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This is because when any info is copied it is sent to a temp file with the name ~wrlxxxx.tmp. If you have been working on a file for hours and the document was created via copying and pasting or at one point had cut the entire page or document to paste some place and then placed something else on the clip board, the data may not have been lost. These files can also be found in the following locations:Ĭ:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFilesĬ:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles Find your file and double click on it to open.
#Access microsoft word document recovery windows 7
On Windows 7 and Vista, the locations will be "C:\ Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp"."C:\ Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\Word".The auto save files are placed in one of the following two locations, which is where you should look to recover the data. You can control this time in Options under the "Save" tab.
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The default auto save time for word documents is 10 minutes. There are others, but these are the ones most likely to contain data that can be recovered.įinding and using the temporary and auto save files These are good ones to look for to find some lost info. This temporary file will have a few different letters after the tilde (or squiggly line " ~ "). If the file is stored on a network drive then it will be temporarily created there.
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This can be either in the windows temp directory, in "C:\ Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft". When a new file is started a temporary file is created. Therefore you may want to experiment before you rely on this information. Microsoft have changed the way AutoSave and Auto Recover works in different versions of Office.
#Access microsoft word document recovery how to
However many people don't know how to use these features or that they even exist.Įven if you don't have these features enabled, you can sometimes recover data from the various temporary files that are created by Office while you are working on the document. Microsoft Office has extensive AutoSave and Auto Recovery options that allow you to rescue your work in the event that it is lost due to a power failure, system crash or plain human error.
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