[justify]

Hey guys!

I am having a problem with MS Word I have never encountered before- I am baffled. I am using Windows XP.

A couple of weeks ago I started an essay in Word. Went back to it at random points to work on it. Today I buckled down, took my laptop to the library, and finished the piece. While working and when finished I saved it several times, being a losing-my-work-a-phobe. When I got home I opened up the laptop to commence work on another essay. Accidentally I opened the first essay and closed it right away, not before seeing that it was indeed the same essay I had ended up with when I was at the library. It did not ask me to save as I had not made any changes. Two hours later I decided to print it, but now when I open it, it has reverted back to the essay it was during my last session before being modified at the library. All my work gone.

Thinking of course that it had to be somewhere, I searched for "essay", "~$" and even "*.doc" for any files at all that bore the time of my library session under Date Last Modified. All searches yielded only the old, unfinished essay, even including hidden files and folders.

Onething that may have been different. When I was home I was also using the Internet (I use dialup- I know, hahahaha) so is it possible that some sort of virus got its dirty way in and maliciously attacked the only thing I cared about? It would have to be one heck of a selective attack because I see no
other effects in my system. I have not yet run any checks.

So my two questions are, where the heck is my essay/ can it be retrieved, and can I sue Bill Gates for ruining my life if I end up failing the course? ) Yeah, probably not, but think of the windfall!)

Thanks very much in advance,

justify

 

[kiwiguy]

I very much doubt it's a virus attack.

Is your log-on that you used exactly the same as when you were at the library?

 

[justify]

I very much doubt it's a virus attack.

Is your log-on that you used exactly the same as when you were at the library?

Yes, it is- exactly the same.

I also doubt that it's a virus attack, but hey *shrug* I'm not much of a computer whiz. To say the least!

 

[Yorkshire Guy]

Have you looked in 'Recents'

 

[justify]

Recents? I haven't looked specifically, but wouldn't those files be included in complete searches?

 

[Anne Troy]

justy:

Don't look for ~$
Look for the following on the entire hard drive:

*.tmp,~*.*,*.asd

Those are temp files, temp files, and autosave files.
Not all temp files have the $, I don't think...

I wish I had a REAL answer for ya.

 

[justify]

If anyone's curious, the problem has been tracked. The essay material is gone though.

The issue seems to be a corrupt Windows registry caused by a worm. I am currently running a check for the W32.Blaster.worm and will then reinstall Word.

Thanks for the responses folks

 

[Yorkshire Guy]

Justify,

I suggested looking in Recents as that's where I usually look and realise I'd saved under a different name. Just checking.

Suggest that if you have or suspect a worm / virus that you download and run Hijack This then ask one of the OS techies to analyse for you - look in the OS Forums- there's loads of advice.

I'm still a novice so I also look for the most basic causes first.

lol

 

[Cookiegal]

Hi Justify,

It's a shame that you lost all that hard work. I can identify, it's happened to me at work too.

If you suspect that you have a worm, Blaster or other, I suggest that you download Hijack This and post a scan log here. Afterwards, we can request that the thread be moved over to security, if necessary.

Please do this. Click here: http://www.sherrylynn.us/HijackThis.exe to download Hijack This. It's important that you save it to it’s own folder (not temporary files or the desktop).

Close all open windows and open HIJACK THIS. Click “Scan”. When the scan is finished (it only takes a second), the scan button will change to “Save Log”. Click on “Save Log” and save it to NotePad. Copy the entire log and paste it here.

DO NOT FIX ANYTHING YET, most items that appear in the log are harmless or even needed. Wait for someone to analyze the scan and advise.

Cookie