Help Finding a Missing Document

I worked on a document for about six hours yesterday on Word '07. I saved frequently, and left it open at night to work on it a little bit in the morning. I believe the name of the document had the word "Report" in it when saved. Anyway, last night I spilled water all over my laptop (the keyboard no longer works and the touchpad sometimes doesn't either). Anyway, right after it happened, I cleaned the water up, the computer was still working normal, and I assumed everything was fine.

In the morning, my keyboard was pressing random buttons and wouldn't work properly. I couldn't open anything, so I shut down my computer (by holding down the power button). I knew I saved my document before shutting it down at least a few times, and if I didn't I thought autorecovery would get it anyway. When the computer powered back on, the keyboard was still pressing random buttons, but I could at least open programs. So I opened word, and my document was recovered, and I clicked the save button after opening the recovered copy. Then I closed Word, and after using my computer a bit more, so many buttons were simultaneously being pressed, I decided to shutdown again by holding down the power button.

When it powered up, the keyboard was still not functional, but I could still open programs. So, I went to transfer my document to a USB drive, but it was gone! I checked the recent documents, recycle bin, and searched the computer for documents with the word "report in them" and found nothing. I know it was saved at least a few times, and I haven't emptied my recycle bin, so it must be somewhere. But if nothing appears when I search for it, does that mean it is gone forever?

What should I do? Is there any way of getting this document back? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Couple of things you can try.

1) Open an explorer window, in the search box at the top right type: Kind:docs

Remember, Search in Windows 7 works in a contextual way. E.g., search in the Start Menu will prioritise Start Menu items and programs, search in Explorer will prioritise documents and pictures and so on.

2) Try Recuva to recover the document.

Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

The second suggestion didn't work, but I am not sure how to do the first one. Do you mean open an internet explorer window? Thanks for your help! :)

CheeseJam said:

The second suggestion didn't work, but I am not sure how to do the first one. Do you mean open an internet explorer window? Thanks for your help! :)

Hi, no not Internet Explorer.

Windows Orb > Computer > In the top right of the window it should say Search Computer, click in the search box > Now type Kind:docs

See if it brings anything up regarding your report

Oh, thanks. That did not work either.

I guess something must have gone wrong with the hard drive and the water. Oh well...

I appreciate all of the help guys! :)

CheeseJam said:

Oh, thanks. That did not work either.

I guess something must have gone wrong with the hard drive and the water. Oh well...

I appreciate all of the help guys! :)

This is probably the first thing you tried, but have you looked in recent files using Office 2007?

Also you could try enabling the Recent Items option on the Windows Start Menu as well by doing this:

Right Click on the Windows Orb > Start Menu > Customize > Look for a box above Recorded TV that says Recent Items & tick it if not already done so > Then click OK & OK again, the option should appear above Computer on the Start Menu, see if it's listed in there

EDIT:

Try reading this Microsoft support article, may help:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316951

Also by chance before Word was shutdown there may be a AutoRecover file still present of your report.

I'm using MSO 2010 but I think the file path may still be the same for 2007:

Copy the file path below but replace the BOLD text with your computer user name & paste it into the box on the left next to the search box in Windows Explorer.

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

There's a little known "recent" short cut available. Type this into the "run" on the start menu: C:\Users\<user name>\Recent (replace<user name> with the account you were in)