Gmail Saved an XLS file to Temp, and it's gone.

Reead · 08 Jan 2011

Well, this hasn't been pleasant. I downloaded a work-related XLS file from Gmail and opened it in OpenOffice to edit it. After putting in a good 7-8 hours of tedious work, I saved, closed it, and shut off my computer.

Today, I attempted to re-open it to finish what I'd started, only to be surprised by the complete absence of the file I'd been working on. Attempting to open it from the Recent Files menu in OpenOffice alerted me that my file no longer existed, and worse, that it was saved in the Appdata\Local\Temp folder.

I've tried a few random file recovery programs and nothing seems to pull it up whatsoever. I'd really rather not rewrite the entire document, as it involved a lot of research to find the numbers I was entering. Is there anything that can be done? Or is the Temp folder simply a permanent graveyard from which no deleted files can be recovered?

ryo · 08 Jan 2011

hello and welcome, when you push save as...did you make sure that's drive or location files does your save in?? how about in recent document?

Reead · 08 Jan 2011

Save As in Open Office saves to My Documents, however I simply saved the file. The file listed in "recent" simply tries to find a file in the Temp folder that no longer exists.

ryo · 08 Jan 2011

hm...it's means that's the file is already gone..your computer is sharing to the another person?? maybe you can try recuva software..Recuva - Download

Reead · 08 Jan 2011

I actually tried using Recuva, it couldn't find it. My computer is shared to another computer in my household, but that computer hasnt been active since this occured, and moreover has no reason to be overwriting anything on my Hard Drive.

Thank you for the Recuva suggestion though, unfortunately it's already been tried unsuccessfully =(

Anak · 09 Jan 2011

Hi! Reead, welcome to 7F :)

Here are two that have been good to me:

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.

PhotoRec - CGSecurity

This one is a little trickier unless you have another drive to save to.

Pandora Recovery can use local hard drive, remote network drive or flash drive as a recovery destination folder. Pandora Recovery even allows you to recover deleted files on the same drive that the deleted files resided on originally.

IMPORTANT! To increase the success rate of file recovery it is strongly recommended that you recover your deleted file to a secondary hard drive, a network drive, USB Flash drive, or other external media. While recovery to the same drive that the deleted files reside on is physically possible it may lead to partial or complete loss of your deleted content. Non-deleted files will never be put at risk in either circumstance.

If your lost data resides on your C: it is recommended you perform your file recovery by physically removing the C: drive from your computer and attaching it as a slave on another computer and then performing the file recovery using that other computer.

Free Pandora File Recovery - Find and recover deleted files of any type.

Anak · 09 Jan 2011

Reead said:

Save As in Open Office saves to My Documents, however I simply saved the file. The file listed in "recent" simply tries to find a file in the Temp folder that no longer exists.

Do you remember doing it like this?
Open Microsoft Excel spreadsheets - OpenOffice.org Calc

Save a spreadsheet as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet - OpenOffice.org Calc

The "automatic file name extension" has to be checked, and usually is by default.

Reead · 09 Jan 2011

Trying both of those. Thank you very much! I've begun working on redoing my work just in case, but this could still potentially save me a lot of time.

Edit: And Anak, Im pretty sure I know exactly where I went wrong =( I clicked "Download" in the gmail message, and then when the little Firefox download window came up, I selected "Open with Openoffice..." instead of simply "Save".

This created a Read-Only version in the Temp Folder. Being the absent-minded idiot I am sometimes prone to be, I opened the folder location of the file from Firefox's download window, and changed the file's Read-Only status before reopening it. I didn't so much as think to check the actual folder it was located in. I wasn't paying attention.

Hopefully it can be recovered, if not, it's just a little extra time out of my weekend spent on work, sadly.

Anak · 09 Jan 2011

Reead said:

Trying both of those. Thank you very much! I've begun working on redoing my work just in case, but this could still potentially save me a lot of time.

Your welcome!

Reead said:

Edit: And Anak, Im pretty sure I know exactly where I went wrong =( I clicked "Download" in the gmail message, and then when the little Firefox download window came up, I selected "Open with Openoffice..." instead of simply "Save".

Yup! That'll do it!

Reead said:

This created a Read-Only version in the Temp Folder. Being the absent-minded idiot I am sometimes prone to be, I opened the folder location of the file from Firefox's download window, and changed the file's Read-Only status before reopening it. I didn't so much as think to check the actual folder it was located in. I wasn't paying attention.

Aww...Don't be so hard on yourself, I have my moments too! Just ask my DW.

Reead said:

Hopefully it can be recovered, if not, it's just a little extra time out of my weekend spent on work, sadly.

Let's hope.

ryo · 09 Jan 2011

Reead said:

Trying both of those. Thank you very much! I've begun working on redoing my work just in case, but this could still potentially save me a lot of time.

Edit: And Anak, Im pretty sure I know exactly where I went wrong =( I clicked "Download" in the gmail message, and then when the little Firefox download window came up, I selected "Open with Openoffice..." instead of simply "Save".

This created a Read-Only version in the Temp Folder. Being the absent-minded idiot I am sometimes prone to be, I opened the folder location of the file from Firefox's download window, and changed the file's Read-Only status before reopening it. I didn't so much as think to check the actual folder it was located in. I wasn't paying attention.

Hopefully it can be recovered, if not, it's just a little extra time out of my weekend spent on work, sadly.

not being to hard friend..