opening .tmp files

[lljane]

I could've sworn I did it right, but apparently not....I opened an attachment (word document) and wanted to edit it. I saved it while I was working on it, but now I can't find it. I suspect it's in my temporary internet files, but I when I try to open them, it is a bunch of gobbely gook. Any suggestions? Would my saved work even be there? Thanks in advance.

[mjc]

What version of Windows?

What di you use to open it with?

[Paul Komski]

Search whole PC for *.doc maybe

[lljane]

XP and I opened it with Microsoft Word 2003.
Do you think there's hope?

[Paul Komski]

Do you think there's hope?If you definitely saved the file to disk then there is hope. You might try opening another word document the same way (send one to yourself if necessary and open the same email client - which email client by the way since deleted emails may be quite recoverable). Open it as before with Word and choose Save or SaveAs noting where the default save location happens to be since it might lead you to the previous document.

If you have searched unsuccessfully for .doc files then you might want to try GetDataBack (http://www.runtime.org).

[lljane]

Thanks Paul. I have already tried saving the email attachment again and recorded the location where it was going to be saved. That's how I found the .tmp files. The location was \localsettings\temporaryinternetfiles\content.IE5. Then there is a combo of letters and numbers following. When I open a file I either get a message to choose the program to open with or if it opens, it's a bunch of funky letters/symbols.

[Paul Komski]

Did the email come as webmail which you read in Internet Explorer. For example a gmail or yahoomail or ???mail account. The content.IE5 folder is a special MS folder and its apparent contents can be misleading. Do the files you refer to as .tmp files have a .tmp or other file extension.

Did you or did you not open the attachment in Word?

[lljane]

My email comes through yahoo and I did use word to open the attachment. The file was created on another computer using word and then I emailed it to myself. The files that came up when I plugged in the location from my test "save as" attempt, were all .tmp. Hey, thanks for continuing to think about this and trying to help me!

[Paul Komski]

If you are opening with or saving as from Word then any .tmp file is a most unusual file extension to be associated with Word. Bizarre in fact. Try opening such a .tmp file with notepad and post the first twenty or so characters in it here to give some indication of its underlying intrinsic file type.

If the document you want to find was made on another PC and deleted then it is very likely it could be recovered from that PC using GetDataBack for FAT or NTFS as appropriate.

[nuz]

Try doing a search for *.doc in the period you saved the file. Having a temp file is not uncommon, as Office creates a swap file of sorts for open documents under that extension and doesn't always remember to delete it afterwards.

[lljane]

Thanks, Nuz. I've tried that, unfortunately it didn't work.

[Paul Komski]

By now this information (http://www.ehow.com/how_4597688_recover-temporary-internet-files.html) is probably redundant.

The first 25 characters of a word document (temporary or otherwise) should begin with the ASCII gobbledy-gook ÐÏࡱá > if opened in Notepad or a Hex editor.

The hidden .tmp files from Word are created (from experimenting) when a document is saved but not closed. They are of Word doc format and have the same first 25 ASCII characters and if their .tmp file extension is changed to .doc should open normally in Word. Word also creates another hidden file beginning with a ~ (tilde) while the document is open. These allow undo operations to be applied to an unsaved document but have a different format and though they have a .doc file extension are not normal word documents and don't have the eqivalent ASCII file headers.

PS
Both I and nuz have suggested searching for *.doc files. It is worth stating that the default Windows search options do not include hidden/system files/folders; those options should thus be enabled in the search options particularly since the TIF folder is normally just such a hidden system folder.

[lljane]

I searched the hidden files too. Here's what I got when I opened a .tmp with a tilde at the beginning:
ÐÏࡱá >  þÿ 

 þÿÿÿ þÿÿÿ ÿÿ

This is the beginning of one that did not have a tilde (these are both from the day that I lost my documents):
[Version]
;<FileName>=<Version> ; Version of the given merged file name with this one
ThisFile=1 ; Version number of this file

[Options]
DeleteAfterMerge=1 ; Whether this file should be deleted after merging with the base file

; Normally an upgrade will only add those sections that are not in
; the previous version of this file. However you can force certain
; sections to be replaced by listing them here.
[Upgrade Section Overrides]
;0=HP Officejet 7300 series ; note: commented out, for illustration purposes only

[Paul Komski]

It's worth trying changing .tmp to .doc if you haven't already. I don't like the fact that it starts with a tilde - but with PCs one just never knows.

[lljane]

This is the garble from changing it to a .doc and opening in word:
ÐÏ à¡± á > þÿ þÿÿÿ þÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
It's not looking good is it?

[Sylvander]

Search for the files that have a certain string of characters [a word] in the CONTENT, that you know existed in the original document.
i.e. Search by content not by name or extension.

[lljane]

Sylvander, good idea. I tried it, but didn't work.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Temporary Internet Files are .tif

.tmp is Windows Temp files
Possibly here:
C:/ (if C is your primary OS partition), Documents and Settings/ (your computer's name or user account name here)/ Local Settings / Temp

Also possibly
C:/ Windows/ Temp

This is for WinXPPRO. XPHome or other OS may be somewhat different but similar enough to find the right path if you experiment. Why you have IE5 suggests you have a somewhat older OS. Perhaps an upgrade to XP? Isn't IE5 like Win 95/98 time frame?


Get Data Back could be tedious if you're drive is big and/or we can't narrow it down to a definite folder other than a temporary one. Are you sure you didn't pick a path to where you wanted the file to be saved?