Where are My Files?

[Guest]

Today I found that most of my word files have undergone drastic
unexplainable changes! What happend to them? Most of them went from
several KB to less than 1 KB and they do not contain any of the origional
text. For example... Here is my Resume:

vti_encoding:SR|utf8-nl
vti_timelastmodified:TR|04 May 2004 18:06:40 -0000
vti_extenderversion:SR|6.0.2.5516
vti_author:SR|QUIN\\Quin Child
vti_modifiedby:SR|QUIN\\Quin Child
vti_timecreated:TR|04 May 2004 18:06:40 -0000
vti_cacheddtm:TX|04 May 2004 18:06:40 -0000
vti_filesize:IR|32256
vti_cachedtitle:SR|PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
vti_title:SR|PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
vti_backlinkinfo:VX|

What in the world is going on? I have scanned for viruses but no problems
are indicated. Any clues as to if I can recover any of my word documents?
Please help if you have any idea what has happend to these files.

Quin

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

You don't say which version of Word you're using. However, one common
problem is that Files of Type sometimes gets "stuck" on "Recover text from
any file". As long as you open files in this mode, there's no problem.
However, if you save over the original, you're sunk (assuming this is the
cause of your current problem). Choose File - Open, and set Files of Type
to Word Documents, and see if that fixes the problem.

 

[Guest]

I use Microsoft Word 2000 (9.0.6926 sp-3)
By default word wanted to open using "all word documents" I forced it to
open using "Word Documents (*.doc) but it did not get my old files back.
Perhaps you are right and I have saved over them in a previous operation. I
had to recover some of them from Norton protected recycle bin . I said "yes
to all" when Norton asked if duplicate files should be overwritten. I still
do not understand how they would be changed so drastically even if they are
opened as something other than a doc file.
Thankyou for your thoughtful answer.

Quin

 

[Jezebel]

vti files are created by FrontPage when you create a web. For each file in
the web, a separate vti_ file is created; for most purposes you can ignore
these, and you shouldn't edit them.

Which implies that you're looking for your files in the wrong place.

 

[Guest]

Jezebel,
Thank you, your answer shed some light on this. I believe that when I was
using front page I inadvertently deleted a substantial portion of my word
files. I was able to trace one file to the Norton protected recycle bin and
recovered it and many others. Somehow during the recovery my word files were
recovered with the same file names but with the cryptic contents that display
vti file information. I wonder if any part of my “real†files are intact
somewhere?

 

[Jezebel]

If you haven't emptied the recycle bin, then chances are they are there
somewhere.