Recovery of a file opened in a zipped file and saved with a new name?

Anonymous
2012-02-05T14:52:19+00:00

I opened a docx file within a zipped file. I took it off read only and began to edit it. Then I saved it with "Save As" to rename it but didn't specify a directory. Now I cannot find it, and it doesn't show up as an ASD file when I try to use the Recover Unsaved Documents tool. Any suggestions on how to recover this file and not have to redo 2 hours of editing work?

If there is no way to recover this file, I would suggest that Microsoft change Office so you get an error message when you try to save a file in this way instead of letting you think that this is something you can do.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2012-02-17T10:58:01+00:00

Normally when you open Word document and try saving it from the zipped file, the default directory should the following C:\Users<user name>\AppData\Local\Temp\Rar$ (followed by number)

Try searching for the zip folders name and see if you can extract the Word files from there.

If you’re not able to find the zipped folder, may be the data is lost.

Note: You will get a prompt stating ‘Some files extracted from <filename> were modified or new files were created. Do you wish to put them to the archive?

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Anonymous
2012-02-07T02:41:33+00:00

Check the following MS article on how on recover lost Word documents and check if it helps:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316951

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  1. Charles Kenyon 171.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-02-05T16:01:13+00:00

    Was the zipped file opened directly from an email? If so, look for other threads here dealing with edited email documents. The zipped file would have been saved as a compressed folder in a temporary folder on your hard drive. If you did not specify a location for the save, it would have been saved in that zip folder.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-05T20:02:29+00:00

    I did not open the zipped file directly from an e-mail.  I had two files attached to an e-mail in Yahoo. I clicked to download both files. They downloaded them as a zipped file to my Downloads folder. The file I thought that I saved does not appear in either the zipped file or my Downloads folder. There is a name in the document that I can search for.  When I do so, the zipped file shows up but not the edited file. It does not appear to be anywhere on my hard drive.

    Once upon a time, I could have used Norton Utilities to search for the text on an unallocated portion of my hard drive and once I found it, retrieved it and saved it that way. But alas, those days are long gone as far as I know.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-08T03:10:13+00:00

    None of the methods listed helped find the file. I have bitten the bullet and redid the editing work. I still believe the problem is that Microsoft allows you to open a document within a zipped file, put it into editing mode and then save it without specifying a different folder. Therefore, you are under the illusion that you have saved it, but in actuality you cannot save a document into the middle of a zipped file. But that is just my opinion for whatever it is worth.

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