So how do you recover an Autosave?  When an Autosave occurs the information is written to a special file, the Autosave file.  By default, the file name is AUTO.SV$.  It's location will vary based on your version of AutoCAD and your configuration. Each file you open uses the same name to store Autosave data.  To recover Autosave data you must act quickly before another file overwrites the data you need.

Hint: use Explorer to find AUTO.SV$.  If more than one file is displayed in the results box, you probably want the most recent one.

Rename the AUTO.SV$ file to RECOVER.DWG.  You can actually use any file name, but it must end with the  .dwg extension.

You can actually choose the name and the location of the autosave file.  Again, this is done in the Preferences dialog in AutoCAD r14, but in the Files tab.

I like to do this so I know exactly where to find my Autosave file when I need it.  It also prevents problems when multiple people open drawings in a shared network folder.