OpenOffice (URGENT, LOST FILES)

Orizio

So, funny story, I knocked the AC adapter out of my computer as I was working on a dissertation (due tomorrow), the computer went blank and now the entire dissertation is gone. Open Office has it 'locked' or something like that and when I try to open it I get two dialogue boxes and then a load of symbols. No back-up.

I am ****ed.

FarmerGreen

Open the file with Notepad, you may be able to rescue some of the text.

bhickey

When you started Writer in OpenOffice initially, did it not bring up a recovery window? Openoffice is normally pretty good at this sort of thing and I think by default it normally saves an Autorecovery copy every 15 minutes. In XP, these copies are saved in :

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp

Make sure that in Windows Explorer you've enabled the option :

Tools > Folder Options > View > Show Hidden Files & Folders

bhickey

bhickey wrote: »

In XP, these copies are saved in :
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp

Actually it looks like the automatic backup copies are in :

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\OpenOffice.org\3\user\backup

I tried this for a few documents this morning and even though I never saved them, there were copies in the above folder.

Orizio

Thanks for the advice, I've done all of the above already, doesn't come out in notepad, no files in backup or temp. Dissertation is gone unfortunately, the recovery system didn't kick in for OpenOffice, apparently its a Vista problem, any other operating system and I wouldn't have lost the file.

Odaise Gaelach

Did you try Shadow Copy? I think it's enabled by default for the drive that Windows is installed on, so if your thesis was there too then you might get lucky.

How do I... Configure and use shadow copy in Microsoft Windows Vista?