How to recover what was typed in Word. How to restore a Word document if not saved. Bonus Option - Word File Recovery Software

A very urgent question of many users is how to recover a damaged word document, or how to recover a lost document. I think everyone has had such a problem as losing a document. For example, you were typing something important in the program, a crash occurred, Microsoft Word crashed (closed), and after opening you find nothing, or the document does not open at all. To prevent this from happening in the future, I have prepared an article where I will show what you can use to restore a damaged version of a document.

How to recover a damaged Word document?

Let's say you tried to run a document file and saw the following error message.

This error already provides several recommendations from which you can understand what to do, for example, make sure that there is enough space on the disk, whether you have permission to use the document and edit it.

In this case, we can return the document using Word itself. Just open the icon of this program so that Word starts, and then go to the left item "Open" and select the item "Review".

In the explorer that opens, look for the document you want to open, click on it once so that its name appears in the field "File name". Then you select from the drop-down menu "Recovering text from any file" and click "Open".

If the document is very voluminous and you applied many design styles, then it is not always successfully restored. Sometimes part of the text disappears, or there is text, but without formatting styles. The main thing, of course, is to restore the integrity of the document.

How to recover a Word document [Second method]

From the above, it is clear that the first method does not always help, although it is worth using it. Let's move on to the next method.

Open Microsoft Word again and go to the File menu, then "Open" and the button "Review". Find the damaged document and click on it. Then click on the arrow where the "Open" button is and select the option there "Open and Repair".

How to restore a Word backup?

Sometimes a file can get lost, you can't find it anywhere. In this case, the program usually creates backup copies of the document, in order to open it you need to proceed as follows:

Open Word and go to the "Open" section, then click on "Browse". Remember where you saved the document and go to that folder. In the pop-up tab, select "All files", look for the lost document. Focus on the title and date. Sometimes such a document may be called "Backup copy ...".

In case of failure, you can go the other way. Open the search field in Windows and enter the extension of the Word backup file - *.wbk. It is more likely that such a file will open, but the point is that it may not be one and the names may not match, so everyone will have to open and look.

Autosave in Word, or how to restore a saved copy of a document

Usually, the program automatically, after a certain period of time, creates backup copies of the document. They are usually found in the following path: C:\Users\ Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word.

Autosaved document names can begin with the word "Autocopy...", and the format of such files will be *.asd. To open such a file, double-click on it.

Bonus Option - Word File Recovery Software

I myself have never been interested in third-party Word recovery programs, but they can help if none of the methods indicated did not help. As an example, I can cite the Hetman Office Recovery program. The utility, unfortunately, is paid, perhaps there are analogues that I will add to this article. To use Hetman Office Recovery, just install it on your computer and check the disk for lost and damaged documents.

The program will find documents and show them in its window with real names. If you want to restore something, you select them with checkmarks, then it's up to you.

A rare situation, but a regular one, when one of the beginners has trouble - Excel or Word disappears in the Start menu.
Beginners, who are accustomed to starting work by pressing the "Start" button, simply do not know what to do.
In fact, the problem is ordinary - I moved the cursor, pulled the mouse, pressed the button and something disappeared somewhere - but now it is not known how to restore it.

To begin with, let's determine the search area, because everyone knows that during the installation of the program, some of the files go to the folder with the Microsoft Office software package located in Program Files, and the shortcuts go to the "Main Menu" folder, which contains the "Programs" folder , in windows 7.
Since the shortcuts are gone and it is useless to look for them, we will create new ones.

How to add shortcuts to the start menu

1. Open "My Computer", "Logical Drive C", "Program Files" Folder, "Microsoft Office" Folder, "Office14" Folder.
2. In the folder "Office14" find the file EXCEL or WINWORD.
3. Right-click and select "Create Shortcut" from the context menu.

(Picture 1)
4. Having selected the shortcut, pressing the CTRL key and the left mouse button drag our shortcut to the "Start" button, but do not release it, but wait until the menu opens, then move the cursor with the shortcut to "All Programs", wait again until it opens, then point to the "Microsoft Office" folder and when it expands, drag the shortcut there.

(Picture 2)
5. You can now rename the Shortcut and launch programs again from the Start menu.

You can go the other way - find the “Main Menu” folder on drive C, go to the “Programs” folder and copy the shortcut in the “Microsoft Office” folder.

There is an hour left before submitting or sending a document that you have been working on for more than one day, and now, instead of saving all the changes, you forget to save it, or the program closes itself. This has happened to many. This is just one of many scenarios that happen even to very experienced PC users. Fortunately, Microsoft has a mechanism for recovering documents that were lost before they were saved.

Step 1. Open an empty word document. Go to the "File" menu on the top bar.

Step 2 You will see a horizontal menu with all the options that relate to saving, printing and other actions with the document. Go to details.

