Finding a backup, previous version, or temp file for Notep..

Hi,

I was wondering if someone could help me find a previous version of a
document on my desktop. My system is Windows XP, and it is a Notepad .txt
document.

Here is my problem:

I worked in Notepad and created a large document. I saved it and named it,
and then saved it many times throughout working on it. I then left the
project and worked on some other things for a while. I did NOT close the
document (which becomes the problem later). When I came back to the project,
I forgot that I had NOT closed the original document, and went to the folder
it was stored in, and 'opened' it from there. Because there is some type of
bug in Notepad, it will actually open up the document as a second identical
document instead of telling you that it is already open, or instead of
automatically just going to the already-opened document. Thus, I now had two
of the same document open on my desktop.

Because there were a lot of things open on my desktop at the time, I didn't
notice that there were two. (Especially since I had forgotten that I had not
closed it when I left it the first time.) So I thought that the 'second'
copy of the document was the only one, of course, and began to work in it,
adding a tremendous amount of data. I worked in the document through the day
and into the night, and then closed the document as you would normally do.

That of course saved the document correctly, and all would have been fine,
except there was the original/first document (now just a PARTIAL document,
compared to the completed one) sitting there on my desktop, unbeknownst to
me. I didn't shut down the computer, and when I came back to the computer
today I saw the open document and thought to myself "I must be going bananas,
I thought I closed that document when I finished it". I didn't think about
it much more and closed the (original/partial) document.

Later in the day I wanted to edit something in the document, and opened it
via the normal means. To my horror, the document only contained the data in
it from when I had stopped working on it the first time, but had NONE of the
data in it from the long day and night's work.

It seems that although I correctly saved and closed the long (second)
document, it got overwritten by the first (shorter) document when that one
was closed AFTER the second (longer) document was closed. Thus, because it
was closed last, it was interpreted as the latest version of the document.
Of course, it shouldn't have been closed last, but I had no idea that I was
interacting with two different documents at the time, and that a bug making
two copies of the same document was even possible.

So somewhere there (hopefully) is a temp doc (if I'm using that term right)
of the long/second version of the document, from when I saved and closed it,
and from before it got overwritten by the short/first version, when it got
closed last.

Here it is in a nutshell:
1) Created new Notepad .txt document [we'll call it Version A, and estimate
it was 50 pages].
2) Named and saved it correctly.
3) Did NOT close it.
3) Left and came back to work on it.
4) Forgot document was still open (due to many docs open at time), and so
opened it by clicking on it.
5) Due to a bug in Notebook, it opened a second copy, instead of telling me
it was already open.
6) Worked in the second copy [we'll call it Version B, and estimate it at
200 pages], not knowing Version A (50 pgs) was still open.
7) Correctly saved and closed Version B (200 pgs).
Next day noticed Version A (50 pgs) still open, but not knowing that it
was Version A, thought that I had forgotten to close Version B.
9) Closed Version A (50 pages), of course thinking there had only been ONE
document, and that is was Version B.
10) Both versions were now closed, though at this point I didn't know there
were two versions.
11) Opened the document to edit it. Document only contained info from
Version A (50 pgs). All of the (additional) work in Version B (originally
200 pgs) was gone.
12) Thus, closing Version A (50 pgs) after Version B (200 pgs) overwrote
Version B with Version A.
13) Version B (200 pgs) had been saved on its own before I closed Version A
(50 pgs), so I know that somewhere there must be a backup version or temp
version of THAT document at THAT time.

Or that is my HOPE.

I am hoping that there is some place that the system stored a copy of the
Notepad .txt document when I saved and closed Version B (200 pgs), (when it
was still fine, and not yet overwritten by Version A.) I am not even sure
about what I am looking for, as I definitely don't know the in's and out's of
my computer. But I am hoping that there are temp files, or some type of
(backup?) file that was created each time I pressed "save". I haven't shut
down the computer since the doc was created, so hopefully no temp files have
been lost yet.

Is there a place on the computer where I could look? As I mentioned, the
document is a Notepad document, with a .txt extension.

Could you teach me about what type of file is generated when you save a
document each time, and where they might be stored? I know there are
specifics related to what program the document is written in -- is anyone
familiar with where Notepad places all of its background files?

This is where I have looked so far -- but there is nothing:
1) The same folder as where the original file is.
2) C:\Documents and Settings\Karen\Local Settings\Temp
3) C:\WINDOWS\Temp
4) C:\temp

Perhaps you could tell me exactly what kind of file I am looking for, as all
the files that are a .txt file are logs, and all of the other temp files are
unopenable by anything. I think there is a lot I still need to be educated
about. Especially when it comes to what Notepad itself does during
saving/backup, etc. I am so thankful for your help!

I have my fingers (very) crossed, as my heart just sunk when I opened up the
document and saw all of the work gone, as all of the information was
important medical information. I'm just so appreciative of being able to
post here! Thank you for your time, and for any information that you might
have in locating a previous version, or a backup, or a temp file, of the
document when it had been saved previously.

Thank you so very much!

