The other day I created a MS visual studio 2010 C# project and started coding. I saved the source frequently, but I did not select a destination to save to (just pressed ctrl+s and assumed the source was being saved). However I had to run and threw my laptop in my backpack on sleep. Unfortunately this laptop (acer aspire 5252 fyi) battery drains extremely quickly when on sleep, and eventually my computer shut off. Now I can’t find my source files anywhere and I’m going crazy because I know I saved it and it’s several days worth of work.
I tried doing a windows search but couldn’t find the project files. I also did a little experiment – I created a new project and without saving the entire solution, I pressed ctrl+s on the source files. Save was successful, but I cannot even find the file that’s open in the IDE. Even the “open containing folder option” is grayed out (see screen shot).
I really need these source files back. Obviously it’s because I didn’t save the solution that the source got wiped out, but where do the source files get saved temporarily before the solution is saved?
Thanks.
You are using Visual Studio’s support for temporary projects. Nice feature for quicky test projects (and SO answers) but not a great way to ensure that your projects are still there after VS quits. Programming without source control is similarly inadvisable.
Tools + Options, Projects and Solutions, General. Ensure that the “Save new projects when created” option is ticked to minimize the odds that you’ll forget to pick a solution folder. Triple-check that creating a new project now gives you a “Location” property in the dialog.