Step 3 So, in the "Details" section, you will see the document management area.

Click on the button as shown in the screenshot and select the option that suits you in the pop-up menu, in our case it is recovery.

Step 4 A new window will open on your screen with all the files that you did not have time or could not save on time. Select the desired document and open it.

Step 5 The file you selected will open in Word. Save it.

Note! The folder with unsaved documents shows only those that were lost no later than 4 days ago. After this period, all unsaved documents are permanently deleted from your computer.

Where are unsaved documents located?

The AutoSave feature was introduced in versions of the Office software in 2010. If you're on an older computer with older versions of the software, there's space on your Windows hard drive that stores unsaved Office files for four days. You cannot move files from this area, but you can open and access them for later saving.

Operating system	Path (User Name - the name of the administrator of your computer)
Windows 7 Vista	C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles
Windows XP	C:\Documents_and_Settings\User_Name\Local_Settings\ApplicationData\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles

There is an easier way, type the word "Unsaved" in the start menu search bar. The system will find the appropriate folder for you. Open it and view the contents.

In fact, this is where the system directs you when you try to recover a document using Word AutoRecovery. Again, you will see in the folder everything that was created no more than 4 days ago.

As you can see, documents that you did not have time to save are not deleted from your computer, they do not disappear into nowhere, but are stored on your computer for some time. You can also open them with the standard Notepad program if Word doesn't do the job. Unfortunately, in this case, you will lose graphics and formatting, keeping only the text, but in many cases this is already a big deal.

Option 2: Recover Lost Word Documents Using the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

Regardless of which version of Word you're using, it's really difficult to complete the entire recovery process with the help of the Microsoft Office guides listed above. EaseUS allows Word users to recover deleted documents in just three steps. Among other functions performed by this program are the following:

• Windows recovery;
• search for USB files;
• search for lost Word documents, etc.

All this can be easily done with this program. Even a beginner can handle this tool. It is applicable to Word 2013, 2001, 2007, 2003, 2002.

Note! This is paid software. However, you can download and use the trial version. You don't even need to register for trial use.

Step 1. Download, install and run the program, select the drive where the unsaved documents were supposed to be, and click on the "Scan" button to find all Word documents.

Step 2 The general scan will start first. Upon completion, a deep scan will automatically start, helping to find more documents.

Step 3 Once the program has scanned your hard drive, browse through all recovered Word documents and select the ones you want to keep. After that, by clicking on the "Restore" button, return them back.

The EaseUS document recovery software is much easier to use than any other software in this category. It is, as the name suggests, designed to make people's lives easier.

For the future

Of course, prevention is always the best way to avoid losing data. It starts with careful and regular conservation. Don't be lazy and do it even when you leave your computer to, for example, make yourself tea or coffee or answer a phone call. This can protect you from future information loss. Although the software saves files to the AutoSave system from time to time, it is not capable of saving absolutely everything. Most often, computers have a default interval of 10 minutes. So there is a risk of losing the data that you entered 10 minutes before the unsuccessful closing of the document.

If the file was ready for autosave and you closed it, you will lose the last nine minutes of work. You can change this setting so that autosave happens more frequently.

Step 1. In older versions of the software, open the Help section from the File menu. In this section, select Options. In newer software, open File > Options.

Step 2 Go to save settings and change them to your liking. Don't forget to save your changes.

This mode remembers the latest autosave version even if you close the entire file before saving. This feature is present in all office suite products from Microsoft.

Video - How to recover an unsaved or corrupted Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document

Let's analyze 11 ways to recover an unsaved Word document, because not saving a document is perhaps the most offensive mistake at work. Time to create and write is spent, and the document is lost.

Read the article to the end and find out what needs to be done and in what cases you can restore a Word document.

An unsaved document, which can be more offensive, after several hours of work. Think you're the one who's insured because you constantly use "Ctrl + S"?

By the way, every Word user must know how to return an unsaved document. This can happen for several reasons:

• power surge or power outage;
• accidental closing of the document without saving (the “no” button was pressed when the program asked for saving);
• crashes in the Word program and the issuance of various messages about the impossibility of saving the document;
• the folder for saving the document does not appear;
• the presence of viruses in the system;
• blocking the Word process by an antivirus program.

Do not panic and make unnecessary erroneous actions. There are several ways to correct the situation.

Automatic file recovery

All MS Office packages provide the function of automatic file recovery in case of emergency closing of the program, which is designed just for cases when unsaved Word documents need to be reanimated.

When you reopen the document, the program will offer to restore open files at the time of its emergency closure. Documents will be listed on the left side of the screen in the Document Recovery panel.

In addition to the name, the version of the document is indicated. To restore a document, you need:

• open the latest autosaved version from the "Available Files" list with a mouse click;
• after opening the file, you can continue working or save the file in the usual way.

