Computer gods enter.....desperately need Word help

2000gator

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Was writing a paper about 22 pages long and was getting ready to submit it. Getting ready to upload the file to the school server and had to close word to allow this. Saved the document then went to upload it and now it is nowhere to be found. Searched literally everywhere in all recent documents, temp folders, backup files......everything.

The only thing I found was a .dat file which is i'm assuming the backup of my word file. Its the same date created and is 22 pages long. Now I tried a bunch of different ways to open it but all I get is the crazy encoded symbols. Anyone have any suggestions to how to open or convert this .dat file so that I can use it in word?
 

Planter

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I don't think you can convert it. that dat file is encrypted for whatever reason. odd it saved it as .dat file though...usually it's the same name as the document but with a .tmp extension.

try a file recovery software like Lexar's Disk Recovery or equivalent
 

crew_dawg16

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If you go into word and file->open, do you see it? If not, it didn't save.

It should be in a list of recent documents.
 

2000gator

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its no where in any recent documents or on the computer. I changed the file extension to both .doc and .docx and all it did was show the encoded symbols.

I tried searching for .tmp .wbk .doc and like 5 others that I thought I might be able find. Only could find the .dat file and can't seem to do anything with it.
 

TBCobra

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Hmmm thats odd. If you remember what you saved it as open a new document and type anything and then try and save it the same thing you called your 22 page paper and see if it says you have a file already named this.
 

GloomySVT

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Try opening recent documents in word. Click your paper. if it opens, save as, then set the extension as .doc and whatever name you please.
 

mellor_21

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TL;DR If you downloaded a template or anything that you used to start your paper, redownload it and try to open the one you wrote from there.

I had a similar problem with a resume the other day. I downloaded an old resume out of my sent email, updated it, then saved. When I tried to get into it later to send it out, I couldn't find it anywhere. I redownloaded the old one to do it again, and there was the one that I updated. I opened my folders to where it said that it should be saved at and the folder about 3 levels up from it wasn't where the address on the download said that it should be. It straight up wasn't there.
Anyway, I redownloaded the old one and noticed that instead of having it as "save to computer" I had it set on "open with word" in the download box. When I opened the redownloaded one I was able to hit open and it was still in the folder with my updated one.
 

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