It depends on the version of excel and whether you turned on this feature.

If you're using xl2002+, you could have turned on
Tools|Options|Save tab|Save autorecover info every xx minutes.

If you didn't turn this on (or aren't running xl2002+), then this doesn't apply.

If you do have this turned on, then when you open excel the next time you should
have been prompted to find out if the recovered file should be opened. (No
prompt means that there's nothing to recover.)

In earlier versions of excel, (xl2k and below), there was an option for AutoSave
(tools|addins) that actually saved every so often (user's choice). It saved the
actual file--not a backup. So if you screwed up or excel crashed, you'd be able
to go back to a previously saved version--just via File|Open.

If you didn't have that turned on, then you'll only get the last version you
saved.

For the next time....

Jan Karel Pieterse wrote an addin (works in any version) called AutoSafe (note
spelling).

It doesn't overwrite the existing workbook when it saves. It saves to a user
selectable folder. And when it's done, it either deletes these backups (or puts
them in the recycle bin). And the user can always restore the backups from the
recycle bin.

http://www.jkp-ads.com/Download.htm
(look for AutoSafe.zip, not autosafeVBE.zip, for your purposes.)



Django wrote:

I was working on an Excel spreadsheet, when excel just disappeared of the
screen altogether. When I restarted excel and opened the file I noticed that
all my updates were not saved. Is there a backup copy of this file somewhere
on my hard-drive with my updates. In short was my updated data saved
somewhere just before Excel crashed without giving me the option to save the
file.
--
Django

--

Dave Peterson