[JerryJustin]

Someone in our warehouse lost some data, and want me to find it. I think it is gone forever, but want to make sure.
(Their computer runs WinXP, and has MS Office 2003.)

This is what they did: They opened Outlook, and read an email with an attachment (an Excel spreadsheet). They double clicked on the attachment, and it gave them the option to 1) open or 2) save, and 3) cancel. He chose "Open," and worked on it for several hours. He then just clicked the "Save" icon, closed the program, and went home.

The next day, he came back, and *gasp* all his hard work was gone!

It seems like he would have saved the file to a Temporary Internet Files folder...(because when I chose "Save As" using his original procedure, it took me to a temporary Internet Files folder). I opened every Excel item in that folder, but the one he wanted was not there.

Am I right in thinking that the data was saved in a place that often gets overwritten, and is therefore likely gone forever?

Thanks for any help!

Jerry

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You may yet be lucky. It does store it in a temp folder, but it's one that doesn't get written over so much... if that makes ANY sense.

It stores them in:

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK53

I'm not sure the "OLK53" is a standard, but it'll be OLK something. If you know the file name, you could always unhide everything and do a search for it. It'll turn up in Local Settings for sure (if it's still viable).

Good luck

[Guse]

You may yet be lucky. It does store it in a temp folder, but it's one that doesn't get written over so much... if that makes ANY sense.

It stores them in:

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK53

I'm not sure the "OLK53" is a standard, but it'll be OLK something. If you know the file name, you could always unhide everything and do a search for it. It'll turn up in Local Settings for sure (if it's still viable).

Good luck

[JerryJustin]

Alas, I tried that one. It only saved an "autosave" that happens once every ten minutes by default---the rest of it wasn't saved (by CRTL+s).

But thanks anyway!

[peterm]

did you check the original email attachment to see if it saved it back on itself?
reopen the email then the attachment

[JerryJustin]

First thing I tried (and him). Alas, nothing. Although, I still don't know "where" it would have saved the file had that happened.

[peterm]

Strange I just emailed myself a file opened it changed it
then reopened the attachment and the changed file was there.
Yo sure he did not save as
Put the name of the file in search or search for excell files on that day

[laoloup]

The same thing just happened to me too. But I couldn't locate the OLK## folder. I did a search of folders and file name but just couldn't find the folder. I also made sure I can see hidden files.

When I open a file attachment from an email and try save as, the path shows well as "Temporary Internet Files/OLK53". But the folder just cannot be located.

Please help!

[peterm]

what email are you using microsoft outlook, outlook express or a 3rd party