Over written a Letter

[Dod101]

All of you know more about computers than I so I am sure can answer my question. Is there any way that I can recover a letter I have written and then used the same template and by mistake 'Saved' the second one, thus deleting the first? I should have used 'Save as' of course but these things happen.

Dod

[scrumpyjack]

If you have a backup you might be able to recover from that?

If you use Dropbox or other similar software (Google One Drive etc) they do automatic saving of file versions so that may enable recovery.

Lastly if you have a printed copy of the original letter, you could scan in to your PC and run it through OCR to get it back into Word.

[Dod101]

Stupid me! Thanks Scrumpyjack I will take a look at all your suggestions but I think it may be gone!

Dod

[ReformedCharacter]

All of you know more about computers than I so I am sure can answer my question. Is there any way that I can recover a letter I have written and then used the same template and by mistake 'Saved' the second one, thus deleting the first? I should have used 'Save as' of course but these things happen.

Dod

If you have Windows 10, this may help:

https://howtorecover.me/recover-overwri ... windows-10

RC

[Infrasonic]

It may not be of any use this time round but for the future you can turn File History on in W10 (search box bottom left of the screen file h) and set it to save file versions at intervals of every ten minutes or higher (I have mine set to daily backups), as well as the cloud sync versioning addressed above for even more frequent intervals if needed. (Good for shared files that can change frequently.)

I think the default retention on most free cloud offerings is thirty days for file versions, then they get deleted. You'll get more flexible options like unlimited versioning with the paid for cloud services. Read the small print to see exactly what you get though as they do vary.

Microsoft Office Online and Google Docs (both free for the basic versions) will allow you to do letters, spreadsheets et al in a web browser and save file versions automatically as you go along. Perfectly useable unless you need fancy letter formatting or spreadsheet macros.

[Dod101]

I am using Windows 7 on this machine and so I guess I have probably lost it. I might have a hard copy but so far I have not found it.

Dod

[Redmires]

You could try looking in the 'temp' directory. Worth a shot if you haven't done a clean up.

c:\users\NAME\AppData\Local\Temp

where NAME = your computer name

[Clitheroekid]

I've done this occasionally, and it's a real PITA.

However, if you prepared the letter in Word you can often `recover' the original letter just by clicking on the `Undo' button multiple times until it gets back to the original. This works even after it's been saved.

[Breelander]

If all else fails, you may be able to undelete the missing letter, or maybe an earlier copy of it. Deleted files are just marked as free space, the actual data is still there and may be recovered. I use the free KickAss Undelete. But try it soon, the more you use the PC the more chance of the free space being reused for a new file.

http://kickassundelete.sourceforge.net/

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Have you sent the letter to anyone by email, including yourself?

AiY

[mc2fool]

You could try looking in the 'temp' directory. Worth a shot if you haven't done a clean up.

c:\users\NAME\AppData\Local\Temp

where NAME = your computer name

No, NAME = your Windows username.

[Dod101]

Thanks to all who have responded. I have tried the various suggestions but to no avail. It is not the end of the world as I can recall the points I raised. It has also educated me once again on what is available and if I get some time I will try out a few techniques again on something that does not matter.

Dod

[genou]

Thanks to all who have responded. I have tried the various suggestions but to no avail. It is not the end of the world as I can recall the points I raised. It has also educated me once again on what is available and if I get some time I will try out a few techniques again on something that does not matter.

Dod

If you want an even simpler solution for the future, edit the current document to be an empty template - address header perhaps ? and save it named as <whatever> template.docx . Then in explorer right make it read only. When you use the template later and attempt to save it , Save As is the only option.