Lost content in a word file/USB

[Gilly]

Hi guys

This may sound like a really stupid question, but I have to ask, I am desperate!



I have spent at least 20 hours of the last few days writing up a science research project, at the library , when I had finished for the day I saved it onto my USB stick as usual. Tonight I put the stick into my laptop to carry on working, when I opened the file on my computer I saw the one I wanted and clicked on it to open it, it said something like 'this file already exists do you want to replace it' I clicked yes (I don't know why I did that!) and word opened up with a blank page! My bloody work has gone, I have lost it all, I cant believe it! I am so peed off about it .... is there anything I can do to get it back? As you may have already guessed I am crap with computers. I haven't a clue what I am doing, clearly!

I would be very grateful if anyone could help. Thank you.

[Gilly]

I have sorted it, just thought I would report back in case this ever happened to somebody else, I just downloaded a free USB recovery application and it found it! I cant believe my luck!

Thanks.

[eNGiNe]

It is often reported in this forum that Word won't work reliably with USB sticks.

[macropod]

The issue isn't that Word won't work reliably with USB sticks but that users don't!

If you don't want to suffer data corruption, especially with Word documents, make sure you always go through the safe removal process. Better still, copy the files to the HDD, work on them there, then copy the finished product back to the USB stick. That way you'll have a backup as well.

[eNGiNe]

This is the first time, as far as I remember, that anyone has bothered to explain it's a standard "safe removal" issue. Many other posts have gone for the simpler story and cast aspersions on Word ;-}

[macropod]

Indeed, "safe removal" or, more correctly, "UNsafe removal" is at the core of the issue. In years past there were also problems with Word files on floppy disk drives, due to lack of disk space, but that isn't an issue for today's multi-gigabyte USB sticks.