Windows XP problem: files disappearing, help meee!

Question

Okies, so, my Windows XP account has been continually resetting itself, on its own, once every so often when I log out. Two 'resets' ago, one file was gone and another lost five pages. The last reset, the file that already lost five pages lost another three. (Silly me, I was too annoyed to back-up the gosh-darned file, my mistake.) Microsoft Word hasn't given me document retrieval, and computer searches only results with the eight-pages-missing file, not the full one. I'm an aspiring writer, and these files are important to me, so it's pretty frustrating. Is there any way I can possibly get my files back? (Help?)

Answer 1

The files may be lost, but there is a good way to prevent it,

Get an external hard drive, and back up the files you have on there, and have it back them up consistently so that if you do lose files you can go back and get them

Answer 2

There are a few possibilities.  The most likely given your description seems to be that user-specific documents such as the ones stored in your My Documents folder aren't persisting because the account is being "reset," as you say, each time you log out.

I would try two things: First, save an experimental document in a location not dependent on your login, such as on your C:\ drive.  Then try logging out and back in.

If the file remains, that would confirm the issue being related to your login specifically, and I would recommend creating a new one.