Hard Crash, File Corrupted, No Backups!?!

[Calam]

PLEASE, I need help ASAP.

I have a final paper due in 5 hours. I just now finished it, all 12 pages, and here's what happened:

I have a Digital Audio Converter (ProTools Mbox 2) that has been having driver problems with Windows 8. So I leave it unplugged, because if I plug it in, the computer crashes. Hard.

Well, paper was all done, ready to print, so I went to plug in my printer to my laptop, and guess what: I grabbed the wrong USB cable. Blam, computer crashed. I boot back up, open OpenOffice, and it's asking me to re-register...almost like it's reset or something.

Now when I try to open my paper, some weird dialogue box opens saying "ASCII Filter Options". When I go with the recommended settings, the whole paper is nothing but # signs, like this: ####################.

I tried finding the backup in the backups folder, but the folder is EMPTY. So I'm stuck with just the broken file. What is going on here!?!? How do I fix this file??

[acknak]

... the whole paper is nothing but # signs, ...

Sorry, if all you get are #s, there's nothing to be done. The document is completely lost. If you have no backups or copies in the temp folder, there's nothing to do but start over.

[RoryOF]

If you have time it is worth downloading and running something like Photorec to see if it finds a deleted copy or a deleted temp file, but it may take overnight to run.
Twelve pages of doublespaced text is about three hours work typing if the image is in your mind. Get typing.

[Hagar Delest]

Sadly, quite nothing to do, see: 22 pages term paper replaced with pound signs.
The file seems indeed empty.

Check the temporary folder of the system (see in OOo Tools>Options>OOo>Paths). If there are folders like sgmlf.tmp with a file having the same name inside, make a copy of that file, rename it in .odt and cross your fingers. If you have not rebooted, you might have those files still there.