I didn’t have time to save the Word document, how can I restore it? How to recover an unsaved Word (or Excel) document

In this lesson you will learn how to save documents Microsoft Word, and also learn how you can restore your work using the tool Auto recovery, if an emergency closure of the program occurs, the computer turns off and other unpleasant things happen.

When creating a new document, you first need to know how to save it in order to open and edit it later. As in previous versions programs, Microsoft Word files can be saved on your computer. If desired, the document can be saved in cloud storage OneDrive, and export and share documents directly from Word.

OneDrive was formerly known as SkyDrive. There are no fundamental differences in the operation of these services, just a new name for existing service. In some Microsoft products For some time, the name SkyDrive may still appear.

Save and Save As

There are two ways to save a document in Microsoft Word: Save And Save as. These options work in the same way, with some differences.

Save: When creating or editing a document, use the command Save when you need to save changes. This command is used in most cases. The first time you save a document, you must name the file and specify a storage location on your computer. Next, when you press the command Save, the file is saved under the same name and in the same location.
Savehow about: This command is used to create a copy of the document when you want to save original file. Using the command Save as, you must assign a different name and/or change the storage location of the new file.

How to save a document

Remember to save changes when creating a new document or making changes to an existing file. Saving on time often prevents your work from being lost. Be sure to remember where you save your work so that it will be easier to find in the future.

Use Save As to create a copy

If you need to save new version document, while leaving the original, you can create a copy. For example, you have a file called “Sales Report”, you can save it as “Sales Report 2”. Now you can safely edit a copy of the file, while always being able to return to its original version.

How to change the default file save location

If you don't want to use OneDrive, you'll probably be disappointed because it's the default location to save your files. If it is inconvenient for you to select an item every time Computer, You can always change the default location to save files.

Automatic recovery

As you work on documents, Word automatically saves them to a temporary folder. It is possible to restore the file using Automatic recovery, in case you forget to save the changes or a crash occurs.

How to recover a document

By default, Word automatically saves every 10 minutes. If the document has been edited for less than 10 minutes, Word may not have time to autosave.

If you don't see required file, you can view all automatically saved files in Backstage view. Open the tab File, press Version management and then select Recover unsaved documents.

Instructions

You worked in Microsoft Word. Restart and open Microsoft Word. The program should send you a request for all unsaved data in its format. Open these files and find the most full version the document you were working on before the crash. It will be marked, in parentheses, as "Restored". Save the data to another once you find what you need.

If the request does not appear, click on the "Tools" tab in the MS Word window, and then "Options". On the “Saving” tab there should be a “File Location” parameter, it should contain the path to the location of everything unsaved files that were unexpectedly closed due to hardware failure or software. In Word 2007 you look for this path via Microsoft button Office and Word Options. The path is marked in the “Save” tab.

If you did not check the “Auto-save every n minutes” box, firstly, urgently correct this omission, and secondly, try to forcefully restore the file. Call the file opening panel, select your lost document and, by clicking on the arrow in the lower right corner of the “Open” button, select “Open and Recover.”

If this does not help, you will have to try to find and restore the file manually. To do this, return to the Desktop, click the Start button and find Search. In the search, select the option “Part of the file name or the entire file name” and enter *.ASD. Set your search scope to My Computer and click Search. If the computer finds your file, which will have the name “name of the lost document.asd”, return to Word. Go to Open and in the “File Type” list select “All files (*.*)”. Among the list of documents, find your file with the extension. asd and open it. Restart your computer, launch Word, and if your document appears on the left side of the screen, save it immediately.

Perhaps this won't help either. Then you should try to find the file among the temporary ones, with the tmp extension. To do this, you will have to turn to the search again, but in the file parameters set *.TMP and chevrons next to the item “When were the last changes made?” indicate dates. If the document is , return to Word. Call the file opening panel, select your lost document and, by clicking on the arrow in the lower right corner of the “Open” button, select “Open and Recover” again.

Even if in this case there was no document, there is hope - some temporary computer files, starting them with a tilde (~). In Search, change "Part of the file name or the entire file name" from *.TMP to ~*.*. And leaving the same dates in the change parameters, run new search. The found document should be dealt with in the same way as in the previous case.

You were working in some other document creation program.

Open Word Pad through the Accessories menu on the Start menu. Click "File" and then the "Open" button. Enter the name of the lost file. When prompted to convert the file, select "no". From the menu, select the "Save" command to save the recovered file using WordPad and click "OK".

Useful advice

Before you start working in Microsoft Word, make sure the AutoSave feature is turned on. Select a time convenient for you after which documents will be saved and the folder in which the program will save them. No one is immune from failures - take care of your work in advance.