The Restore Document window opens only once after a crash. It is not recommended to close this panel without viewing the list of documents located there.

You can open earlier versions of an open document as follows:

• select the "File" section in the menu ribbon;
• open the "Information" item;
• in the window that opens, select the desired action in the "Versions" or "Document Management" section.

How to recover an unsaved Word document

There are cases when, after working on a document, the user did not save the data before closing the document, or a failure occurred and the document was closed without saving.

In this case, you can use the built-in Word function, autosave a document, and, at the same time, let's see how to find unsaved documents in Word.

The settings of the parameters of the "Autosave" function are:

• open the "Save documents" window by performing the following chain of actions "File" → "Options" → "Save";
• check the presence of a daw in the item "Autosave" (should be);
• set the autosave interval value - the smaller the value, the more often the program will automatically save the document.

If you have been working on a document for 15 minutes and the autosave setting is set to 10 minutes, then the actions performed by the user in the last 5 minutes will not be saved.

Unsaved documents are stored in a special folder, the path to which is indicated in the "Data directory for auto recovery" line.

Consider 2 ways to return unsaved text in Word from the Data Catalog for auto recovery, which is suitable for all versions of Word (2003, 2007, 2010, 2016):

The first way to open an unsaved document:

• click the "Browse" button next to the line "Data directory for auto recovery";

The second way to open an unsaved document:

• select with the mouse the line of the window "Data directory for auto-recovery" completely;
• right-click and select the line "Copy";
• open the "Explorer" window (move the cursor over the "Start" button in the lower left corner of the screen, right-click and select the line "Open Explorer" or "Explorer");
• clear address bar (if full)
• paste the copied folder address into the address bar;
• in the window that opens, select the required file from the list of documents with the .asd extension;
• open the document by double-clicking.

You can read more about the AutoSave function in the article.

The procedure for recovering an unsaved document consists of a few simple steps:

1. Open the latest version of the unsaved file in a Word text editor from the "AutoRecovery Data Directory" folder (see procedure above).
2. Save it via the "Save as" function (File → Save as → Enter document name → Select folder → OK).

How to recover damaged documents

There are several ways to recover damaged Word documents. Depending on whether the document can be opened or not, different file recovery methods are used.

Restoring an unsaved file using the command line

The considered method opens documents with damaged add-ons. The algorithm for recovering a damaged file is as follows:

1. Close the Word test editor;
2. Open the "Start the program" window (Start → Run);
3. Enter the winword.exe /a command into the line;

After starting Word, open the damaged file through (File → Open → select a file from the list → Open).

Restore document by copying text

In this case, consider how to restore text in Word by copying from one file to another.

1. Create a blank Word document.
2. Copy all undamaged parts of the original document.
3. Paste the copied text into a new document.

Copying should be done in parts from one break to another, not including them in the new document. Also exclude the last characters of the paragraph.

Force file recovery

If the corrupted file cannot be opened in the usual way, you can resort to a forced recovery of the Word document.

Perform the following algorithm of actions:

1. Open the Word program;
2. Click the "Browse" button and find the damaged file;
3. Click on the found file with the mouse;
4. Click on the arrow to the right of the "Open" button;
5. From the list that opens, select the line "Open and restore".

Restoring a damaged document using a converter

When it is impossible to open an unsaved document, you must use the built-in Word function "Recover text from any file".

When restoring files in this way, only the text without formatting will be restored. Unfortunately, all other objects (tables, graphs, images and other data) will not be restored either.

The algorithm for opening a Word file through the convector:

1. following the chain File → Open, open the "Open Document" window;
2. in the file type field, select the "Recover text from any file" function;
3. select a damaged file to open;
4. press the "OK" button.

Word saves the last used file type, so you must change the file type to .docx after opening corrupted files.

How to Recover Deleted Word Documents

After accidentally deleting files previously saved on your computer, you need to look in the "Recycle Bin" to restore them:

1. Open the shortcut "Trash" by double-clicking.
2. Select the deleted file to be restored from the list and right-click on it;
3. Select the "Restore" line.
4. The deleted file will be restored to the original location where it was originally saved.

In the event that the trash has been emptied, deleted files cannot be recovered using this method, but there is still a solution.

How to recover a deleted document in Word? You can resort to the autosave files that were discussed above.

How to recover files using special programs

To recover various types of files not found in the Recycle Bin or Autosave Folder, there are special file recovery programs, such as Hetman Office Recovery.

Programs have a wide range of options for recovering deleted and damaged files after program failures, disk formatting, virus attacks.

In addition to paid products, it is possible to download a trial or free version of the program with limited features.

After installing the program on a computer, the algorithm for recovering deleted or damaged documents is performed according to the program's step-by-step instructions.

Along with the installed programs, you can use the online service on the site.

