I had a document that I had been adding to/editing for months (ie xxx.doc).
Then I was working on another file and I hit "save as" and accidentally chose
that file (xxx.doc) and overwrote it. Since I had the file for awhile is
there anyway to search a temporary type file to retrieve it. I know that you
can chose a point to "restore" the computer to a previous point but does that
work to get a document back. This was an extremely important file... HELP!

sunny shared this with us in microsoft.public.word.docmanagement:

I had a document that I had been adding to/editing for months (ie
xxx.doc). Then I was working on another file and I hit "save as" and
accidentally chose that file (xxx.doc) and overwrote it. Since I had
the file for awhile is there anyway to search a temporary type file
to retrieve it. I know that you can chose a point to "restore" the
computer to a previous point but does that work to get a document
back. This was an extremely important file... HELP!

Because this was such an extremely important file for you, OF COURSE
you made regular backups. So just restore your latest backup.

When you close a file, or close Word, any temporary files get deleted.
Hence the word "temporary".

System restore only restores the system state, NOT personal documents.
(And that is a GOOD Thing!)

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Amedee Van Gasse