One angle not covered enough by @shizuka, @mike34, and @mikeappsreviewer is the Document Recovery cache tied to your Windows profile SID, especially after a crash + forced restart.
Try this:
- Press
Win + R - Paste:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Word - Then also check:
%localappdata%\Temp - But instead of just opening files, copy suspicious
.asd,.wbk,.tmp, and oddly named.docxfiles to another folder first
Why I’m stressing the copy part: opening temp files in place can sometimes alter timestamps or make cleanup kick in.
Also check Word AutoRecover interval settings after the fact:
- Word > File > Options > Save
- If AutoRecover was disabled, the usual recovery paths may be a dead end
- If “Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving” was off, unsaved recovery is much less reliable
One small disagreement with the “don’t open Word at all” camp: if this was a previously saved document, sometimes the fastest test is opening the saved copy with Open and Repair before deep recovery.
If nothing useful turns up, Disk Drill is a reasonable next move.
Pros of Disk Drill
- good at finding deleted DOC/DOCX and temp remnants
- simple scan flow
- can preview recoverable files sometimes
Cons
- recovery names/folder structure can be messy
- deep scans take a while
- success on truly unsaved files is hit or miss because they may never have been fully written
Important distinction:
- Brand new never-saved doc = depends mostly on AutoRecover/temp traces
- Existing file you edited = better odds from temp cache, previous version, or file recovery scan
So I’d do: copy temp candidates first, test Open and Repair on any saved version, then use Disk Drill only if the manual checks fail.