Restoring from a backup copy of Word files

Before working, you need to make sure that the option "always create a backup copy" is enabled on the computer. For this:

• following the chain File → Options, open the "Word Options" window;
• select "Advanced";
• check the box "Always back up".

Backups are usually saved in the same folders and have the .wdk extension.

If the document was not found in the previous folder, you must enable the search for the file through the "Start" command and enter ".wdk" in the "Find" line. Then sequentially open all found documents.

The methods described in the article should solve your problem with a 95% guarantee and answer the question of how to open an unsaved Word document. In most cases, if the AutoSave Text feature is properly configured in the program, it is very easy to recover most of the text.

Good day.

I think that many who often work with documents in the Microsoft Word program have encountered a rather unpleasant situation: they typed and typed text, edited it, and then suddenly the computer rebooted (the lights were turned off, an error or Word just closed, reporting some internal failure). What to do?

Actually, the same thing happened to me - they turned off the electricity for a couple of minutes when I was preparing one of the articles for publication on this site (and the topic for this article was born). And so, let's look at a few simple ways to recover unsaved Word documents.

The text of an article that might have been lost due to a power failure.

Method number 1: automatic recovery in Word

No matter what happens: just a mistake, the computer rebooted abruptly (without even asking you about it), a failure at the substation and the power was turned off at the whole house - the main thing is not to panic!

By default, the Microsoft Word program is quite "smart" and automatically (in the event of an abnormal shutdown, i.e. shutdown without the user's consent) will try to restore the document.

In my case, Micrisift Word, after a “sharp” shutdown of the PC and on (after 10 minutes) - after starting it, offered to save unsaved docx documents. The picture below shows how it looks in Word 2010 (in other versions of Word, the picture will be similar).

Important! Word offers to recover files only on the first restart after a crash. Those. if you open Word, close it, and then decide to open it again, then it will no longer offer you anything. Therefore, I recommend at the first start to save everything that is required for further work.

Method 2: Via the auto-save folder

A little higher in the article, I said that the default Word program is smart enough (underlined on purpose). The program, if you have not changed the settings, automatically saves document every 10 minutes to the "backup" folder (in case of unforeseen situations). It is logical that the second thing to do is to check if there is a missing document in this folder.

How to find this folder? Here is an example in Word 2010.

Click on the menu " file / options"(See screenshot below).

Automatic document saving every 10 min. (you can change, for example, for 5 minutes, if your electricity is often turned off);

Data directory for auto-saving (that's what we need).

Just highlight and copy the address, then open File Explorer and paste the copied data into its address bar. In the catalog that opens - perhaps something can be found ...

Method #3: Recovering a Deleted Word Document from Disk

This method will help in the most difficult cases: for example, there was a file on the disk, but now it is gone. This can happen for many reasons: viruses, accidental deletion (especially since Windows 8, for example, does not ask you if you really want to delete the file if you click on the Delete button), disk formatting, etc.

There are a huge number of programs for recovering files, I have already published some of them in one of the articles:

As part of this article, I would like to dwell on one of the best (and at the same time simple for novice users) programs.

Wondershare Data Recovery

The program supports the Russian language, works very fast, helps to recover files in the most difficult cases. By the way, the whole recovery process takes only 3 steps, more about them below.

What not to do before recovery:

Do not copy any files to the disk (on which the documents/files have disappeared), and do not work with it at all;

Do not format the drive (even if it appears as RAW and Windows prompts you to format it);

Do not restore files to this drive (this recommendation will come in handy later. Many people recover files to the same drive that they scan: you can't do that! The fact is that when a file is restored to the same disk, it can overwrite files that have not yet been restored).

Step 1.

After installing the program and launching it: it offers us several options to choose from. We select the very first: "file recovery". See picture below.

Step 2

In this step, we are asked to indicate the drive on which the missing files were located. Usually the documents are on the C drive (unless, of course, you transferred them to the D drive). In general, you can scan both disks in turn, especially since scanning is fast, for example, my 100 GB disk was scanned in 5-10 minutes.

By the way, it is desirable to check the box " on deep scan"- the scanning time will increase greatly, but you will be able to recover a larger number of files.

Step 3

After scanning (by the way, during it it is better not to touch the PC at all and close all other programs), the program will show us all types of files that can be recovered.

And she supports them, I must say, in large numbers:

Archives (rar, zip, 7Z, etc.);

Video (avi, mpeg, etc.);

Documents (txt, docx, log, etc.);

Pictures, photos (jpg, png, bmp, gif, etc.), etc.

Actually, all that remains is to choose which files to restore, click the appropriate button, specify a drive other than scanning, and restore the files. This happens quite quickly.

By the way, after recovery, some of the files may become unreadable (or not fully readable). The Date Recovery program itself warns us about this: files are marked with circles of different colors (green - the file can be restored in good quality, red - "there are chances, but few" ...).

That's all for today, good luck with Word!