How To Retrieve A Lost File or Document or Image on Windows 8 After Shutdown & How To Recover a Corrupt Document

On Friday the 17th I had a horrible, terrible crisis. I had been working on an assignment for weeks. I was well into 8,000 words when my laptop (A Vaio, to be specific) froze. Without thinking much, I pressed the Power button and killed it.

Unfortunately, when I turned the laptop back on, all my files were gone. I had saved them on my Libraries (Documents) folder, and they were nowhere to be seen! I was horrified because everything else was on my computer except for those important files! I hadn't them elsewhere (I know, I was stupid). Thankfully, I had the files saved, so I KNEW that they were going to be somewhere in the hard drive. After much research and 6 days of heartaches and headaches, I finally managed to recover it.

So, here are some tips on how to retrieve a lost file or document or anything:

1. Download Recuva

This software SAVED MY LIFE. Initially I downloaded a software called Yodot. Do NOT download Yodot. It spent 4 hours looking for useless files that refused to open. Recuva, on the other hand, only took 20 seconds to find exactly what I needed.

The directions are pretty clear, but if you still have trouble, go see this video:

If your file has been successfully recovered and opens without any problems, hurray for you. But my journey didn't end there. Although I did recover my files, my documents were corrupt. A weird message kept popping out in Microsoft Word (I have Word 2007) saying that my document was damaged and that it couldn't be opened.

I followed all the steps that the Internet gave me.
I did "Open and Repair." Nothing.
I tried opening it on a different laptop. Nothing.
I tried downloading some softwares. Nothing.

2. Use this site Office Recovery

Click "Choose File," which is right under the words Upload Corrupted File.
Then click "Secure Upload and Repair" (the green box)

Now, once you are done, you'll see something like this. As a student without any money, I knew I couldn't afford to pay to fix my document. Thankfully, there's a free option. "Share us and get a link to repaired file!" saved my life and wallet. I used g+ and got my file (in the form of an RTF). 

Voila! That's it! 

I hope you can benefit from this. I know this post isn't like the usual stuff I post, but I felt the need to write this. I almost had a mental meltdown this past week because of this one file. And I want to help those that are also going through this pain. 

Make sure to keep a backup of your files! SAVE, SAVE, SAVE.