Recover Word Documents

There’s nothing worse than losing a Word document that you’ve been working on for hours due to a cable coming unplugged or the power going out. Thankfully, Microsoft has implemented several ways to recover documents that were never saved properly. Follow this guide to check all your backup locations, scour your computer, and even install data recovery software.

Steps

1. Close all open Word windows and restart Word. Use the Task Manager to close every Word window that is open. When you restart Word, a pane will appear on the left side that will list all of the files that were lost without being saved. Select the file you are missing from the list to open it and save it.
2. Check the Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin is where files are placed before they are permanently deleted from your system. You can restore any files found in the Recycle Bin by right-clicking on them and clicking Restore.
3. Search for the original document. Click the Start menu button and enter the document file name into the Search field. In Windows 8, start typing the file name while on the Start Screen, and then select Files in the menu on the right.
   • You can search for every Word document on your computer by entering *.doc (Word 2003 and earlier) or *.docx (Word 2007 and later) into the Search.
4. Look for the backup files. If you have backups enable in Word, you can look for the backup file for the document you are missing. In Word, click File and then select Open. In the “Files of type” menu, select All Files.
   • Navigate to the folder that your document was last saved in. Select the backup file and click Open.
   • You can also search your entire computer for Word backup files by entering *.wbk into Windows Search.
5. Manually search for the AutoRecover files. If no files appear in the left pane when you start Word, you can manually search through the AutoRecover files. In Word 2010, click the File menu and select Recent. At the bottom of the menu, select Recover Unsaved Documents. Browse for your file.
   • For all other versions of Word, search the computer for *.asd files, using the same method as Step 3.
6. Search for temporary files. Besides AutoRecover and backup files, you may be able to find your document in your computer’s temporary files folder. Search for *.tmp files. The file won’t be named the same as the original document, so browse through the list of results until you find the last date and time that you edited the document.
   • Temporary Word files also typically start with ~, so search for that as well.
   • When you find a temporary Word file you may need to repair it.
7. Use a data recovery program. If all other options have failed, you can try to use a data recovery program to recover the document. There is no guarantee that the document will be able to be recovered, but you may be able to retrieve it.
   • Do not install the data recovery program onto the same disk as your missing file if possible. This will help prevent it from being overwritten and lost for good.

Related Articles

• Save a Microsoft Word Document
• Set up Autosave on Microsoft Word 2007
• Back up a Computer
• Open a Word Document Without Microsoft Word

Sources and Citations

• http://wordrecovery.webpin.com/

See also

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