Over the years, many relatives, family friends and clients have made the mistake of opening up an attached file from an e-mail, editing it, and then clicking "save", and then close.
What happens next drives them crazy: they go to retrieve their file later, but it is nowhere to be found! This is because when you open up a file attachment from your e-mail (if you use Internet Explorer), it opens into your Temporary Internet Files folder. This folder is hidden, and several levels deep, so the average person doesn't know about it.
It can be found here:
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[Your Username]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\
Windows 7: C:\Users\[Your UserName]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5
The best thing to do in this situation is to do a search of this folder and all subfolders (be sure to include hidden and system files in your search) for .doc (or the appropriate file extension), or for whatever the first few letters of the filename was called. This doesn't find the file 100% of the time, but I have had several successful recoveries using this method.
THE MORAL OF THE STORY: If you open up a file from an e-mail attachment, save it to your My Documents folder!
Jeffrey Atto, C.O.O. Concise Computer Consulting
2350 Franklin Road Suite #120
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302
248-745-8255
www.concisepc.com
