Here's the thing. I was writing along and making progress so I
kept going. I got too tired and didn't quit. Zap: Everything is
gone. 71 pages are gone, vanished into thin air. I'm sure I can
redo it without a problem; it's about my adoptive mom and my life. But the thing is, it was shaping up really nice.
I liked the form it was taking. Here's the question: Do any of
you know how to retrieve something that vanishes? No WB is excellent with computers and he can't get it back. Any of you
have tech tricks up your sleeves? Don't know what I hit.
Don't know how I hit it. Was trying to get the line on the next page, sitting above the slug, to go onto the previous page so the spacing was uniform. I must've hit one of these lower buttons. Don't know what. Over 16,000 words, blank as newly fallen snow.

What program were you using? If it was Word, it autosaves periodically - you just have to know where it saves the files.

Good luck with the file retrieval, I do know Word has an autosave feature, so it SHOULD be possible to find your file.

I've been told NOTHING is ever irretrievably lost from our computers, but I am not a tech. I'm sorry but I don't know how to help.

yonuh,
Yes. I'm using word. And I thought it automatically, periodically saves, too. But we've looked everywhere.

Anne,
I was listening to a Joyce Meyer sermon a few weeks ago. She has
authored over 80 published manuscripts in the past 40 years.
And she recently lost 85,000 words that no one could retrieve.
So I guess I'm not the only person this happens to. I've looked in every possible file and WB has too. So I'll just redo it. But I was polishing the first few chapters, you know. I had a certain rhythm and a certain flavor injected that I hate losing. It's like cooking the same recipe repeatedly and having it turn out differently each time, which is especially true if you put in a little dash of this and a little dash of the other.

I'm really sorry this happened to you, but if you don't have Autosave enabled, your work might be gone. Of course I hope you can find it in a temp file. Did you open up Word and see if there's a recovered version? You have do to this from the program.

In future, of course, never do this again. Whenever you start a file, take the time to name it and save it right away. Then when you are blazing along, hit Ctl S every so often to save your work: every time you get up, every time you pause to think about what your next paragraph should be, every time you have a big burst, etc. Make it a habit and you'll likely never lose anything more than a small bit after your last Save.

I know how frustrating this is and that awful feeling when you realize your work isn't there. Arrrgh!

Not that it's much consolation, Jabber, but whenever this happens to me -- and I confess to having lost a file or two in my life -- I try to be philosophical and tell myself that the new version will be better... Hope that thought works for you, since it doesn't sound like we're coming up with any solutions for you!

Thankyou ladies! Our word program is 2007, not what I typed previously; we updated last spring. I did go to "word recovery" in google and tried their solution, installing {data recovery wizard} but it didn't work. I'm considering as you said Anne, and rethinking how I feel about it. Things happen for a reason and I'm praying the next version will be much, much better than the last. Thanks Ellemm for the input. I had the same thing happen on the last book but WB was able to recover that one. Wish I knew what I hit so I didn't do it again. Apparently our "task pane" is a virtual pain!!! LOL...

Don't any of you ever lose anything?

Oh, yes. I once lost a 20 page paper I was writing for a class in grad school. It was due Monday morning, and when I tried to pull it up Sunday night for a final review it wasn't there! I had to rewrite the whole thing - that was an all-nighter I don't even want to think about!! I never did figure out what I did to delete it. But ever since then, I save frequently and back up often!!!

The other thing to consider when writing a book would be to save a copy to a backup file that's not stored on your computer. In other words, save it to a CD or a memory stick device.

Then nightly, when you finish writing for the day, re-upload to the off-site device.

THAT way, you have a hard copy version - without resorting to a nightly printout, which would use a lot of paper.

My husband does this with software he develops. We actually have old disks and hard drives in a safe deposit box!