Sources:

Microsoft Support
how to recover an unsaved word document
Recovering after saving and closing Excel document

Often when working in Microsoft Office users for some reason forget or do not have time to save file, which they were just working on and the information is lost when closed unsaved document. If you haven't saved file and closed the program, this does not mean that all your work was lost - unsaved in Microsoft Office file Can .

Instructions

In Power Point, the program will prompt you to restore unsaved . A new window will open in which you will see your automatically saved drafts. Choose the right one file and open it and then select the "Save As" option from the menu.

In addition, restore file you can by selecting the “Info” option from the “File” menu, and then “Version Control”. In the window that opens, click on the button to recover unsaved documents.

Sources:

how to restore a presentation

Important documents are often created in Microsoft Word - educational, work and other files, the loss of which can seriously harm the user's activities. However, sometimes unsaved documents are lost after an unexpected power outage, computer system, program errors and other events - and in this case the document has to be restored. Microsoft Word has several simple ways document recovery.

Instructions

If you are working with text file, which is stored on removable device, connect automatic creation local copy document that is in remote mode and is saved, accordingly, also in remote mode. To do this, open the main Word menu and open Word Options.

Select the "Advanced" tab and find the "Save" section. Near the line “Copy deleted files to this computer and update them when saving” check the box.

If your file is located on your hard drive and not on the network or on removable media, you can configure the program to save backups to automatic mode. If you accidentally turn off your computer or the program crashes, it will start automatic recovery document from a backup copy.

To configure automatic saving Open Word's main menu and then open Word Options. As in the case described above, find the “Save” section in the “Advanced” tab and next to the line “Always create backup copy» Check the box if it is not there yet.

In order to open a backup copy if it does not open automatically, select the “File” -> “Open” section, and then in the “Files of type” window set the value to “All files”. In that folder, your document, there are also its backup copies, which are saved in wbk format. Set the folder to be displayed as a table and select the desired file from the “Saved copy of Word” type.

If a file is damaged, when to open it in the usual way impossible, use the recovery function - run the program and in the “File” menu select the “Open” option, and then in Explorer click on required document. To the right of the open button, click on the arrow and select the “Open and restore” subcategory. Press Enter.

Some files that we did not save manually on the computer are available to open from hard drive. In most cases, this happens when they are created. certain programs, providing for periodic creation of backup copies.

Instructions

If you opened a file downloaded from the Internet for viewing and now, without saving it, you cannot find it again, check Temp folder, which is located in the following directory: C:/Documents and Settings/Username/Local Settings/Temp. It contains all temporary files, which you used while using your browser for a certain period of time, which you set in your browser settings. Best set in settings manual mode cleaning these folders so as not to lose information in the future.

If you did not save the document in Microsoft Office, use the function to restore previously edited files. This is done due to the fact that the system provides for periodic documents. Open the MS Office program that was used for editing, and then select the option to recover unsaved documents (or workbooks in Excel).

To view unsaved edits in other programs various files Check the menu of the software you are using to see if there is a function to recover unsaved data. Also check the temporary data storage folders that may be located in the Application Data menu on your local drive, having previously turned on visibility hidden elements system in the Folder Options menu in the Computer Control Panel.

In case you cannot find backup copies of the unsaved data you are editing, search by local disk your computer by file name, while enabling advanced scanning options system folders and hidden elements of the system. Be sure to include the approximate creation date of your file. Also specify the name that is assigned to new files by default in the program you are using.

Video on the topic

Useful advice

Periodically save the files you edit and use the source uninterruptible power supply.

Restoring closed files without saving ov Word can be done in several ways. All of them use the built-in mechanisms of the system and do not require additional software.

You will need

- Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007

Instructions

Try to find the original document. To do this, call the main system menu by clicking the Start button and activate the Search Assistant utility by clicking the Use Helper button. Select “All files and folders” in the dialog box that opens and type the name of the document to be restored in the corresponding field. Select the “My Computer” option in the “Where to Look” directory and confirm the selected action by clicking the “Find” button.

Enter in the line “Part of the file name or the entire file name” the extension .doc, typical for documents Word, and click the Find button again if you don't remember the file name.

Expand the Trash desktop item double click mouse and expand the “View” menu of the top service panel. Select the “Table” item and use the “Arrange Icons” command. Select the “Date of deletion” sub-item and try to find the document you need.

Have you ever encountered a situation where a .doc or .docx file could not be opened due to an error? Or completely lose a document on which a lot of hard and painstaking work has been done? Probably, most PC users have encountered such a situation, and if not, then the article is still on this topic It will be interesting for them, since you need to be ready for anything.

So, let's look at several ways to restore lost or damaged Microsoft file Word.

