2 Recover Lost Excel 2007 Data From an Unsaved Worksheet
3 Recovering a PowerPoint After a Crash
4 Retrieve Deleted Word Documents
It’s an hour before your deadline, and you just completed the finishing touches to an Office document. You close out of your research screen only to realize you closed your document instead. The worst part is you didn’t click 'Save.' This is just one of the many scenarios that happen to even the most habitual backer-uppers. Fortunately, Microsoft remains a step ahead with a few ways you can recover that document on your Windows computer.
AutoRecover Mode
Jun 17, 2008 - I assume 2007 if you have Vista, but if not let me know (these. Then go to the office button on the top left and then to word options on bottom. This page's solutions for Microsoft Office Word has stopped working and Word file recovery is applicable to most Office apps, such as Excel, PowerPoint, etc. Microsoft Word has stopped working 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016.
For those who close before saving, the AutoRecover mode in Microsoft Office 2010 and later exists to save the day. It keeps the last autosaved version even if you close the whole file before saving. Just because this feature makes it easy to retrieve a file, don’t make a habit of closing files before saving. The autosaved version is generated only every 10 minutes by default. This feature works for any Microsoft Office program including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, including the 2016 versions and the Office 365 suite.
Open the program where the file was created. Under the File tab, select 'Recent' or 'Restore,' depending on your software, to open a drop-down menu. Depending on the program, the choices are slightly different. Look for “Recover Unsaved.' In Word, it’s 'Recover Unsaved Documents' or 'Restore to Last Saved.' In Excel, 'Workbooks' replaces 'documents,' and in PowerPoint, 'Presentations' is used.
Mitigating Future Save Failures
Of course, prevention is always the best method to not lose data. This starts with diligently clicking 'Save' as you take breaks, complete sections or pause to answer the phone. While software is internally saving files in the AutoSave system, it may still not capture all the information based on how often it saves.
AutoSave defaults to every 10 minutes. If the file was about to autosave and you closed it, you missed the last nine minutes of work. You can change the setting to autosave the document more often. In older software versions, go to 'File' and 'Help.' Under Help, select 'Options.' In more recent software, go to 'File,' Options' and click 'Save' in the window that opens. Look for the number of minutes between saves. It may be worded as “Save AutoRecover information every X minutes.' Adjust the minutes and select 'Save.'
Another Area to Look
The AutoSave feature was introduced in 2010 versions of Office software. If you're working on an older computer with older versions of the software, there is a place on your Windows hard drive that keeps unsaved Office files for four days. You cannot move files from the area, but you can open and access them to resave in the appropriate area. The location is slightly different depending on the version of Office being used.
In Windows 7 and Vista, open the C drive. Follow this path: C:UsersUser_NameAppDataLocalMicrosoftOfficeUnsavedFiles
For Windows XP, follow this path: C:Documents and SettingsUser_NameLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftOfficeUnsavedFiles
There is a short window of opportunity to reclaim unsaved files using Word. If it's a particularly valuable file that you can't replace, you may have luck contacting an IT expert who can use sophisticated recovery software to find lost data on your drive. However, this is usually an expensive and time-consuming operation. Save often and keep this information available if you find yourself looking for that lost file.
References (2)
About the Author
With more than 15 years of small business ownership including owning a State Farm agency in Southern California, Kimberlee understands the needs of business owners first hand. When not writing, Kimberlee enjoys chasing waterfalls with her son in Hawaii.
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Leonard, Kimberlee. 'How to Recover a Windows Document That Didn't Save.' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/recover-windows-document-didnt-save-28481.html. 01 March 2019.
Leonard, Kimberlee. (2019, March 01). How to Recover a Windows Document That Didn't Save. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/recover-windows-document-didnt-save-28481.html
Leonard, Kimberlee. 'How to Recover a Windows Document That Didn't Save' last modified March 01, 2019. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/recover-windows-document-didnt-save-28481.html
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I recently installed Microsoft Office on a Windows machine and everything worked fine for a few days, but all of a sudden when I open Word, I get the following error message:
It then gives me the option to check online for a solution or to close the program.
After this, I could not even open Word anymore! It would simply close down the program. How annoying! Anyway, after doing some research, I finally got the problem fixed.
Depending on your situation, the solution may be different. I will try to post all of them here and hopefully one will work for you.
Method 1 – Repair Office 2016/2013/2010/2007
To perform a repair of Office, go to Start, then Control Panel and click on Programs and Features. Click on the Microsoft Office and click Change.
Click Repair and then click Continue. For newer versions of Office, you might see Online Repair and Quick Repair. Let the repair finish, which could take a while, and then restart your computer.
If you continue to get the “Word has stopped working” message, then keep reading for more possible solutions!
Method 2 – Disable All Add-ins
Sometimes an add-in that gets installed automatically by another program (such as Adobe, etc.), might cause Word to crash. In this case, you can start Word in Safe Mode, which does not load any add-ins.
Simply click on Start and then Run or if you’re using Windows 7, just type the following command into the search box:
In Windows 10, press Windows Key + R. Now click on the Office button and click on Word Options. On newer versions of Office, click on File and then Options.
Click on Add-Ins and then disable all add-ins and try to load Word again normally.
Method 3 – Install Latest Updates
If that didn’t work for you either, then you should try to download and install the latest updates for your version of Office. Sometimes it’s a glitch that is fixed when you install the latest patches and fixes.
In Windows 7, you can go to Automatic Updates from the Control Panel and find the latest updates. You can also visit the Office download center and download service packs for Office, etc.:
Method 4 – Delete the Word Data Registry Key
There is a key in the registry that stores frequently used options in Word. If you delete the key, Word rebuilds it the next time you start Word by using the default settings.
You can delete the Word data key by going to the following location in the registry depending on your version of Word:
Word 2002: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoft Office10.0WordData
Word 2003: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoft Office11.0WordData
Word 2007: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoft Office12.0WordData
Word 2010: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice14.0WordData
Word 2013: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice15.0Word
Word 2016: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice16.0Word
Simply right click on the Data key and choose Delete. Now restart Word and see if the problem has gone away or not.
Method 5 – Remove Older Printer Drivers
Oddly enough, this ended up being the cause of my problem. I had an older print driver installed on my Windows machine and once I removed that driver, Word started working without any problems!
If you are running Windows 10, you might need to download the latest version that is compatible with that operating system.
You can delete individual printer drivers by going into the registry. Note that simply going to Printers and Faxes and deleting a printer there does not delete the printer driver.
Follow Step 3 in my previous post to remove the printer drivers:
Method 6 – Uninstall Recent Software
At this point, you have also think about any software or plugins that you may have installed on your computer. Annoyingly, this problem with Word can be caused by a program that is completely unrelated to Word!
Did you recently install some new hardware? A printer, scanner, label machine, web cam, tablet, etc.? Have you installed any software? If so, uninstall it and see if the problem goes away.
Method 7 – Completely Uninstall and Reinstall Office
If nothing has worked yet, there are not many options left! You can try to perform a full uninstall and then reinstall to see if the problem is fixed. Go to this link first and download the Fix It solution for your version of Office:
Once you run that, go ahead and restart the computer and reinstall your version of Office. If you have found a different solution to this problem, post a comment here and let us know!