Hi and welcome to Daniweb,
I am not sure what you have done, if you saved the files they should still be there if you did not save anything, they are lost forever. If saved programs or files disappeared try downloading and running Reuva,
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
But it will not find an unsaved file.
The answer to the last part of the question:- You can save them where ever you like, but they must be saved regularly, If you are using Office Word, it automatically saves files you are working on at a pre-set period. You can alter that time if you want to save more often.
Bob_180_Bob
Posting Virtuoso
1,725 posts since Apr 2008
Reputation Points: 67
Solved Threads: 131
doing sumpthing way over my head ,wow, post is like reading a riddle and trying to solve it .
caperjack
I hate 20 Questions
13,069 posts since Aug 2003
Reputation Points: 1,064
Solved Threads: 812
Bob_180_Bob
Posting Virtuoso
1,725 posts since Apr 2008
Reputation Points: 67
Solved Threads: 131