HELP - restore lost file!

[PaulZak]

Excel 2007 on Win 7

I was unhiding numerous hidden rows in an Excel file that I've been working on for the last 4 hours and it hung up. So I had to close Excel with Task Manager. I know I've done multiple saves of the file in the past 3 hours. The last save was about 15 minutes before the file froze. But I haven't close the file all day.

When I reopened Excel it asked about restoring last file version and I (stupidly) said yes for once. Well, the contents of the file is from several hours ago though the file date is recent! I've tried the "restore previous version" from Windows Explorer but it says there aren't any versions. I've looked in my recycling bin and no joy there either.

Does any one know if I can find the file with my recent work?

You could be a real lifesaver!

 

[Derek Brown]

I really don't know if it will work but I have, on occasions, been lucky enough to find a file left in the 'autosave' location. But there would be absolutely no chance of finding it there if the autosave option is not switched 'ON'.
Excel may have 'tidied' the folder when you later opened and closed the application.
If you want to give it a try, start excel and look for the autosave file location shown in the "Excel Options', 'Save' tab.
Don't close Excel, just use Windows Explorer to go to that folder. The name of the file would not be recognised as the name of your workbook (it could be something like "AbdEf678...") so you would need to look at the date of the file. Whether it would open or not is another thing.
Good Luck.

 

[PaulZak]

Thanks for the reply. I checked the Autosave location as you instructed (something like ...\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\) but there was not file there. I do have this feature turned on. Does save every 10 minutes.

Good to know for the future.
Cheers!

 

[Derek Brown]

Thank you for the update. Sorry that it did not help this time, but it is always worth a try.
For information, the autosave function has been enhanced at Excel 2010 - if you close a workbook, that has been autosaved at least once, without saving it then the autosaved version will be retained for up to 4 days and the 'file open' menu gives you an option to recover unsaved workbooks.