How to recover text from a damaged Word document

If the document is damaged, the user may encounter the following error:

If you have checked and ensured that you have permission to access the document and the disk, and are sure that there is enough space and memory on the disk, then the next step is to use the built-in Word functions restoration in order to return the text of the document.

To do this:

Open Word and select the File / Open / Browse tab

Find the file you want to open and select Recover text from any file from the pop-up menu. Click Open.

Sometimes, despite the recovery process, the file may remain damaged even if the file is successfully restored and opened. Formatting will be lost.

Another way to recover

If the above method does not work, Microsoft has provided another way to recover the Word file. To do this, go to the File / Open tab.

In the window that opens, select your document.

Click the Open button and select the “Open and Repair” option.

If you see the message when opening a document, you should install latest version programs.

Restore a backup copy of your Word document

If it is not possible to even find the file, you can try to detect a backup copy of the file created by Microsoft Word. This can be done as follows.

Select File/Open/Browse.

Go to the folder where the lost file was located. In the file type selection window, select “All files (*.*).” Usually the backup file is called “Backup…” + file name. Select and open such a file.

If it was not possible to detect a backup copy of the file in this way, then enter in the box Windows search- *.wbk (backup file format - Word Backup files). But in in this case The names of the backup files will not necessarily match the name of the lost file. Try opening *.wbk files one by one until you find the one you need.

Find and restore an autosaved copy of a file

If backing up files Microsoft documents Word is not configured on your computer, try restoring the document from autosave files.

Autosave files can be checked in the following folder:

C:\Users\ Name User \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word

The name of the autocopy file will begin with “Autocopy...” and will be in *.asd format. Just click on the autocopy of the file and it will open as a Microsoft Word document.

Programs for recovering Microsoft Office documents

If none of the proposed functions bring the desired result, then try to recover the lost file using any of the programs Microsoft package Office can be one of the many programs for recovering deleted documents.

Fortunately, the choice today is huge. The only advice is to choose a simpler program that specializes in recovering files in the Microsoft Office package format. Since different algorithms are often used to recover image files and documents, and accordingly, the quality of recovery can vary significantly.

As an example we can consider Hetman Office Recovery. Already from the name you can understand that the program specializes in file recovery Microsoft format Office. To recover your Word file, simply download and run the program, and use it to scan the disk on which the document was lost.

As a result of scanning, the program will display the found documents with original names. You can view their contents in the window preview. To restore the desired file, just mark it with a checkmark and click the “Next” button.

Have a great day!

Instructions

Open that one Office program, in which the document was created.

Select the “File” tab from the program menu.

Use the line " Latest files" in the drop-down menu.

Select the desired file in the window that opens with saved versions of documents.

Click the "Open" button.

Select a name and format to save the file in service menu“Save As” in the application window toolbar.
As an alternative, you can use another method to find and recover files.

Open the Office program in which the document was created and select any document.

Click the "Information" button in the "File" menu of the program window.

Select "Version Control" from the drop-down menu.

Specify “Recover unsaved documents” (for Word files), “Recover unsaved books" (For Excel files) or Recover Unsaved Presentations (for PowerPoint files).

Select the document you are looking for from the list of unsaved versions that opens.

Open the desired file.

From the program menu, select “File” and click the “Information” button.

Select the latest revision of the document in the "Versions" block.

Select the “Restore” field in the toolbar of the program window. Please note that all previous versions of the document will be updated to the selected version.

Please note

Please note that these functions are Microsoft programs Office is only possible if you enable the "Autosave every..." and "Keep the last autosaved version if the file was closed without saving" options.

Changes to the location of unsaved files on disk are not possible.

Useful advice

You can find and open unsaved documents in
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles (for Windows Vista and Windows 7).

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Unsaved Files (for Windows XP).

Sources:

Official Microsoft Office website

Some files that we did not save manually on the computer can be opened from the hard drive. In most cases, this happens when they are created by certain programs that provide for periodic creation of backup copies.

Instructions

If you opened a file downloaded from the Internet for viewing and now, without saving it, you cannot find it again, check the Temp folder, which is located in the following directory: C:/Documents and Settings/Username/Local Settings/Temp. It contains all temporary files, which you used while using your browser for a certain period of time, which you set in your browser settings. It is best to set the settings to manually clear folder data so as not to lose information in the future.

To view unsaved files edited in other programs, check the menu of the software you are using to see if there is a function for restoring unsaved data. Also check the temporary storage folders that may be located in the Application Data menu on your local drive by first turning on the visibility of hidden system elements in the Folder Options menu in the computer control panel.

If you cannot find backup copies of edited unsaved data, search the local drive of your computer by file name, while enabling advanced options to scan system folders and hidden system elements. Be sure to include the approximate creation date of your file. Also specify the name that is assigned to new files by default in the program you are using.

