Yesterday (Friday)  I did one of those painful little tricks that we all do now and again. I had spent most of the last two days filling in a spreadsheet with data that I had been researching for an application. The spreadsheet was embedded in an email, but, because I had spent so long working on it I forgot that particular detail.

When I was finished I tidily saved everything and closed down Microsoft Excell ready so send a copy of the filled in spreadsheet back to the original sender.

And then it hit me. Where had I saved it? Oh. Into the email, of course. But when I re-openned the file, it was as I had recieved it. I knew I had lost it – I’ve done it once or twice in the past.  Still, I did the usual bits of hunting around – searched all of the personal and temp folders for *.xls, tried to open various temp files with Excell – which was having none of it.

It was gone. I would have to start again. Obviously there was a deadline – the end of the day. And it was already late in the afternoon.

Just on the offchance I had a quick look on Google – not expecting much.  Then I came across this Blog posting – http://phaktor7.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/recover-outlook-attachments-saved-to-the-olk-folder/.

It is quite a long posting – but so entertaining – and I could (or just hoped) see he was heading in the direction I really wanted to go.  He got there.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so pleased to find an answer on the internet before!

So I recovered the file (read his blog entry to find out how) and sent it off – job done.  But now I keep a 20 pound sledge hammer next to the monitor, just in case…