How do I recover a file?

Question

I was working on a document that was saved to an external hard drive. It came up with a box when I clicked save asking me to grant access. I did this and kept clicking save throughout. I noticed there was a name change and clicked on the file again to see if it opened something different but it didn't so it appeared to still be the one I was working on.
When I opened the document later all the work I had added to the document had gone. I cannot find it anywhere. It did not offer to recover work for me and I have tried using the Go Go To suggestion in Word with no luck.

What has happened to my work and can I recover it?

Answer 1

Hi @Lauren Mason ,
Try plugging and unplugging the hard drive.
Can you open the files from hard drive? Did this problem appear in all files or specific file?
If this problem related to the hard drive, try this method: click Win+Run- enter chkdsk drive letter(for example: chkdsk c: /f)
For recovery Word document, you can refer to this support article:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/word/recover-lost-unsaved-corrupted-document
Just checking in to see if the information was helpful. Please let us know if you would like further assistance.

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