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Recover An Unsaved Document When Word Crashes

A friend once sent me a mail which had the following signature: "Millions of years ago a meteor crashed into earth and destroyed all dinosaur life. So keep saving your work. You never know when it might hit next!" 

It might seem a silly humorous statement but ask anyone who has lost work because of the computer hanging up on him/her. 'Save your work every once in a while' is an oft repeated phrase. However if you are one of those brave souls who believe in saving only at the end of the job then you are in deep trouble when Word crashes/hangs. Yet, you may be able to recover it or at least some part of it.

To do this: Open the Tools menu. Click Options. Click the File Locations tab. If the space next to AutoRecover files is blank, then your data is lost. If there is a location, go to that location and open the document.

How to turn on AutoRecovery:
Select Tools, Options, Check 'Save AutoRecover info every:' and provide the interval.
Then click on the File Locations tab, Select AutoRecover Files, Click on "Modify..." & provide a location for its to save the files.
 
How does it work:
When AutoRecover is turned on, the changes you make are saved at set intervals in a separate, temporary recovery file. Then, if you have to restart Word or your computer without saving your work, Word automatically opens the recovery file. In some cases it doesn't. In such situations you have to try out the above solution. The recovery file contains your changes up until the last time AutoRecover saved the document. For example, if you set AutoRecover to save every 7 minutes, you don't lose more than 7 minutes of work. All documents that were open at the time of the power failure or similar problem appear for you. Only changes you made after the last AutoRecover save are lost.
 

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