What Do You Do When Your Computer Freezes & You Haven't Saved Your Work?

When your computer freezes, it's a sign that you might be about to lose your work. This is especially frustrating if you haven't had the chance to save the files you were working with at the time of the freeze, and you also haven't backed up your work on an external device. However, don't give up just yet; instead, try a few troubleshooting steps to try to fix the freezing and avoid having to redo your work.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Wait a few minutes for your computer to attempt to recover. Sometimes freezing can be temporary while your computer sorts out a task or ends a process that's causing the freeze. If you attempt to click menus or press keyboard shortcuts, this will only add additional commands for your computer to sort out, and will almost always make the problem worse.
   • 2
     Turn on your "Caps Lock" key and try to move your mouse. If your computer responds to keyboard and mouse commands, it is unlikely that your entire computer has frozen, and means that you may be able to end a crashed process without having to restart your computer. If this is the case, move to Step 3. If this does not work, however, you will need to force restart your computer.
   • 3
     Open Task Manager by pressing the "Ctrl-Alt-Del," and then clicking "Task Manager." Look under "Apps" to see if any program's status is marked as "Not Responding." If it is, right click on the app and click "End task." If the programs that's frozen is the one that has your unsaved work, it will most likely be lost. However, this will let you restart the program almost immediately and see if any of your data was automatically saved.

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_12294847_computer-freezes-havent-saved-work.html#ixzz2xGmyQB31