# Word file lost while using Cut (Ctrl-X)



## clld (Oct 17, 2009)

Hi everyone,

Thanks for helping me out here. I lost a Microsoft Word-file that was stored on a laptop while trying to Cut (Ctrl-X) it to an external harddrive. Apparently, the USB connection between the harddrive and the laptop was termporarily lost while the file was being copied, resulted in the file being deleted from the laptop (since I was using cut) and it neither being on the external hard drive.

I attempted to undo (Ctrl-Z) the file-cutting, which did bring the file back, but it was empty. Is the file lost forever? Or does anyone of you happen to know a way of recovering the lost file?

Thanks in advance!


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## Delmarstio1991 (Aug 7, 2007)

Er, hmm...well, it may be too late, but typically you would use a program which retrieves deleted files, but their success rate drops very sharply with every action you take on the computer. At this point, it may be lost forever, but you may still make the attempt via a program such as NTSF Undelete, if your hard drive is in the NTSF format, or some other program which handles your hard drive's format. If it proves futile, I would recommend keeping a copy of whichever program suits your hard drive on a thumb drive, so as to avoid this in the future. Sorry if I'm not much help.


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## Mister2 (Aug 29, 2009)

Hi clld,

Check out this page - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827099
This may help you retrieve a copy of your document, even an out-of-date copy.
I'm thinking any copy is better than no copy :smile:

I suffered like this before (usually when a destination drive was full in the days of floppy disks) so now I tend to copy and paste, then delete the originals if the files are valuable to me.


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## clld (Oct 17, 2009)

Hi all,

Thanks for the tips, I'll give them a try. Much appreciated!


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## Mister2 (Aug 29, 2009)

Let us know how you get on! :smile:


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