Recovering downloaded files

Filed in archive Technology on November 27, 2009

© net_efekt


Scenario: You find an ebook online related to your field, you decide you'd like to keep the book and read it later. So you download it. You clicked to download but you forgot where the file went and now you can't find it. You could download it again, but then you'd have to find the website again. It'd be easier to just find the file.

So how do you go about recovering a file you've downloaded? Here are a few simple ways:

1. The first thing you can do is check your downloads file. Most computers have a folder that they default download to. Windows has a file called "Temp" which holds downloads that you've done recently. My folder is under "Users > Me > AppData > Local > Temp" So clicking through each of those folders will get me to my downloads. (I use Vista.) You can check for what folder you download to by left clicking on downloads and selecting "open containing folder".

2. If you don't know where your Temp folder is, you can just search your hard drive. If you use Windows, select the Windows icon at the bottom left hand corner of your screen. There should be a bar that appears in the menu that says "Start Search". You can then type in the name of the folder you are missing. If the file doesn't show up as you type, click "Search Everywhere". Within the everywhere search, you can select different options that might simplify your search (like what kind of file, etc.).

3. To keep from losing a file: For some files you can choose "save as" and select the folder you'd like the file to go to, or you can select "open" and save the file yourself later. This option is not available for all files but it can stop the problem before it happens.

Do you have any other shortcuts you can share to recover files?