The Answer Is Still "No"

[Jay 2K Winger]

Only slight suck here, but it deserves telling.

User called in because she had opened a Word document off of an email and made some changes to it. She said she had clicked the Save button several times while working on it, but then she lost her work. She wanted to know if there was a way we could restore it.

Now, I'm sure it's different where you work, but at The Client, opening a file off of an email does not automatically save it to one's network drive. One must specifically save it there in order to do this. The user had not done so.

To her credit, she had gone to the "temp" folders where stuff is usually temp-stored, but alas, the file was not there. There was no filepath for us to work from; remember, she had not specified where it was being saved, so we can't restore it if we don't know where to look.

File restorations at The Client can only be done from network drives; we don't touch stuff on the C: drives for file restores, because with very few exceptions-- none of which applied to this user-- the C: drive is wiped when one logs off the computer.

I tell the user that we cannot restore the file.

She sighs, and then goes on for a bit on "I thought it saved it to the temp folder when you opened it from the email" which I state is usually the case, but remind her, "If it's not there, it's not there. If you didn't save it to your network drive, we can't restore it."

She sighs again, and then once again approaches the "I thought it would be in the temp folder" angle from a different direction, with different wording. I once again tell her we can't do the restore.

She tries a third time, and this time I had to tell her: "Ma'am, you've been asking the same question in different ways. The answer is still 'no.' We cannot restore your file."

To her credit again, she laughed a bit, sighed, and thanked me, and said something on the lines of, "I had to give it a try."

I'm sorry, ma'am, but there is not a magic set of phraseology that will make your request be filled. We can't do it. Points for effort, though.

[b2addm]

Oh I hate answering the same question over and over and over again just because they don't like the answer they get the first time. Ever notice that doesn't happen if you tell them what they do wanna hear?

[lordlundar]

default save location is usually in the default "my documents" folder in that case. A search on the C: drive for the file name should turn it up.

[RealUnimportant]

default save location is usually in the default "my documents" folder in that case. A search on the C: drive for the file name should turn it up.

Ah, but the C drive gets wiped on logout...

[KiaKat]

Oh gods. That reminds me of an old job. I should post that story at some point when I have time.

Basically, I was bartending in a no-tech restaurant, our CC machine ate our daily batch, and the boss had me call the poor rep several times to ask the same thing over and over and over and over.

There's more to it, but that's the essence.

[Duncan MacLeod]

Ah, but the C drive gets wiped on logout...

even if it wasn't wiped, If you open an attachment from email, say in outlook, it will save it to the aforementioned temp directory unless you specifically specify "save as"

[Jay 2K Winger]

even if it wasn't wiped, If you open an attachment from email, say in outlook, it will save it to the aforementioned temp directory unless you specifically specify "save as"

I should clarify. At The Client, they do not use Outlook on the secure network in question. And it doubtless it does save to some default location. But the user had checked said default locations, and the file wasn't there.

Hence, there really wasn't anything we could do.

Even if it HAD saved to some default location on the C: drive, we can't restore files from there.

[Andara Bledin]

Is the machine so specialized that it doesn't have a "recent documents" option from either the Start button or the Word menu?

That's the fastest and easiest way to locate a lost file you were just working on.

^-.-^

[wagegoth]

Is the machine so specialized that it doesn't have a "recent documents" option from either the Start button or the Word menu?

That's the fastest and easiest way to locate a lost file you were just working on.

^-.-^

Ours don't. They've been altered in a number of ways.

[Teskeria]

Now I understand it can be difficult to comprehend, that if a credit comes into your credit card, it is applied immediately to your minimum due (or unpaid balance depending on the situation). However, when it is applied to your minimum due, before your due date, your minimum is reduced. And on the statement, it shows payments and CREDITS applied to previous balance.
So perhaps someone could explain how a supposed CPA could not understand, even after 45 minutes of explanation, with the statement in front of her, and with her ACKNOWLEDGING she sees where the credit was applied, why she couldn't understand that the credit was already used. BTW, my supervisor then had her an additional 57 minutes before it sunk in.

[Captain Trips]

Waves wand and recites "Documenticus restor'em!"

[Ironclad Alibi]

With Outlook, and I suspect other email programs are similar, if I open a word document attached to an email, make changes and save it, I also have to save the email I got it from, otherwise the changes are lost. This is if I don't use the "save as" feature to save the file. I suspect the OP User saved the document but didn't save the open email before closing it.

[MistressOfTangents]

Waves wand and recites "Documenticus restor'em!"

this made me cackle so much.

[Blade_Raver]

Jay2KWinger - Something you may want to try...

If you can get into the command prompt of the end user's computer, try this:

C: (or whatever the relevant drive letter is)
cd\
dir /a /s partoffilename*.ext

For example, if it's a word .doc file that starts with reports, the command would go:

dir /a /s reports*.doc

It'll go through and try to find all files, regardless if hidden for anything that starts with reports and has a .doc extension.

Hope this helps.

I find that doing file searches in command prompt vs. using file search in windows yields better results.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Blade_Raver--

I appreciate the advice, but file restorations are handled by the server team. We don't have the access to do the kinds of things you're talking about. With a few exceptions-- again, none of which applied to this user-- no one has the access to make changes to the C: drive on the computers at The Client.

In short, if it was on a network drive-- the user's drive or the share drive-- the server team can restore it. If it was on the C: drive, they are SOL.

Just trust me on this. The Client has very strict regulations in place about these kinds of things.