The few months ago my girlfriend called me from work. The previous day she had been working on a document, but it was missing from where she thought she had saved it. Her first reaction was to call the IT department, who were about as useful as a chocolate teapot. According to them her document was gone forever. I thought that was ridiculous ? it was just mistakenly saved in the wrong place.

Losing a document you have been working on normally means that you have got to redo that work over again. If it was tedious the first time round, the mere thought of second attempt is guaranteed to have you pulling your hair out. But that scenario is no to bad when you consider that a lost photo is often irretrievable.

Given the less than perfect marriage of operating systems and typical computer users, losing documents is a very common problem. Many programs by default will save your work in some obscure folder nested like a Russian doll in half a dozen other obscure folders. This is broadly speaking the nub of the problem.

The good news is that both Windows and Apple computers have pretty good tools for recovering lost files. To evoke these tools, press the Windows Key + F, or command + F on a Mac. There are many ways to search for your documents so if you just can't remember what the file name is; you can search by date modified, file type, or even size.

For example, if you lost a Word document which had lots of images inserted, it would probably be more than 1. Coupled with a search for Word documents might be a good place to start. If that doesn't work try something else ? this sort of trial and error can really bring the Sherlock Holmes out in you.