can't find autosave file!!

hi, i need serious help please!! i've recently been working on a very complicated project (it took me hours to complete). when i was at the point where i was about to render the project, an error message popped up (a common error that i could fix easily), but when i went on the clip to fix the error, after effects stopped responding. it just kept loading for about 10 minutes and then i had enough. i remembered that right before i was about to render my project, it autosaved. so i told myself i could restart my computer and i could just open this autosave and render my project normally. but when i restarted my computer, i noticed that my autosave was not there. i looked everywhere, i every folder, but i still can't find it now. i have no idea where it is and right now i'm freaking out because the last autosave that i have was before i did that one part that took me so long to do, and i don't wanna do it all over again. can someone help me please?? thank you!!