Lost text

[Guest]

I need some real help. I am in the process of writing a book, and have
completed approximately 28000 words, usually adding about 3000 a day. The
past several days I've made sure I saved my text and there's been no problem.
Today I added more than 3000 words to my MS and save it, and decided to back
up on my flash drive. When I went to do this, I must have hit some kind of
key for all of a sudden a blank Word document came up, though it did have the
letter 'm' on it. When I went to retrieve my original text, it only came up
with a little more than 17,000 words, meaning I lost four chapters. I
checked my waste basket, and it's not there. Is there anyway I can retrieve
this, and how could this have happened if I've saved all my text for the past
few days? (When I started working on this today, it showed I had about
25,000 words.) PLEASE HELP! And, thanks.

 

[Jezebel]

Saving directly from Word to a removable medium is a sure way to corrupt the
document: Word gets tangled up with how to manage its temporary work files,
and the walls come a tumblin' down. Back up to your flash drive by saving
the document to your hard disk, closing it, and using Windows Explorer to
copy it to the flash drive (or floppy or CD).

If you have 'Always create backup copy' ticked under Tools > Options > Save,
then the folder on your hard disk in which the file was originally saved
will also contain a file called 'Backup of ...' This will be the document as
it was at the start of your last edit session (ie without your last day's
work).

Failing that, sadly, you'll just have to chalk up the past week to
experience, and comfort yourself with the thought that re-writes are better
than the originals. And for something as valuable as a book-in-progress:
DAILY BACKUPS! If nothing else, email the damned thing to someone.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If the document is still open, try Undo. It is all too easy to select all
the text in a file (Ctrl+A) and then overwrite it with the next keypress (m
in this case). You can avoid this risk by disabling "Typing replaces
selection" (Tools | Options | Edit), but that's rather a nuisance most of
the time.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jez, for your answer. Unfortunately, I didn't have the save as backup
file under my tools menu! ARGH! Well, I guess this is one way to learn,
huh? And, you know I just made sure I changed that under my tools list.
But, I didn't have a chance to save my MS in my flash drive. When I
decided to do it is when I found I lost my four chapters. Don't you think
that's weird?
Thanks again for you help. I still can't figure out where everything went.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Suzanne. I just disabled "typing replaces selection" and don't care
if it's a nuisance! <G> But my document isn't open and I wasn't about to
undo whatever happened. I don't think I hit Ctrl+A, but with my luck anythng
is possible. It's just so weird that instead of deleting the whole MS, it
only did the last four chapters, and I saved one chapter on Thurs., one on
Fri. and the two I did today before I even did a word count. Don't you think
it's strange? Do you think there's any way possible I can retrieve it?
Thank you so much for your help.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Were you saving directly to the flash drive? We don't advise ever saving
directly to any removable drive. Save to the HD first, then copy to the
removable.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Suzanne,
No, I saved on my hard drive, and then had the thought about saving it on
my flash drive. I did a spell/grammar check, then saved, and when I got up
to get my flash drive, that's when I noticed the blank page with the letter
'm' on it, and lost all my text. What was weird, I lost four chapters I had
written, three of which I had saved on previous days, but I didn't lose the
first 8 chapters; just chapters 9-12. I had written chapter 9 on Wed., 10 on
Thurs., 11 on Fri. and saved them every day, then wrote chapter 12 on Sat.
and lost the four chapters then. Don't you think that's strange? Thanks so
much for your help. I appreciate it.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are these chapters in separate files, or is everything in a single file?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Suzanne,
Everything is on one file; which is what is strange, for I lost Chapters
9-12 which I had done from last Wed. thru Sat. and saved. But Chapters 1-8,
which I had started at the beginning of the month and also saved (all 12
chapters on one file) were still there. Can you figure this out? Thanks so
much for your help

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It seems to me that you are looking at the wrong file (a backup perhaps) or
that the latest file did not get saved.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Well, I know that the chapters I saved on Wed., Thurs., and Fri. were saved
because when I went to the document on Sat. they were save, and I do
distinctly remember saving them, but when I got on later, the chapters from
Wed. through Sat. were gone. ARGH!

I contacted Gateway and they suggested I bring the computer to the Geek
Squad at Best Buy to have checked out. I was told either I hit a bad sector,
or maybe the hard drive is starting to go. Anyway, it's there now, and I'm
praying they can find my missing text. I hate the thought of having to do
four days worth of work all over again. Thanks for all your help!