# disappearing Word files



## aisha (Oct 3, 2007)

Hi, I'm workig on Windows XP Pro

I have been using Word, and unfortunately, when I go to save my work the whole file just disappears and there is nothing I have been able to do about it. I hope you can give me some suggestions!

First of all, I had my files saved in "My Documents" on the c partition. When they disappeared I tried saving my work on the e partition. When my work disappeared again, I saved my new work on my f partition, and then when that disappeared, I tried saving it on my external hard drive. It just happened with my external drive as well... 

The last time my documents were about to disappear I wrote out everything so that I would have a record of what is happening. 


Anyway. I am using Windows Live One Care for my virus protection, and I also run AVG anti-spyware every once in a while to clean my system. I have been checking my system daily for the last week since this problem started happening and supposedly my system is clean. Also today I used the disk checking tools on Easy Recovery to check everything possible related to my hard drive... Everything came back ok.

Here's what happened:
After nearly completing 40 pages of translation, I went to save my work on my external drive and got the following message:

There is an unrecoverable disk error on file ~wrl0279.tmp. 
The disk you are working on has a media problem that prevents Word from using it. 
Try the following:
Try formatting another disk
Save the document to another disk.

I pressed ok, and then got another error message:

Word failed reading from this file ~wrl0279.tmp
Please restore the network connection or replace the floppy disk and retry 

After this I got another error message:

Word has lost data due to a bad network connection or a missing floppy. Documnets relying on this data are going to be saved and then closed. 

(at this point I knew my file was going to disappear becaue it has happend several times previously - but there is nothing that I could do about it)

At the bottom of the screen I could see the flashing that indicated that Word was saving recovery versions

Then I got the same error message that was displayed previously:

There is an unrecoverable disk error on file ~wrl0279.tmp. 
The disk you are working on has a media problem that prevents Word from using it. 
Try the following:
Try formatting another disk
Save the document to another disk.

Again, I could see flashing at the bottom of the screen indicating that Word was saving recovery versions.

After this I went to open Word. No recovery versions appeared, and the file that I was working no longer was on the external drive... The hidden version of the file was there, but it is only 4 lines of boxes and unreadable characters. 

When I clicked the link in My recent files for the file that I was working on I got the message:

Word experienced an error trying to open the file
Try these suggestions:
Check the file permissions for the document or drive
Make sure there is sufficient free memory and disk space
Open the file with the text recovery converter


Also, the temporary file wrl0279 is present on the external drive in the same file, but whenever I try to open it it gives me the message:

The file could not be found
Try one or more of the following:
check the spelling of the name of the document
try a different file name

The hidden copy (1 kb) of the file is quite a bit smaller than the temporary file (313 kb)

I have noticed that if I try to save a document that I have edited just a couple minutes after I open the document, it saves without any problems. I haven't been able to determine how long the document has to be open before saving it will cause it to disappear.

Also, I am starting to get other problems on the computer. Now, when I press control-alt-delete I get a message saying that task manager has been disabled by my administrator. I went to regedit and disabled the disabling of the task manager, and now when I try to open it momentarily flashes on the screen and then disappears. I don't know if this is related to the other problems I am experiencing or not.

Thanks,
Aisha


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## xal (Oct 26, 2007)

I have exactly the same issue. Only I use Vista and Word 2007. It drives me crazy  . I have been browsing through the web for a solution, but found none. For some time I thought it only happed to me, but it seems I am not alone  . Is it a bug? It seems to be! What makes Word deleting original file while editing that document? Can anyone help?


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## jimr381 (Jul 20, 2007)

That sounds like a virus to me. I would have asked you to wipe out the normal.dot and see if that alleviates it, but now that is is effecting other things I am leaning towards it might being a virus. Have you ran a scan recently?


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## xal (Oct 26, 2007)

I have Kaspersky AV, Windows Defender and Windows/Office updates running automaticaly everyday. The scan does not point to any suspected activities.

However, I just realized what could be the issue. The file I am editing is on virtual drive created by TrueCrypt. Reading problem description on TechNet I came up with an idea that this drive may be treated by Vista the same as Floppy (this error that appears points to removable drive). And, for some reason, TrueCrypt may be dimounting/re-mounting that drive (the drive itself is accessible all the time) instantly, so it is unnoticable for me, but noticable for the system. I will check it when I get back home. The weirdest thing is that this file disappears. I would understand if access would be denied for some reason, but disappearing?


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

Xal, if you have not done so yet, upgrade to TrueCrypt 4.2a or later (oh, you run Vista, so you have to have 4.3). Run TrueCrypt and make sure the option 'Never save history' in the main window is enabled (or else Windows assumes the file still exists in the old path, which no longer exists).


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

aisha, I would suggest you try making a new user account and see what happens. Your old account may be corrupt and, well, who knows what happens then. If this is not a possibility, Jim will pipe up, I'm sure.


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## ayush (Mar 27, 2005)

aisha said:


> Hi, I'm workig on Windows XP Pro
> 
> I have been using Word, and unfortunately, when I go to save my work the whole file just disappears and there is nothing I have been able to do about it. I hope you can give me some suggestions!...
> Thanks,
> Aisha


Same happened to me some time back. Only word files will be erased and show only 1 kb files. This is due to virus (Exact name I didn't remember). This virus activates on 23rd of every month. It will not affect other type of files. Virus disables antivirus software. There was a patch to fix it at Norton's web site. (Sorry I didn't remember the exact name it sounds like fixbit or some thing like that). Search google defenitely you will find a solution.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

Oh, that sounds like the Marker Virus - only thing is, it usually comes with some warning/stupid question/whatever. See here:
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/marker.shtml
If that is your problem, aisha, ask a mod to move this post to the Malware Removal & HijackThis Logs forum - the moderators are the persons who have their names in bold (see the bottom of the Forums page). They might suggest you start a new thread there - either way, the specialists for that work "reside" there.


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## crazypauley (Mar 17, 2008)

xal said:


> I have exactly the same issue. Only I use Vista and Word 2007. It drives me crazy  . I have been browsing through the web for a solution, but found none. For some time I thought it only happed to me, but it seems I am not alone  . Is it a bug? It seems to be! What makes Word deleting original file while editing that document? Can anyone help?


The exact same thing happens to me, but it's not only on the 23rd of each month - it is every other day which is incredibly annoying. I'm using Vista and 2007 as well and, when I save, the file name suddenly changes and has a .TMP extenstion. I can't save this then the actual file disappears . . . any ideas anyone please? I've lost work and I'm just about fed up


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## esmymeshmohm (Jul 14, 2008)

I had the same problem 

I had this hidden .tmp file ,, and my word .doc disappeared

what I did,, I opened the that .tmp file by office word (File --> open) ,,, and surprisingly I found all my doc there,, so I saved it with no problems

I wish this could help


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