can lost doc be recovered from system?

[LuLu]

I just purchased a laptop w/Vista OS. I have a Western Digital external USB
hard driive connected where I save all of my Word Docs. I installed Office
XP on this laptop w/Vista OS and began editing a doc. I worked many, many
hours on the doc and a message appeared telliing me it could not save a .tmp
file. The document is now lost. I saved it about every 3-5 minutes while
working on it. It is no longer on my external WD hard drive. I hope it is
still recoverable somehow from the computer. I have searched everywhere for
both the name of the original file AND the name of the .tmp file that is
lost. I then copied the entire WD HD contents to the desktop and it copied
all files except this .tmp file. That is how I was able to get the name of
the file, when I was informed that it could not be copied to the new
location. Can anyone please advise how I can search on the computer for a
backup copy of this file. Needless to say, I began revising the doc as soon
as I got the computer before enabling any backup system!

 

[Klaus Linke]

You've set the folder options to show system and hidden files? Searched for
*.tmp and ~*.* temporary files?

*.wbk backup files would be created if "Always create backup copy" were
checked in "Tools > Options > Save" ... but unfortunately it isn't by
default.
Still, better late than never: It only "backups" the next-to-last (old)
version, but that's better than nothing.

And I clean out *.wbk and temporary files and *.asd (autorecovery) files
from time to time.

Regards,
Klaus