Lost document

Hi. A couple of months ago I came across a long lost text (words only) file that had been transferred into my IMac from an old computer. I renamed the file as I wanted to work on it at a later date.

Now I can't remember the new file name.
Finder doesn't bring up the old file name.
Finder doesn't bring up the file using numbers that I know are in the file (e.g. .12 guage)
Finder doesn't bring up the file using word strings that I know are in the file.

Does anyone have any suggestion for how I might re-find this file?

Any help appreciated.

How are you searching for it in Finder? Also what version of OSX are you using?

Generally - if it is on your computer Spotlight can find it. (Cmd-Space) will bring up spotlight search.

I just tried searching for strings I know are in a PDF document - and Spotlight found it.

It also could be you saved your file - somewhere that Finder doesn't look (like a hidden file or folder) but that is just guessing.

Lastly - it could be you are only searching the current folder. You can set the default search scope by going to Finder -> Preferences -> Advanced -> When performing a search -> set it to "This Mac" to search everything in the Finder search bar. You can also change it on a per search basis -> when typing in the search box a bar will show up with the choices "This Mac" <current folder> Shared -> and you can change the scope there.

Edit: TL ; DR -> ensure the search scope is your entire Mac.

Hi. Thanks for your suggestions. I think you may be right and I saved it to a hidden file or folder. So far, no luck.

Dear dorothyp

There are a number of ways of "focussing" your searches in Spotlight. This article may help:
Frequently Asked Questions about Spotlight | Macworld

For example, was your document saved as pdf, Word, Pages etc because you can modify your search by Kinddf for instance. Do you even vaguely recall the date when you re-saved and renamed it? That too can be incorporated into your search.

This article may also help: Advanced Spotlight Menu Searches by David Pogue (Google it)
Do let us know how you get on.

Ian

In order to find text within a file, the hard drive has to be indexed, right?

Hi. Thanks for all your help. I ended up re-creating the file. But now I have another problem!

With all the changes that I've made I can no longer get any of the music videos on YouTube to play. They just show a blank screen and there's no music. Yikes! Now I need MORE help!

If you use 10.5, 10.6, start up from the Install DVD, but instead of "Continuing" the installation, use Disk Utility and repair the hard drive.
If using 10.7 or 10.8, start up from the Recovery Partition and use Disk Utility to repair the hard drive.