Strange Autosave File

I'm a writer and for years I've used the 12Ghosts Backup to back up my
autosave *.asd files on an external hard drive. With XP and Word 97, I never
had a problem. However, when I upgraded to Vista and to Word 2002 (from a
new Works Suite 2006), the autosave files changed from .asd to "08 File
(.0" (that's the exact "name" found in their properties). These 08 files
are correctly saved by my 12 Ghosts, but can only be opened by Wordpad. Then
they show up as numbers and stuff that might not be of any use to me if I
ever needed them. (Or would they? Would I be able to get back the word
document from them? I don't know. )

In my Word 2002 Options -- Save Tab, I have selected (in order) "allow fast
saves" / "allow background saves" / save autorecover every 1 minute / and
"Save word files as Word document *.doc (and I've tried some of the other
options here with no luck).

I tried changing the opening program from wordpad to winword.exe, but it
won't register at all (won't be recognized for opening the file).

(Incidentally, I tried installing my Word 2002 as a separate program in
"Program Files" but it wound up inside "Office 10". (But I don't suppose that
has anything to do with it.)

I've had this problem for a long time, during which I've updated my Word
2002 and reinstalled it several times without any effect.

So, after this long introduction, my first question is:

"What should I do to change the autorecovery files from 08 File (.0 type
to either *.asd or *.doc, so I can get back to the happy place I was at with
XP and Word 97?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and help.
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