Autorecover, accidentally did not pick save for later viewing - are the files gone ?

[sgrongst]

Hi

My machine dies once in a while due to battery capacity issues. Excel files will pop up in a autorecover pane on the left hand side when launching excel the next time. So I had a few such files, and all I had to do was to pick the option (1.) below, instead I accidentally picked option (2.) :


1. Yes, I want to view these files later (safest option)
2. No, remove the files. I have saved the files I need.

So, basically, the question is : are the files lost fooooorever ?

Cheers.

[Aardigspook]

The answer is maybe but maybe not, depending on your computer settings and how long ago this happened.

Have a look in this folder (you'll have to enable 'view hidden files and folders' first):

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\{User Name}\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel
Later Windows: C:\Users\{User Name}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel

You might find the file(s) there. If it's there, but with an .xar extension instead of an .xls extension, renaming it to .xls might work. I can't guarantee anything though, sorry!

If your profile's wrong and you're using 2010, then try looking in this folder:
C:\Users\{User Name}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles
Files here are saved for 4 days, according to this MSDN blog.

[sgrongst]

I will test your method. What if I changed something in an excel file, then saved it. Where is the file that was before I changed it and saved it ?

[Aardigspook]

If you change something then save the file with those changes then close the program, there's no way to get the previous file back using Excel. Excel (and every other program I can think of) assumes that when you save a file, you want to save it in the state it's in at that time.

The only way you'd get a previous version of a file back is if you have a back-up with that version, or imaging software which takes snapshots of your system from which you can restore files. But these aren't things you can install later - you'd need to have them installed and running/run beforehand.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.