Lost Documents 

You've been typing along for hours and your system freezes or crashes.  Where did your document go?  After all, you have AutoRecover set to save every two minutes (on the Tools/Options/Save tab). 

AutoRecover is one of the most misunderstood options in Word.  You learn too late that this is not an AutoSave option.  If you have not named and saved the document often while you are working, it is gone. 

Get in the habit of pressing Ctrl + S every time your fingers pause on the keyboard and you won't have to worry about losing your long, hard hours of work. 

AutoRecover only applies when you have an unexpected shutdown in Word.  When you reopen Word, AutoRecover attempts to recover any open documents at the time of the shutdown by way of the temporary .asd file.  Some unexpected circumstances, such as a power outage, can corrupt documents and AutoRecover can't open the file. 

You say, "That's okay, I also have Always Create Backup Copy checked."  Wrong.  This feature is only as good as the last time you pressed Ctrl + S.  This feature retains the previous version of a document each time it is saved.  There is no previous version the first time you press Ctrl + S and, therefore, no backup copy is created until the second time you press Ctrl + S.  The third time you save the document, Word keeps the second save as a backup, and so on. 

The only way to avoid disaster is to press Ctrl + S often.