Soft Problem

Problem:

G’day,

Windows Vista service pack 2.

I’d been entering some data into a forum post using firefox, backing it up into a word document. I decided to close firefox (without saving the post) while my computer sorted out some things – as per details discussed below.

I was installing some important updates all at the same time – HP, hp health check, windows and something else. I realise I should do different types of updates seperately, although it didn’t happen on this occasion.

I was working on a word (microsoft office 2007) document, which although I had saved some work, more was added when the computer requested I restart stating the following programs were stopping this from happening.

With office configuring itself, even while I had my document open, before clicking cancel a third time I noticed the save bar on the word document displaying ‘5 out of 7 pages saved’ and I wasn’t keen to cancel again; and not understanding how word and the internet recover, I clicked restart.

Following this, there was an issue with the laptop either not shutting down or not restarting, as screen had turned black although blue touch buttons on and fan noise, so after 5 minutes I held the off button to shut down. Then I turned the laptop back on, all the updates were installed fine however I discovered the limitations of microsoft word, clip board and firefox, as my document was missing the extra data and even though I had hoped it might be in the clip board when I used cut and paste data in the firefox forum post I was writing – it wasn’t!

Is there a way to get it back. I’m going to try recover my files by get data. I also want to know how to open clip board using vista, as in the search function it display, attempts to open after clicking though prematurely closes before it opens to its full size and zooms away again.

Cheers mate,

Jesse

Solution:

Dear Jesse,

First of all, let’s have a look at your Microsoft Word Documents as well as their back-ups. In order to restore a Word Document, Microsoft Word uses a back-up file that might have been damaged or not completed in time. I will explain to you how to access that file every time something like this happens.

First of all, you will have to enable “Show Hidden Files and Folders” on to your system. This is how you do it:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.

2. Click on the Start button. This is the small round button with the Windows flag in the lower left corner.

3. Click on the Control Panel menu option.

4. When the control panel opens you can either be in Classic View or Control Panel Home view:

If you are in the Classic View do the following:
a) Double-click on the Folder Options icon.
b) Click on the View tab.
c) Go to step 5.

If you are in the Control Panel Home view do the following:
a) Click on the Appearance and Personalization link.
b) Click on Show Hidden Files or Folders.
c) Go to step 5.

5. Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files and folders.

6. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.

7. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files. Once this is done, your Folder Options screen should look similar to the following image.

(tutorial quoted from http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial130.html )

Now you have to navigate to the folder where you had your word document, let’s assume it was named “Document.docx”. Hopefully, you will find a file in that folder named “~$cument.docx”. This is the back-up file that you double click to open. If it is not there it means that office has rewritten it and/or deleted it so do not worry, it is not an error. Normally that file exists only when the document “Document.docx” is opened. However, in case of a crash, that is the first file you have to go to.

If it is missing or when you open it, it does not contain the information you need, then the information is lost. There is nothing else you can do, because it was not saved in a secure location (as Hard Disk Drive). Clipboard is a temporary storage area that is saved inside the RAM memory and such, is gone at every restart.

However, to view it though, there are few methods known to work, and they are presented properly here: http://www.winvistaclub.com/t72.html

Do not be alarmed by your computer not shutting down properly. Most likely due to an update the function of shutting down was bypassed in order to finish the installation.

Best of luck,
- Bluedrop