Retrieving saved/replaced MS Word files?

I doubt that you will be able to retrieve it since it was "replaced" by a different file.  It it had just been  "deleted" there is an outside chance it can be recoverd with special software if the disc sectors had not been reused where the file resided. 

 

Next time, consider doing regular backups, especially of your user data such as the wordprocessor files.  It takes a little time and effort to backup (either to a CD/DVD or external hard drive) but it's worth it in the end.  And, backups are not "in case you need them", they are for "when you need them".

I do have an external hard drive, but I don't backup my files that often. Only when I know it's been a while. Is there a way for the computer to automatically backup the files in another folder? I only backup my important files from school and for writing, so it would only be some specific folders. 

Ok, thanks. I guess what I was really asking if there's software out there that does the automatic backup instead of just having to re-copy or replace everything individually. I went to the Acronis website, and True Image looks like something I should probably get. Plus, it looks like you can just backup certain folders or files too. How does it backup files though? Can you tell it to backup on an external hard drive or does it just do it itself somewhere on the regular hard drive? Also it might be helpful if it deleted the backup and just re-copied the data, since I always move around these particular files into different folders.

Some versions of Windows have backup features, although I just read a post by someone that used the Windows Vista backup before they reinstalled everything on their PC and when it came time to retrieve the backed up data it was gone.  If you want a duplicate on another folder, just save it to the other folder, when you do the regular save to the My Documents.  Doesn't take much effort.

 

Backing up to an external drive or CD is the best option.  If you just backup to another folder on the hard drive and then have a hard drive failure it's still lost. 

 

I use Acronis True Image and do a complete backup of my hard drive at least once a week.  More often if I have important data added or software updates.  True Image also has "task scheduling" so you could use it to automate whatever backup functions you wanted.