HELP! Computer techo's, need to find a back up file?

Question

Hi,
I was working on excel and I'm SURE I saved the document before shutting off pc, but I can't find it anywhere.
It is REALLY important.

I know what it was called, but it ain't there.

Is there anyway that excel would have backed up the file by itself - even though I didn't save?

I am sorta hoping there is some file I can look in, like a temporary sort of folder, where stuff is kept that wasn't saved?
I turned my pc off in the middle of the night when I was half asleep, so maybe I hadn't saved before that.

Please help if you can!!!!!

Answer 1

I know a few programs like Outlook may save things for you as a draft, but I don't much hear of regular programs actually doing that. (That's why in school we were told to "save save save!")

Have you opened the program and just hit save to check to see where it has been saving to and see if the file is among them? When you go to File>Open, does that program have a "open recent document" option that lists the last few things you've done? But, if you've used search and had it look through the entire system and can't find it at all then it may be gone, sorry. : (

Answer 2

open a search window and do a general search on excel files using the following search. type *.xls (the astric * is a wild card and says to search for any file ending with .xls). Give it time it will search your WHOLE hard drive. If it saved it as a temp it woud'nt save it as the name you gave it.

Answer 3

You can start searching by clicking Start/Search - select your drive and you can select files you accessed yesterday - or search *.xls for excel files....

Excel does not automatically store.... the techs usually set that up at work but you have to manually set it up at home and you have to at least save it ONCE..... Remember RAM is volatile - your machine goes off - you lose it.

Answer 4

try seaching files in ur hdd by extension like .xl or what ur file extension was.. If u didn't save it there's not much to do .. next time use this feature . autosaves ur xcel files automaticly http://www.office-addins.com/-excel-addins/backup-xls-files.html