Also he is typing up a book that he wrote and it is very long is there any other wat to do this maybe a web site etc as he wants photos in ittoo- and might be a better way andcheer him up a bit ??
thanks so much for trying..
I suggested I might buy him the dictator type software so he could just speak the book, is that any good ?
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Oh thanks- i think im going to cry for him.
Also he is typing up a book that he wrote and it is very long is there any other wat to do this maybe a web site etc as he wants photos in ittoo- and might be a better way andcheer him up a bit ??
thanks so much for trying..
I suggested I might buy him the dictator type software so he could just speak the book, is that any good ?
Try this get a small cheap microphone and plug into PC and record voice using and save a mp3 file or just type what you want then save the file then always put a copy on a Floppy disc CD-RW or USB Pen Drive...
Just a few suggestions, I would do type or dictaphone as an mp3 file may be a bit too complicated whatever happens always always make a copy.
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Is it written in a way someone could type it up for him? 80 pages wouldn't take long for a typist and it would be presented in a professional way too. It might be money better spent than him trying to use yet another new way of doing things (though he could try that too).
Also if he's going to do more typing, if he uses it saves automatically every few words (though I would think in Word you can enable this to happen too). Of course that doesn't help if he then deletes it but he could make a copy every day for instance.
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Cat - I've just added a bit to my post.
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Hi
I am afrid the book is quite long- the 80 pages was only a bit of it.
I have been encouraging him to use the computer - but I dont have loads of time ( nor the patience ) to type it up for him. He was getting the hang of word and was feeling quite safe with it so I said it would be ok to type most of the wording up and I was going to work on it when I had more time- and to be honest felt better. If he was doing a web type thing we could maybe do it a bit slower- and I thought it would look nicer. It is also to send to his brother in new zealand so I tought a web link would help. You have all been great- I just wish I knew a bit more myself !
Thanks FRAN ( your always so helpful). I had got him to save it everytime but well delete button happens it seems !
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yea iv done that too shopbot
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Is he just typing the story up from a hand written copy? If so, at least only hard work typing has gone to waste and not the creative effort which is a bit harder to replace (always trying to look on the bright side me).
If he decided to type it up again, a couple of tips - make sure you back up onto another disk, floppy or pendrive, and think about saving seperate chapters or sections as seperate documents - so if one becomes corrupt the others are still there (also, larger documents seem more likely to become corrupt).