recover autosave files

[vtj]

The autosave feature of Word 2007 saved a file with .dat extension but no
other files. I assume that this is the document as I progressed through it
and the autosave would save the file as a work in progress. I would like to
recover it but can not find a program that will open the file in any sort of
usable manner. I can get some graphical figures in Notepad but that is
meaningless. Can anybody point me in the direction I should be going? One
of the thoughts is that autosave does work like I think it does. Thanks.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi VTJ,

Was this a file you opened directly from an email attachment rather than first saving it to the hard drive?

Word uses .ASD as the file extension for autorecovery files (which is what it uses as a safety measure at the intervals specified in
Office Button=>Word Options=>Save
There isn't a built in 'autosave' choice, just the 'AutoRecover' one. Once you close the document/Word normally the .ASD files are
deleted as part of the Word closing process. Word also uses a variety of temp files but those two are usually cleared in a normal
closing.

============
The autosave feature of Word 2007 saved a file with .dat extension but no
other files. I assume that this is the document as I progressed through it
and the autosave would save the file as a work in progress. I would like to
recover it but can not find a program that will open the file in any sort of
usable manner. I can get some graphical figures in Notepad but that is
meaningless. Can anybody point me in the direction I should be going? One
of the thoughts is that autosave does work like I think it does. Thanks. >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[vtj]

Thanks for your reply. This unforturately was an original Word file. It is
apparant the the autosave file was destroyed also. The document had been
saved on the hard drive but just on the day it crashed so previous versions
did not help. I suspect that the .dat was an errant file that got created
with the same primary name. I will just recreate it.

 

[M.]

So why does not MS Word have an auto-save option that helps you recover files
in case it CRASHES then? o.O! I mean, what good does this "Auto Recover"
function even do if the file is deleted upon closing/crashing?

~M.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The AutoRecovery backups are not deleted upon crashing; they are deleted
when you intentionally close the document or Word. See
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/general/AutomaticSave.htm for more.