Karen

Did you use Save or Save As when you were saving the document as you were working.
If you used Save only then it will not be there and if you used Save As then the
document should still be there

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"hopeful" wrote in message

> Hi,
>
> I was wondering if someone could help me find a previous version of a
> document on my desktop. My system is Windows XP, and it is a Notepad .txt
> document.
>
> Here is my problem:
>
> I worked in Notepad and created a large document. I saved it and named it,
> and then saved it many times throughout working on it. I then left the
> project and worked on some other things for a while. I did NOT close the
> document (which becomes the problem later). When I came back to the project,
> I forgot that I had NOT closed the original document, and went to the folder
> it was stored in, and 'opened' it from there. Because there is some type of
> bug in Notepad, it will actually open up the document as a second identical
> document instead of telling you that it is already open, or instead of
> automatically just going to the already-opened document. Thus, I now had two
> of the same document open on my desktop.
>
> Because there were a lot of things open on my desktop at the time, I didn't
> notice that there were two. (Especially since I had forgotten that I had not
> closed it when I left it the first time.) So I thought that the 'second'
> copy of the document was the only one, of course, and began to work in it,
> adding a tremendous amount of data. I worked in the document through the day
> and into the night, and then closed the document as you would normally do.
>
> That of course saved the document correctly, and all would have been fine,
> except there was the original/first document (now just a PARTIAL document,
> compared to the completed one) sitting there on my desktop, unbeknownst to
> me. I didn't shut down the computer, and when I came back to the computer
> today I saw the open document and thought to myself "I must be going bananas,
> I thought I closed that document when I finished it". I didn't think about
> it much more and closed the (original/partial) document.
>
> Later in the day I wanted to edit something in the document, and opened it
> via the normal means. To my horror, the document only contained the data in
> it from when I had stopped working on it the first time, but had NONE of the
> data in it from the long day and night's work.
>
> It seems that although I correctly saved and closed the long (second)
> document, it got overwritten by the first (shorter) document when that one
> was closed AFTER the second (longer) document was closed. Thus, because it
> was closed last, it was interpreted as the latest version of the document.
> Of course, it shouldn't have been closed last, but I had no idea that I was
> interacting with two different documents at the time, and that a bug making
> two copies of the same document was even possible.
>
> So somewhere there (hopefully) is a temp doc (if I'm using that term right)
> of the long/second version of the document, from when I saved and closed it,
> and from before it got overwritten by the short/first version, when it got
> closed last.
>
> Here it is in a nutshell:
> 1) Created new Notepad .txt document [we'll call it Version A, and estimate
> it was 50 pages].
> 2) Named and saved it correctly.
> 3) Did NOT close it.
> 3) Left and came back to work on it.
> 4) Forgot document was still open (due to many docs open at time), and so
> opened it by clicking on it.
> 5) Due to a bug in Notebook, it opened a second copy, instead of telling me
> it was already open.
> 6) Worked in the second copy [we'll call it Version B, and estimate it at
> 200 pages], not knowing Version A (50 pgs) was still open.
> 7) Correctly saved and closed Version B (200 pgs).
> Next day noticed Version A (50 pgs) still open, but not knowing that it
> was Version A, thought that I had forgotten to close Version B.
> 9) Closed Version A (50 pages), of course thinking there had only been ONE
> document, and that is was Version B.
> 10) Both versions were now closed, though at this point I didn't know there
> were two versions.
> 11) Opened the document to edit it. Document only contained info from
> Version A (50 pgs). All of the (additional) work in Version B (originally
> 200 pgs) was gone.
> 12) Thus, closing Version A (50 pgs) after Version B (200 pgs) overwrote
> Version B with Version A.
> 13) Version B (200 pgs) had been saved on its own before I closed Version A
> (50 pgs), so I know that somewhere there must be a backup version or temp
> version of THAT document at THAT time.
>
> Or that is my HOPE.
>
> I am hoping that there is some place that the system stored a copy of the
> Notepad .txt document when I saved and closed Version B (200 pgs), (when it
> was still fine, and not yet overwritten by Version A.) I am not even sure
> about what I am looking for, as I definitely don't know the in's and out's of
> my computer. But I am hoping that there are temp files, or some type of
> (backup?) file that was created each time I pressed "save". I haven't shut
> down the computer since the doc was created, so hopefully no temp files have
> been lost yet.
>
> Is there a place on the computer where I could look? As I mentioned, the
> document is a Notepad document, with a .txt extension.
>
> Could you teach me about what type of file is generated when you save a
> document each time, and where they might be stored? I know there are
> specifics related to what program the document is written in -- is anyone
> familiar with where Notepad places all of its background files?
>
> This is where I have looked so far -- but there is nothing:
> 1) The same folder as where the original file is.
> 2) C:\Documents and Settings\Karen\Local Settings\Temp
> 3) C:\WINDOWS\Temp
> 4) C:\temp
>
> Perhaps you could tell me exactly what kind of file I am looking for, as all
> the files that are a .txt file are logs, and all of the other temp files are
> unopenable by anything. I think there is a lot I still need to be educated
> about. Especially when it comes to what Notepad itself does during
> saving/backup, etc. I am so thankful for your help!
>
> I have my fingers (very) crossed, as my heart just sunk when I opened up the
> document and saw all of the work gone, as all of the information was
> important medical information. I'm just so appreciative of being able to
> post here! Thank you for your time, and for any information that you might
> have in locating a previous version, or a backup, or a temp file, of the
> document when it had been saved previously.
>
> Thank you so very much!
>
> Karen