• Question: if your good with computers can you answer this question: Q: If you open a file in microsoft word 2003 and for some reason it comes up with something to do with replacing an existing file and you click ok but you didn't mean too and you needed that file badly for an exam that you replaced , what do you do ? Much Appreciated :)

    Asked by diamonddboii to Anne, Carolyn, Joe, Mariana, Nick on 23 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Carolyn McGettigan

      Carolyn McGettigan answered on 23 Mar 2010:

      Eek. When this kind of thing happens I take my computer to one of the tech people at work. If you haven’t backed up your work by saving it somewhere else then it may be gone… But Joe is a computers guy so he might have an idea…?

    • Photo: Joseph Devlin

      Joseph Devlin answered on 23 Mar 2010:

      This doesn’t sounds like a hypothetical Q 🙂 I hate it when this happens.

      First off — don’t do *anything* else because you run the risk of making things worse if you’re not careful. Once you’ve replaced an existing file there aren’t too many options. In order, I would try:

      1. If the last thing you did was click ok, then there is a chance that clicking Undo will restore the file you just overwrote. probably not but it’s worth a try.

      2. Don’t quit Word or open anything else for the moment. Open windows explorer and go to the directory where your file is saved. Check to see if there is a file called backup_of_[your file name].wbk. if so, immediately make a copy of it and call it something else.

      3. Also look to see if there is a file called ~[you file name] — if so, make a copy and call it something else (not the same as in step 2 or you’ll overwrite that too).

      4. If you found and copied one or both of those files, try opening them up in word and see if either is a version of the file you lost. If so, you’re lucky! If not, I’m sorry but you’ve almost certainly lost the file.

      Good luck!

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