Hopefully your document has auto save function. Or use EasyRecovery. Good luck!

I just hope someone informed her that restarting is the last thing you do if you think you got a virus... But YDI for not saving it, OP.

7, Are you dense?

Of course not. Immediately try to run a system security scan first. If you can't, THEN Shut down and start in safe mode [w/ networking enabled] (f8), while continuing to try to fix the issue. I got the impression she just restarted without the intention of manually safeguarding the PC at all, thinking that that would fix it. People do it all the time -___-

What happens if you just restart it?

Yeah and depending on the virus, It might do more harm when the computer is rebooted or it might not allow you to access the operating system you downloaded it on, or it might not boot to it ect. As long as you have a good antivirus program, you'll know you have a virus, and usually it'll help fix it

Either way, op is probably fucked, considering the fact that this is FML, he couldn't recover it.

When you restart it helps make the changes take effect, I have personally had a virus I didn't know about. When I reboot for updates it disabled everything and made my browser go to a site that makes you pay to get rid of it. (I didn't pay, I wiped the computer.)

Save early save often OP.

You learn that very quickly if you're on a laptop that's not on a charger or a desktop that keeps freezing

Always remember the 5 minutes save rule! Thats what my Tech teacher teached us.

I guess your English teacher teached you very little.

I instinctively hit ctrl+s every few sentences.

That just plain sucks!

I'm not certain why you never saved it once. It just seems like the obvious thing to do. There is a chance that the file still exists on your hard drive if you want to search for it. Some word processors create auto recoveries and backups which are sometimes hidden files.

Especially on a computer that you share with other, evidently technologically impaired people.

I save probably 5 times doing like a 2 page paper. A 7 page.. Well if he didn't save once he's not the sharpest tool in the shed

I agree, I would say this is OP's fault. You should save as much as possible.

I always email myself any paper that I type. Even if its incomplete, I feel safer sending it after I'm done for the day. As a bonus, you can access them from anywhere there is a computer

i wonder how that technically impaired step-mom managed to restart the computer without using the mouse.

#52 the little green button on the tower. Or she unplugged everything.

52 - Unfortunately, she probably held the power button to do a hard shut down. Which of course, is the worst way to turn off or restart a computer

well his mom probably used the power button (would deffinatly make sense that she knew where the power button is if its like a mac or if its a laptop or one of those windows computers that have the whole computer in the moniter)

It's always possible that they were saving to RAM rather than permanent storage. Random Access Memory gets erased every time the computer is shut down or restarted. And if they were working right from a Flash drive then the word processor might not autosave anything.

Microsoft word automatically saves your document like very 5 mins. When you reopen the program if says "file recovery"

I'm 99% sure that you can't save to your RAM. The computer uses the RAM to run things but it's not a location you can save things to.

I agree with 25, in addition to saving it in a alternate source such as a flash drive or by e-mail. If you lost it YDI, especially if your not the sole user of the computer. Carelessness...

And that's why you save your work every so often.

Maybe they did save. But they saved to RAM instead of the Hard Drive. Random Access Memory gets erased whenever the computer is shut down or restarted.

I'm pretty sure the RAM doesn't do that

he is corre t about the ram resetting but no.computer ever will allow you to save to the ram (at least no home/personal one)

111- she* I'm a computer Systems major.

Or use Google Docs. The documented is auto saved on the cloud every time you edit it.

Yea, maybe the op (who doesn't have the common sense to save a 7 page paper when they leave the computer) has some totally abstract computer system that saves files to RAM. That makes a lot of sense. I understand people forget to save while working on a paper, but if you leave a shared computer with your paper open and unsaved that's just dumb.

Why dont people save these things that are "so" important?

They would fail the FML auditions if they did.

Control "s" every 5 minutes or command "s" for you Mac users

Google Docs is a beautiful thing. Saves for you, and you can get it anywhere with Internet.

You only make that mistake once.

Unfortunately that isn't true... I've done this many times...

Well 16 that isn't very smart idea... And very risky too. You should start saving things so you don't completely lose all your work you did.

You didn't save it on the computer? And you let your step-mom use the computer without having saved? I'm really sorry, but that's on you. Yes, it sucks, but it's also 2012 and students at all levels should have enough experience with computers to know better than this. That came off really harsh, and I do sympathize with your situation - it blows to lose something you've been working on for a long time. But seriously. Save. It's that little blue button on the left side of your screen when using Microsoft Word.

Also ctrl+s for those who don't want to stop typing to move your mouse and save.

The little blue button is called a "floppy disk".

I understand her restarting it but maybe save first.

Save, save, save.....did I mention save?

Stupidity isn't a virus, but it sure is spreading very quickly.

#10_I like!

Then thumb him up.

Should be a virus.

Stupidity isn't a mere virus. No, stupidity is a disease, ravaging and infecting most of the human race.

If your taking that from SpongeBob, it's "but it sure is spreading like one" :)

Always set autosave, and always use dropbox. Always.