By mistake i replaced a Word file with an older version. How can i recover the replaced file?

Question

Had a Word file i was working on. By mistake i replaced it with an older version. Yes, it asked if i want to replace it and i agreed. So now i have the original file, all the work i did on it is GONE!!! Stupid? Yes.

Can i recover the replaced file? How?? Help help help!!

I am using XP.

Answer 1

It's not possible now to get it back if it is replaced permanently... Sorry to deliver the bad news.

If you might have deleted then there was a hope :(

Answer 2

It's not stupid, it's a common mistake. I don't know of anyway to retrieve the old file.... I hope someone else is more helpful. Usually when you rename a Word file, the old one is gone and I don't think it's kept somewhere in the computer's memory. Sometimes if you didn't save a file correctly it will ask you if you'd like to revert to the old version of the file. I could see how one might click "yes" or hit enter by mistake, it's very easy to do and a real bummer when it happens.
Only suggestion I can make is that if you copied the work you did and pasted it then what you copy/pasted might still be on the clipboard, and you should check the clipboard to see if any of your work is there in that case. Otherwise I think it is gone, sorry.
****One other thing you could try, and I don't know if this would work or not but it's worth a shot. In MS Word go under "File" and then "Versions" and see if the other version of this document is listed there.

Answer 3

If you did indeed "replace" it, it is history.

If you have Word set to create backups, you may still have it.
If you do, and you find the backup, you should open it and save it to a new name.

If you don't, you might want to consider doing this. We all mess up at one time or another so just for this reason:

Tools
Options
Save
Always create backups

You will then have a file called "backup of ---"
When you feel confident, you can delete them.