Video on the topic

Useful advice

Save edited files periodically and use an uninterruptible power supply.

Often, when working in Microsoft Office, users for some reason forget or do not have time to save file, which they were just working on, and the information is lost when closing the unsaved document. If you haven't saved file and closed the program, this does not mean that all your work was lost - unsaved in Microsoft Office file Can .

Instructions

Sources:

how to restore a presentation

Solving the problem of restoring unsaved document can be conditionally divided into two methods, depending on whether the document was accidentally closed by the user himself, or an unexpected shutdown of the office application occurred.

Are you familiar with the situation when, after sitting all day working in Word, upon completion, you are about to close the file with a clear conscience, but the cursor treacherously clicks on the “do not save” option, and all your efforts are in vain? Or while you are writing an essay and suspect nothing, the light suddenly turns off, and along with it all the unsaved data disappears? If you are reading this now, then most likely something of this kind has happened to you. But don't despair! The process of finding an unsaved document and restoring it is quite quick and simple, so you won't spend a lot of time on it.

Let's look at ways to recover Word documents for three versions: 2010, 2007 and 2003. They differ slightly, but first things first.

Word 2010 version

Fortunately, in this version the developers took care of such a problem? and you can return the lost document without any problems. Moreover, if an emergency shutdown occurs, that is, the computer turns off without your participation, the program itself will restore the file that you did not have time to save.

And if no unexpected shutdowns occurred and you simply missed pressing the “save” button, then you need to search for backup copies of documents manually. It's not that hard, below are detailed instructions.

Open Word, click on “File” in the left top corner screen. After that, go to “Information”

2. Find “Versions”, click and select the “Recover unsaved documents” function.

3. A folder opens in front of us where backup copies of documents are located. We look for the file we need among them and open it.

4. Save the document and continue to work on it as much as necessary!

That's all, we found a backup copy of the document and restored everything manually, spending a maximum of 5 minutes on this. You may be wondering why the unsaved file ended up in a certain folder? It's simple, in Word 2010, by default, the document autosave function works every 10 minutes. If desired, this time can be changed, for example, to autosave every 2 minutes. This is quite easy to do, let's figure it out together.

Go to “File” again, only this time select “Help” from the menu, and then “Options”.
On the right in the options menu we find “Saves” and set up a convenient interval for us at which autosave will be performed. There you can also change the path of saved files to make them easier to find.

That's all, now you know how to recover a Word 2010 document. Now let's understand how to recover an unsaved Word 2007 document. Everything is a little different there, but also quite simple and understandable.

Word 2007 version

Overall, the only difference is more earlier versions word (2007, 2003) is that there is no “Information” section in the menu, from where we “pulled out” the unsaved documents. However, as mentioned earlier, restoring files is still not difficult for you and me.

That's all, the restoration of the lost document has been completed! The same scheme works with the version Word 2003 .

Backup Converter

But if you cannot open the file using the methods given above, it means that the file is damaged or deleted and you need to use a backup converter. It is installed with Office, but sometimes you need to activate it manually.

Congratulations, you now have this option enabled. If it was turned on before, then you don’t need to do any of the above; let’s start using it right away. So how to restore deleted document word:

Launch word, “File” - “Open”.
Enter the path to the backup and click on it.
In the field above the “Cancel” button, set the “Text recovery” option.
Click on the arrow next to “Open” and select “Recovery”.

Done, we have “returned” the deleted/damaged file using the converter.

What to do if there is no backup

It happens that it disappears after the document in Word has been closed. But this situation is not hopeless; there are several ways to return your file safe and sound.

First way

Open “My Computer”.
Enter “*.asd” into the search bar. This is an extension of all unsaved word files, and the asterisk is read like any symbol.
Once your search is complete, locate the backup copy of your data in the list provided.

And if the system didn’t find anything, try using “.wdk” instead of “*.asd”. If this option does not help you, try the next method.

Second way

If the first option does not help you, then there is no automatically saved document. However, your data may still be in temporary files. So what to do:

Open “My Computer” again
Now enter “*.tmp” into the search bar.
We look for the file you need in the list.

Third way

Sometimes temporary data is saved with a ~ sign and a tilde at the beginning.

Go to the search again, specify the date in the parameters last change in the file.
We type “~*.*” and the system searches for all documents that begin with a tilde.
From the entire list that appears, find the document you need.

These are all the ways by which it is possible to recover lost and unsaved files. But if none of them helped you, then try using special programs.

When you work with voluminous or important documents, you need to make sure that autosave is configured, but it is better to save yourself to be absolutely sure of the safety of your documents.