How to Recover an Unsaved XL File

You can use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of personal finances, budgets, lists and personal goals. Excel can also help you perform mathematical functions such as totaling sums and calculating statistics. If you accidentally close out of a spreadsheet without saving the data, you can download a data recovery program that will allow you to retrieve the XL file. These programs are available for free.

Instructions

1. Download a free recovery program online; these programs include Recuva, Smart Recovery 4.5 and Uneraser (see Resources). Install and save the program to your computer's desktop.

2. Double-click the recovery program's icon to launch it. Choose the "C:/" drive from the drive location drop-down menu.

3. Click "Scan" and the recovery program will search the hard drive for deleted data, including the unsaved XL file. The files will be displayed in a list of thumbnails.

4. Click on the XL file you want to retrieve and click the "Recover" button. The XL file will be restored to the hard drive.

Resources

• Piriform: Recuva
• The Software Patch: Smart Recovery 4.5 (freeware)
• Active Uneraser