G
Guest
Hi,
I just spent this evening dealing with a frustrating problem and I
want to take a minute to share a solution...
The problem: I opened a word doc attachment in outlook, edited it,
then SAVED it, only to find that the file had disappeared.
By way of background, if you open an attachment, modify it, and then
save it (without saving using "save as...", you are f***ked. It goes
into a temp file that is nearly impossible to retrieve.
If you're luck, you can hunt around and find it in your OLK folder,
semi-hidden folder that your system creates. Try opening another
Outlook attachment and clicking "save as..." if you want to find where
this important but elusive folder lives on your hard drive.
If that doesn't work, and it didn't for me, download Directory Snoop
from Download.com. You should be able to search for it by name there.
It's free for the first 25 uses.
Ideally, download and run this from a USB drive (or a hard drive
different from the one you're searching). I popped in a thumb drive
for this.
Select the drive you're searching (i.e., "C") and select an
"attribute". This basically lets you search for a word or phrase that
you remember being in the document. Ideally, choose one that's not
common. I chose "harems".
Then let the thing crank away. Don't turn off or use your computer in
the meantime since you are looking for a temp file that could be
overwritten at any time. It took a while for me -- over an hour. I
used this time to have a shot of tequila.
Finally, hopefully, it will have found something. Click on the files
and ask it to locate it. Then, use the search button to "view text".
At this point, you may see a lot of gobbledygook, but look closely and
maybe you'll see your text in there. I did, only to realize that it
wasn't the latest version of my lost doc. I was happy but still bummed
not to have gotten the version that I clearly remember saving.
So I tried again with another word from my document. This time it came
up with another couple files but when I viewed text, I didn't see
anything relating to my file. That's when I decided to take print the
entire cluster (under file heading "cluster" click print). Amazingly,
it printed out a document half in hex (code) and half in English. It
still wasn't the final final version but it was close enough. Phew!
I am so pissed at MSFT for having it be possible to click save on a
word doc and for it to not actually be saved/retrievable. What in the
world were they thinking? That's totally unintuitive. Couldn't they
just warn you before letting you do this?
Anyway, it's 3am now and I wanted to post this in the hope that
someone might avoid staying up half the night dealing with the same
problem. Sorry if I've left out any steps and good luck if you find
yourself in the same situation. Don't forget the tequila!
-- Jamie
I just spent this evening dealing with a frustrating problem and I
want to take a minute to share a solution...
The problem: I opened a word doc attachment in outlook, edited it,
then SAVED it, only to find that the file had disappeared.
By way of background, if you open an attachment, modify it, and then
save it (without saving using "save as...", you are f***ked. It goes
into a temp file that is nearly impossible to retrieve.
If you're luck, you can hunt around and find it in your OLK folder,
semi-hidden folder that your system creates. Try opening another
Outlook attachment and clicking "save as..." if you want to find where
this important but elusive folder lives on your hard drive.
If that doesn't work, and it didn't for me, download Directory Snoop
from Download.com. You should be able to search for it by name there.
It's free for the first 25 uses.
Ideally, download and run this from a USB drive (or a hard drive
different from the one you're searching). I popped in a thumb drive
for this.
Select the drive you're searching (i.e., "C") and select an
"attribute". This basically lets you search for a word or phrase that
you remember being in the document. Ideally, choose one that's not
common. I chose "harems".
Then let the thing crank away. Don't turn off or use your computer in
the meantime since you are looking for a temp file that could be
overwritten at any time. It took a while for me -- over an hour. I
used this time to have a shot of tequila.
Finally, hopefully, it will have found something. Click on the files
and ask it to locate it. Then, use the search button to "view text".
At this point, you may see a lot of gobbledygook, but look closely and
maybe you'll see your text in there. I did, only to realize that it
wasn't the latest version of my lost doc. I was happy but still bummed
not to have gotten the version that I clearly remember saving.
So I tried again with another word from my document. This time it came
up with another couple files but when I viewed text, I didn't see
anything relating to my file. That's when I decided to take print the
entire cluster (under file heading "cluster" click print). Amazingly,
it printed out a document half in hex (code) and half in English. It
still wasn't the final final version but it was close enough. Phew!
I am so pissed at MSFT for having it be possible to click save on a
word doc and for it to not actually be saved/retrievable. What in the
world were they thinking? That's totally unintuitive. Couldn't they
just warn you before letting you do this?
Anyway, it's 3am now and I wanted to post this in the hope that
someone might avoid staying up half the night dealing with the same
problem. Sorry if I've left out any steps and good luck if you find
yourself in the same situation. Don't forget the tequila!
-- Jamie