How to recover an MS Word Document Deleted From The Disk?

**Andrew Mitchison** · 01-05-2024, 05:15 PM

while replacing the hard drive on the PC, accidentally formatted the wrong drive. Tell me how to recover lost documents?

**DocAElstein** · 01-05-2024, 08:31 PM

Hello Andrew, and welcome to ExcelFox

I think if your documents where on the drive that you accidentally formatted, then I had always assumed that there is no way to recover anything as formatting a disc is very thorough. However, neither I or any of the current regulars here are experts at MS Word or file recovery: I have heard of software claiming to recover stuff that initially one would likely regard as lost.
I do know that newer Microsoft things have a habit of trying to spy on you so there may be copies made somewhere that you don’t know about, but I would not know how to get at those.

Perhaps you could try these places where there are more regulars with MS Word and other general MS Windows issues.

Word: https://www.eileenslounge.com/viewforum.php?f=26
Windows general: https://www.eileenslounge.com/viewforum.php?f=18

Word: https://www.excelforum.com/word-formatting-and-general/
Windows general: https://www.excelforum.com/microsoft-windows-help/

( If you re post the same question on multiple forums, note that there is often a “cross posting rule”, which requires you to mention where else you posted the question )

Alan

Edit: I see you have posted already in at least one other place: Cross Post : https://eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=40472

**Andrew Mitchison** · 01-08-2024, 01:11 PM

Yes, you are right, I posted a similar request on another forum. I thought that somewhere I would get an answer, and at the same time I would find out what people do in such a situation.

If this is not allowed, then I'm sorry, I didn't know.
If anyone is interested in the answer to my question, you can find it here: https://eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=40472

**DocAElstein** · 01-08-2024, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by Andrew Mitchison

,,,
If this is not allowed, then I'm sorry, I didn't know.
If anyone is interested in the answer to my question, you can find it here: https://eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=40472

Hi, no big deal, thanks for taking the time to come back with the link.

Originally Posted by Andrew Mitchison

... at the same time I would find out what people do in such a situation.

Most forums have a cross posting rule, ( Eileen's Lounge also - No 9 here - https://eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?p=3652#p3652 ),
Some Forums are more picky than others at inforcing their Rules. Personally I want this place to be less strict, - because at most places, I find that the Moderators and senior Members seem to treat members asking for help like they are kids in their Nursery School in which they are the over strict Teachers, and they inforce their rules as if they where the most important things in the world. ( So far all I met in real life, and I made a point of doing that a bit, all have personality disorders of some kind or another, and that is one reason why they spend so much time on the forums. But handle them carefully, and you can get a lot of great help )

I think it can be useful to know if you are asking elsewhere so anyone helping can check he or she is not wasting their time. Also most useful if someone comes here later looking for the answer and finds it a link to the answer here, or better still repeated here. On the other hand, with two people working independently it can sometimes result in an answer they may not have come up with as a team or people knowing about the other. 6 of one , half a dozen of the other.

So I am a bit in two minds about the rule of insisting on people following the rule. I like to encourage getting an answer here for everyone's beneft.

I myself would probably stagger my cross posts with a day or so in between. But I do understand that most of us don’t have endless time to get things done.
Probably at the end, later, I would, and have always tried in the past, to post any answer I get and all the links to other sites. Best for everyone that way, just my opinion, including you as for later you have another place to reference and find your answer. I always have and still try that, but over the half the time some over zealous Moderator or Administrator with narcissistic personality disorder would have already banned me, or Bans me when I try to post a good detailed answer for the benefit of everyone. Lol!

Good luck, interesting to see if you get anywhere. In my ignorance in these things I had always thought formatting a disk pretty weak wiped it clean. Scary World when you can scrap or delete something and someone can still get it back. Good to know about though, - so that if you got or had something that you really don’t want someone else to see, then you best "delete it" with a fucking big Hammer!

Alan

I suppose the TLDR from me is, _..
_.. Cross Posting at ExcelFox : - don’t make a habit of cross posting too much without telling everybody everywhere at some point about it, unless you think it could be beneficial initially to get independent answers, for example when asking opinions, and please finally if you have a solution from anywhere else, please post back and tell us about it, for the later benefit of everyone.

**RPGMaker15** · 02-15-2024, 05:34 PM

Recovering a single file can be difficult because most applications don't recover a single file but recover the entire drive instead. I suggest recovering the whole drive using any famous application and then discovering your file from that drive. It will take some time, but you will at least salvage your lost file. Stellar Data Recovery is the software that will be helpful in this process.