accidentally saved over a document - can anyone help?

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accidentally saved over a document - can anyone help?

The situation is this. I was typing in a long document (Microsoft Word) on my computer running Mac OS X 10.4.11. Somehow I must have selected the entire text of the file (40 pages) and hit the enter key because suddenly I looked at it and there was no text left.

Instead of hitting command-Z (what I should have done), I clicked to close the file, figuring it would ask me to save changes and I would choose "no" and revert to the saved version. Well, it must have autosaved the blank file, because it didn't ask me if I wanted to save changes, and when I reopened the file, you guessed it... still blank!

I remember from years ago when I had a PC that each time you saved a Word document, the computer saved a hidden version of the file, so you ended up with several dozen temporary files that you could find until you restarted the program or restarted your computer. Does my Mac have anything like that?

I just went in and changed my Microsoft Word options to automatically save a backup version... wish I had known about that option sooner! Any other suggestions? Help!!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jan 7, 2009 11:40 AM

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Answer 1

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BDAqua

Level 10

239,225 points

Jan 7, 2009 12:22 PM in response to vilafranca

Hi vilafranca, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

I'm fairly certain it's completely gone with the settings you had. 😟

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Answer 2

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Jan 7, 2009 12:50 PM in response to vilafranca

you could try posting in these Microsoft forums.

Microsoft Mac word form. comment: confusing, typical Microsoft
Word Forum
http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Word/

Microsoft Office assumed for Windows
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/FlyoutOverview.mspx#13

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

411,223 points

Jan 7, 2009 2:36 PM in response to vilafranca

Try using an application such as [Data Rescue II|http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php] or [FileSalvage|http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main page=product_info&productsid=1]. Both have free trial versions that let you see if the software will help before you decide to buy.

It is critical that you do not use the computer or even turn it on until you have rescued your files. Files only have the directory reference to them removed when you empty the trash and are still present on the computer. However, their space is marked as available to any other file creation done on the computer (even done by you booting the computer) and there is risk that your files will be overwritten by the computer.

There is also this free tool which supposedly runs on OSX and does recovery of popular media and Office files. http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download I know almost nothing about it and maybe it only runs on Intel machines.

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