Wrote an 11 page paper that's due for tomorrow. When I finished, I made sure to save it many times and I was sure I was good. I open the file up a few hours later to see the paper is gone and instead is just overwritten with the instructions for the paper. I am beyond frustrated and have looked up every means of recovering it without help. The only latest version of it I can find is from when I just started so it's about a sentence long. Does anyone know any methods to recover this? I've done pretty much everything, checked recent files, checked the temp/app data files and nothing. Is this pointless and should I just start to write again or is there hope.

Did you by chance get the instructions by email and type your paper into that document? If so search this site (and the Internet) for what to do when you lose an emailed document.