I NEED HELP! I hit SAVE instead of SAVE AS and spend 5 hours on it! Now I can't find it! This is work related!

Question

Ive already tried: Looking under Excels "Recent Worksheets", not there. Doing a file search. Opening up the temp files, but that doesnt work because each time I go to do the same thing, open the email, click download, and save instead of save as, it has it in some phantom folder like YGA34U3K in my Content IE5 temp foler. But when I go to open that phantom file up from the Content folder located in my Temp of Local Settings, it acts like it doesnt exist! I cant even type it in the location bar & open. Basically, I know my database is saved, because when I closed it, (I shouldnt have closed excel in the first place, thats what got me in this mess) it didnt ask if I needed to save the changes. But I just cant find the folder it put it in. Ive tried every file search, even 'hidden folders'. I've looked thru dozens of folders, especially temp. I just cant stomach the thought of retyping 5 hours worth of addresses. Please help! I swear I will buy you dinner if I can recover it!im desperate

It had this name at the top: ACTBirthdays(1).xls I assume because it made a copy of the file I was originally downloading. I've looked in every temp file and used all the search options. This file is in some mysterious place I can't locate. Isn't it? Or would a file search locate it even if it was deeply embedded in the temp directory? I've tried all the easy an obvious ways to find it. I'm at a total loss.

Like I said, I've used every search option with microsoft, including specifying an .xls file from the time I modified it, etc.

How could it be saved across the network? When the dialog box opened up for me to hit SAVE and then OPEN it said "temp folder" while it downloaded. So I wouldnt think it would be in someone elses temp folder. Thanks for your answers guys but Ive tried all the things mentioned so far. Does that mean its a lost cause?

LIKE I said, I've opened up Excel and hi SAVE AS again, and thats how I found the mysterious YGA34U3K folder. My old file is NOT THERE, probably because when I did this a few days ago, it had made some other mysterious folder for that day. I cant open it in Explorer, like I said, because when I open up to the Content IE5 folder from the temp and I see all the thousands of files, it doesnt give me the option to find the mysterious YGA34U3K etc folders that it had created to stick my document in! I cant even type it in the location bar and find it. It doesnt work. Its like I can never get to the mysterious folders because Explorer wont even show they exist...until I hit SAVE AS and see it in the Temp/Content IE5/YGA34U3K directory! (Where my old file is not!)

Also, one of the first things I did was go to the RECENT DOCUMENTS, and it wasnt there either! I really mean, I have spend days trying to find this thing with everything I could think of. My husband is a Network Engineer and he did all the file searches he could think of and we still couldnt find it.

Answer 1

Do a wildcard search for all spreadsheets. To do a wildcard search use an asterisk and then the Excel file extension. For example: *.xls

Every spreedsheet on your comp will pull up.

Go to Start>Search, to begin.

Answer 2

Assuming the file actually got saved to your PC (and not across some network).... By default - Excel uses a file extension of ".xls" for its spreadsheets. Try doing a search thru all files and folders using *.xls as your search. When your list comes up - look for the ones that are close to the date this might have happened. Perhaps you may find it here. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Try this. Goto into Excel. Open a new document then hit Save As. Check the folder that Excel opens to save the new document and see if your file is there. Usually when you save a file the program will automatically open that folder the next time you want to save a file unless you specify a different folder.

Answer 4

Do a search on the document it may be in a temp folder.
Also as an option sometimes the software word or excel backups every few minutes.

Content folder located in my Temp of Local Settings, it acts like it doesnt exist! I
This folder may be raed/write protected, use explorer to find it right click on it and change the attributes so you can open it.

Answer 5

Do your wages bypass immediately right into a economic company a/c? if so open yet another a/c in say a progression society and make a s/o for an volume to be paid out the day after your wages are paid. £25 a week must be sufficient, so that you do not bypass over it, even with the indisputable fact that it is going to quickly mount up weekly/month-to-month. That way you'll understand on the back of your ideas you do have some reductions for a moist day. next do you draw little bits of money for all time as you want it for espresso, snacks etc. workout consultation a funds a week and draw that money out on the start of the week, then save wondering, this has were given to very last me, do i desire to spend this. on the suitable of the week, with any luck you should have some left over, put in a separate handbag, then at the same time as there is sufficient, deal with yourselves to a outing, vacation to cinema, meal in spite of.

Answer 6

I might be able to help - and you don't really have to search your entire pc. Its not clear from your post, but it seems that you opened an email attachment, then made changes into it and clicked save instead of save as. Thereafter, you closed excel - well... been there.

Here's what you need to do which might help.
1. Open that email and open the attachment again (or to be 200% safe, you can send yourself another email with a dummy excel attachment and open that attachment).
2. Once the attachment is open, in the menu, click on File->Save As - DONT CLICK SAVE after the Save As window appears.
3. At the top of 'Save As' window, you will see the 'Save In' drop down, that shows the name of the folder in which your attachment will be saved (by default).
4. Click on that drop-down - to see the entire path of the folder, it will be something like this -> C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp\ (where username is your login id on your machine)
5. Open up a command prompt (from start menu, click on Run and type cmd)
6. On the command prompt - first change the drive letter to C if it is not already C, ie if command prompt shows H:\> type 'C:' without quotes to change to C drive.
7. Once you've changed to C drive, type in the complete path that you see in step 4
8. Type in the command dir where filename = name of your excel attachment you are looking for, to check if it exists in that folder.
9. If dir command returned results (ie showed your file), then just copy it by giving copy command as in step 10
10. copy C:\ this will copy your file from temp folder into C:\ drive, then you can use ms explorer to take it from there.

If you need help with any step - just email me at [e-mail]

Answer 7

Open a fresh excel sheet and hit save as and see what folder this document would save to. The last document should have been saved in the same folder.

Answer 8

well I m not sure if this works...turn on the view hidden files options frm folder options and the goto this location
c:\documents & settings\ user u looged in\local settings\temporary internet files
and look for the .xls file if u can find any. I think the name of that file will be some system generated but look for .xls
good luck

Answer 9

When using the "Search" utility, have you tried entering some of the words or a phrase that you know is contained in that file? For instance, say you remembered that you had entered the name "John Doe" in that file....you could then enter "John Doe" in the box that says "A Word Or Phrase In A File", and hopefully Windows will display that file, or files, that contain that phrase. Good luck.

Answer 10

Along with everyone else's comments, search for *xls and use the advanced option to limit the search for things modified today. Have it search the entire C drive. You'll find it.