Recover, Repair and Fix lost, deleted, corrupt, damaged MS Word Document Files

How to recover a deleted Word document?

The first step for deleted Word document recovery is to look in the Recycle Bin! If the document is not in the Recycle Bin, and you are sure it must have been deleted recently, then use Data Recovery Wizard to recover the deleted Word document.

How to recover a lost Word document?

Microsoft Word will “lose” documents in certain situations. For example, it may lose a document if Word is forced to quit unexpectedly, if your computer has a power interruption while you’re writing, or if you close the document without saving changes.

If you don’t know how the Word document was lost, if it may have been deleted a long time ago, or if it has been overwritten or corrupted, then it is best to use Data Recovery Wizard. This product is often able to recover Word documents even when parts of the original file have been overwritten, by searching for previously saved copies made while the document was being created and edited.

Searching for the Original Document.

1. In Windows, click Start, Search, and then For Files or Folders.
2. In the Search for files or folders named box, type the file name.
3. In the Look in box, click “My Computer”. (This searches your entire computer - if you know that the file is in a specific area, for example, “My Documents”, then change this accordingly.)
4. Click “Search Now”. If the Search Results box does not show the file, continue with the following steps to search for all Word Documents.
5. In the Search for files or folders named box, type *.doc. Tip: In computer terminology, the asterisk * is used to select all options. By entering *.doc you’re telling the computer to search for all files with the .doc extension.
6. Click “Search Now”.

If you still cannot find the file, open the Recycle Bin and follow these steps.

1. Open the Recycle Bin.
2. On the View menu, click Details.
3. Click Arrange Icons and click by Delete Date. This allows you to filter this list according to the date when the files were deleted. If you know that your files went missing yesterday, you can look at this date.
4. When you find the document that you are looking for, right-click on it, and click Restore.

This returns the document to its original location. Open the file and examine its contents.

Search for Word Backup Files.

Many users rely on the Always create backup copy setting (see Tools > Options > Save tab) to automatically create a backup copy of their files.

While the obvious advantage is that it always creates a backup file, the downside is that it makes Word work very hard. As it has to continually save backup copies, it will reduce your computer’s performance. Quite often, Word will freeze when it backs up a large file.

To find the backup file, follow these steps:

1. Open the folder where you last saved the missing file.
2. Search for files with the .wbk extension. (Word BacKup)

When you find a file that has the name “Backup of” followed by the name of the missing file:

1. In Word, click File > Open.
2. In the File of type box, click All Files *.*, select the file, and then click Open.

If the .wbk file is not located in the original folder, search the computer as follows:

1. In Windows, click Start, point to Search, and then click For Files or Folders.
2. In the Search for files or folders named box, type *.WBK.
3. In the Look in box, point to the arrow, and then click My Computer.
4. Click Search Now.

Search for AutoRecover Files.

Word creates AutoRecover files of the documents that you were working on whenever it crashes. When you re-open Word, it displays these AutoRecover files in the Document Recovery task pane.

If Word finds the AutoRecover file, the Document Recovery task pane opens on the left side of the screen, and the missing document is listed as “document name [Original]” or as “document name [Recovered]”.

1. Double-click the file in the Document Recovery pane.
2. Click Save As.
3. Save the document as a .doc file.

Using Task Manager to close Word after a Crash.

When Word crashes, the Winword.exe file may still remain open. You need to close this before you re-open Word as otherwise system conflicts may arise, i.e. you may not be able to open Word, as the system sees that Winword.exe is currently running.

To close Winword.exe using the Task Manager, follow these steps:

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL. In the Windows Security dialog box, click Task Manager.
2. On the Processes tab, click any instance of Winword.exe, and then click End Process.
3. Close the Windows Task Manager, and then re-start Word.

Search Manually.

You can also manually search for AutoRecover files:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the File Locations tab, double-click AutoRecover files, and write down the path. Click Cancel and Close.
3. Close Word.
4. Open the AutoRecover file location (based on the path you wrote down).
5. Search for files that end with .asd.

Search for Temporary Files.

If these methods do not find the file, you can search for temporary files:

1. Click Start, click Search, and then click For Files or Folders.
2. In the Search for files or folders named box, type *.TMP.
3. In the Look in box, point to the arrow, and then click My Computer.
4. If the Search Options are not visible, click Search Options.
5. Click to select the Date check box, click in the last “n” days, and then change “n” to the number of days since you last opened the file.
6. Click Search Now.
7. On the View menu, click Details, point to Arrange Icons, and click by Date.
8. Scroll down searching for files that match the last few dates and times that you edited the document.

Search for “~” Files.

Some temporary file names start with the tilde (~) symbol. To find these files, follow these steps:

1. In Windows, click Start, click Search, and then click For Files or Folders.
2. In the Search for files or folders named box, type ~*.*.
3. Click Search Now.
4. On the View menu, click Details and then sort by Date.
5. Scroll through the files for documents that match the last date that you edited the document.

If the recovered Word document is still damaged.

Microsoft Word tries to automatically recover a damaged document if it detects a problem with the file. You can also “force” Word to try to recover a document when you open it.

1. On the File menu, click Open.
2. In the File of type list, click All Files *.*.
3. In the Open dialog box, select your document.
4. Point to the arrow on the Open button, and then click Open and Repair.

Or try using some Microsoft Word document fix tool. These products are often able to repair corrupt Word documents using text found in previously saved copies of the file. Our product will have the word fix function. You can send the files to us repair. Please see: File Repair.

Word Recovery - Recover, Repair and Fix lost, deleted, corrupt, damaged MS Word Document Files.