Work lost due to Windows update re-boot

[jiminmn]

Is there any hope of recovering Microsoft Word documents that were opened
when Windows Update decided to restart my computer? My daughter has been
working all night on end-of-term literature. She had approximately a dozen
separate documents opened and had not saved any of them yet. We have Word
2007. I tried the "office application recovery" thing and no programs were
listed.

Please don't lecture me or my daughter on the importance of saving work
periodically (particularly when working with Microsoft products) -- that much
is painfully clear now. I am sure she has learned that lesson as of tonight.
I am just hoping someone can swoop in and save the day.

Regards,
Jim K.

 

[Graham Mayor]

I am afraid that if the documents were not saved, there is nothing to
recover. This is not something peculiar to Microsoft products.
To avoid such an issue in future change the automatic updates setting to
notify you of updates rather than just go ahead regardless.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[macropod]

hi jiminmn,

If you activate Word's autosave function, next time you have an abnormal program termination like this, re-starting Word will cause
it to reload the unsaved documents up to the most recent autosave time - which you can set to as small as 1 minute.

For your daughter's work, it's possible Word has left a bunch of .tmp files on your HDD, with today's/yesterday's date stamp.
Possibly in the temp folder. You may get some joy by renaming those files with a .doc extension and opening them in Word.

 

[Graham Mayor]

I am pretty sure that a restart forced by autoupdate is not considered an
abnormal program termination - and that it does not trigger the document
recovery. The best stable door closure measure - before the horse has
bolted - is to install an intelligent recovery tool such as Undelete 2009
Professional. This allows the user to restore all the recovery files
associated with the documents, but must have been installed before the
closure. If any of the recovery files have been left behind they will be in
the folder
%appdata%\Microsoft\Word
Enter the above string in the address bar of Windows Explorer or the browser
and see what turns up.
There is an outside chance that file recovery software on that folder
(looking for *.asd) *may* recover files with content.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Tony Jollans]

The trouble in this case is that it is not an abend; it is a forced
shutdown, forced, but still a 'normal' (rather than abnormal) end.
Personally I think this is diabolical behaviour from Windows Update - it's
meant to improve your system and I cannot see how destroying your work does
that.

I go along with Graham - do not let Windows Updates run automatically, and
watch them (and/or save all work beforehand) even when run manually.

--
Enjoy,
Tony

www.WordArticles.com

hi jiminmn,

If you activate Word's autosave function, next time you have an abnormal
program termination like this, re-starting Word will cause it to reload
the unsaved documents up to the most recent autosave time - which you can
set to as small as 1 minute.

For your daughter's work, it's possible Word has left a bunch of .tmp
files on your HDD, with today's/yesterday's date stamp. Possibly in the
temp folder. You may get some joy by renaming those files with a .doc
extension and opening them in Word.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]

Is there any hope of recovering Microsoft Word documents that were opened
when Windows Update decided to restart my computer? My daughter has been
working all night on end-of-term literature. She had approximately a
dozen
separate documents opened and had not saved any of them yet. We have Word
2007. I tried the "office application recovery" thing and no programs
were
listed.

Please don't lecture me or my daughter on the importance of saving work
periodically (particularly when working with Microsoft products) -- that
much
is painfully clear now. I am sure she has learned that lesson as of
tonight.
I am just hoping someone can swoop in and save the day.

Regards,
Jim K.

 

[jiminmn]

Many thanks to all of you for your insights.

She was caught completely by surprise when Word displayed the "Save" dialog
as if she had tried to close the program. Not having any clue what was going
on she thinks she chose the "Cancel" option, which would have returned her to
Word under normal circumstances, and probably did, briefly. She obviously
should have chosen "yes", but even then I wonder if an agressive shutdown
would have given her time to save ten files.

If it did leave any .tmp files laying around then it must have cleaned them
up later (would it do that?) when she went back into Word and re-constructed
her work.

It WAS the only computer I've ever enabled for fully automatic updates. It
isn't any more. I guess it surprises me a little that Microsoft wouldn't at
least give an active login session a minute or two to fully grasp what is
about to happen.

Anyhow I guess it's a valuable lesson, and she only sobbed for two hours
before her new resolve set in, so I guess it wasn't too bad.

Thanks Again!!!!

The trouble in this case is that it is not an abend; it is a forced
shutdown, forced, but still a 'normal' (rather than abnormal) end.
Personally I think this is diabolical behaviour from Windows Update - it's
meant to improve your system and I cannot see how destroying your work does
that.

I go along with Graham - do not let Windows Updates run automatically, and
watch them (and/or save all work beforehand) even when run manually.

--
Enjoy,
Tony

www.WordArticles.com

hi jiminmn,

If you activate Word's autosave function, next time you have an abnormal
program termination like this, re-starting Word will cause it to reload
the unsaved documents up to the most recent autosave time - which you can
set to as small as 1 minute.

For your daughter's work, it's possible Word has left a bunch of .tmp
files on your HDD, with today's/yesterday's date stamp. Possibly in the
temp folder. You may get some joy by renaming those files with a .doc
extension and opening them in Word.

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]

Is there any hope of recovering Microsoft Word documents that were opened
when Windows Update decided to restart my computer? My daughter has been
working all night on end-of-term literature. She had approximately a
dozen
separate documents opened and had not saved any of them yet. We have Word
2007. I tried the "office application recovery" thing and no programs
were
listed.

Please don't lecture me or my daughter on the importance of saving work
periodically (particularly when working with Microsoft products) -- that
much
is painfully clear now. I am sure she has learned that lesson as of
tonight.
I am just hoping someone can swoop in and save the day.

Regards,
Jim K.

.