autorecover doesn't work reliably during a forced reboot

[Guest]

Scenario:

- Auto-recover is enabled in excel
- An Unsaved Excel document is open
- An SMS process for applying security or windows update patches causes a
forced/unattended system reboot

After the reboot is performed, the unsaved changes are lost in the excel
document, because Autorecover doesn't think there is an autorecover document
(apparently).

I've had this happen a number of times, but it isn't 100% consistent. Is
there anything I can do to increase the likelihood that autorecover will
actually work (short of trying to disable SMS and windows update)? Is it
possible that autorecover *did* work, and just isn't displaying the
autorecover task pane for some reason?

 

[Dave Peterson]

I've never had a problem, but I've never allowed SMS to reboot my pc until I
saved/closed all my documents. (I would think that this would be the best
course for all applications that might be open.)

But next time you're in excel, look to see where excel stores the autorecovery
file. It's specified in the Tools|options|Save tab.

Then if this stuff ever happens to you again, then before you open excel, you
can go to that folder to see if there are any *.xar files hanging around.

You could even copy that to a new location and rename it to *.xls (for a just in
case file).

Then when excel opens, you'll see if autorecovery worked.

I don't know if SMS can even close an application and tell it to save or cancel
the changes. I find it difficult to believe that anyone (even SMS) would be
smart enough to know if my changes should be changed or discarded. (I would
guess that it just reboots the pc and lets the pieces fall where they may--but
if that's the case, I've never seen excel fail to catch this kind of "crash".)

You may want to consider using Jan Karel Pieterse's addin called AutoSafe (note
spelling).

It doesn't overwrite the existing workbook when it saves. It saves to a user
selectable folder. And when it's done, it either deletes these backups (or puts
them in the recycle bin). And the user can always restore the backups from the
recycle bin.

http://www.jkp-ads.com/Download.htm
(look for AutoSafe.zip, not autosafeVBE.zip, for your purposes.)

Jan Karel's version will know if there was a crash and prompt you to open the
last version it saved.