Deleted Google Scratch Pad!

September 8, 2006 8:30 AM

I tried to "clear" a selected portion of my Google Desktop Scratch Pad, and it cleared the entire contents. I can't figure out any way to restore it ("undo" didn't do anything, and there's very little documentation). I have some hope, because Google describes the Scratch Pad as "automatically" saving as you type. But has it saved over whatever file it uses with a blank slate now? Please help!
posted by mabelstreet to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

mabelstreet,

sorry to say but i think you might be out of luck.

google says:

"Scratch Pad: Type and save notes for yourself. The Scratch Pad automatically saves itself whenever you type a character in it, so you don't even have to worry about remembering to hit ‘save.’ In Options, you can save your notes to a file or clear the Scratch Pad."

I think they just mean you can type it and it saves to the scratch pad - (ie: you can shut off computer, close the application and it will still save) - but if you actually clear the pad then you are rewriting the file, and ergo, the information you seek is lost.

I know this is no consolation now (I know, I keep a lot of important info on my scratch pad) - but every once in a while use the "save" feature to back it up to a .txt file.
posted by ifranzen at 9:10 AM on September 8, 2006

Response by poster: So I guess the real question is, since I've now found the "scratchpad.txt" file (which is blank), is there any way to recover the text that has been saved over?

If not, is there an alternative to the scratch pad (as a google gadget or otherwise) that will do autosaving, but in a daily, versioned fashion, or that will otherwise create a backup trail?
posted by mabelstreet at 9:44 AM on September 8, 2006