Retrieving an unsaved Notepad file

[walterh26]

Hello, Windows did an automatic system update while I was away from the keyboard while I had an open unsaved notepad file on the desktop, and it had disappeared after the update had rebooted to install itself. Is there ANY way to recover the contents???

 

[sminlal]

Sorry, it's gone. Notepad is a very simple editor and it doesn't automatically save changes every so often like the programs in the MS-Office suite do. Any changes you've made are held in RAM until you explicitly save them yourself, and a reboot will irretrievably erase everything in RAM.

 

[mibix19]

Change the update settings in control panel. Set it to Check for updates but let me choose when to download and install them. You still cant get your notepad file back, but it will stop it happening again as you will have control over updates

 

[walterh26]

Thank you! I had already done what you suggest. And given the update the max 4 hours till next reminder... But I didn't keep my eye on the clock, did I? And it went ahead without my permission while I was otherwise detained!!! A sore lesson. BTW, it now comes back with a message basically sying it couldn't install some updates. Consequently EVERY time I boot up, I get the MS update permission popup, and a forced reboot if I'm not observant. Damn the evil empire!!! ;-)

 

[walterh26]

Best answer selected by walterh26.

 

[lovely111]

How did you get your notepad back?

 

[Jnsx_110]

Sorry, it's gone. Notepad is a very simple editor and it doesn't automatically save changes every so often like the programs in the MS-Office suite do. Any changes you've made are held in RAM until you explicitly save them yourself, and a reboot will irretrievably erase everything in RAM.

Are there really no temp files that can be recovered, possibly using recovery tools intended for deleted data?

 

[Jnsx_110]

Change the update settings in control panel. Set it to Check for updates but let me choose when to download and install them. You still cant get your notepad file back, but it will stop it happening again as you will have control over updates

I wouldn't exactly call the primary issue 'solved'

 

[hang-the-9]

Sorry, it's gone. Notepad is a very simple editor and it doesn't automatically save changes every so often like the programs in the MS-Office suite do. Any changes you've made are held in RAM until you explicitly save them yourself, and a reboot will irretrievably erase everything in RAM.

Are there really no temp files that can be recovered, possibly using recovery tools intended for deleted data?

This is a 5 year old post, if you have a similar issue please start a new post and put in details what is happening.