DOC FILES ARE BLANK?

[its_my_dime]

Office 2007. Vista. I am finding that Word (*.doc) files, some relatively
new and some more than 10 years old, open completely blank. Explorer shows
there is data in the files.

The same thing seems to be happening with some Excel spreadsheets.

Help and thoughts, please.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Anti Virus office add-in.

 

[its_my_dime]

Please explain. Are you saying that I have a virus or that my antivirus
program is causing the problem? (Using AVAST that is up to date).

Can these files be opened?

Thank you.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Most problems with these symptoms are caused by the office plug-in option of
Anti Virus utilities. It has been a common complaint with NAV and Kaspersky,
but others are also known to cause this. Perhaps check with the Avast
support group to see if they are aware of the symptoms. You could try
temporarily disabling it completely to see if that is the problem.

Terry

 

[its_my_dime]

OK. I disabled the AV and it made no difference. Word shows no AVAST plug
in. When I try to open one of the documents, it first shows 16,465
characters at the bottom - left and then switches to words - 1. I get 6
pages of blank pages although the file is only 20kb.

Most of the problems seem to be confined to a single folder where virtually
every doc file is empty.

I've tried opening in notepad but it is still blank.

Any other thoughts?

Thank you.

 

[Terry Farrell]

So docs from other sources are OK: that suggests that the folder may have
been corrupted. Has it been moved or have you had an on boot disk check run?

Terry

 

[its_my_dime]

Did the check disk. Computer locked. "Press any key to abort checkdisk"
didn't work. Would not reload windows, even in safe mode. Coldn't step
back. Spoke with Dell. Tried a bunch of stuff. Ended up with a complete
reformat of the hard drive.

Suggest that the next time you recommend an on boot disk check run in a case
like this where there may be some system damage, you also recommend a full
hard disk backup first.

Thank you.

 

[Gordon]

Did the check disk. Computer locked. "Press any key to abort checkdisk"
didn't work. Would not reload windows, even in safe mode. Coldn't step
back. Spoke with Dell. Tried a bunch of stuff. Ended up with a
complete reformat of the hard drive.

Suggest that the next time you recommend an on boot disk check run in a
case like this where there may be some system damage, you also recommend a
full hard disk backup first.

Thank you.

So why aren't you backing up anyway?
If your computer really will not boot into Windows, then have a Live Linux
CD to hand, from which you can boot and transfer all your data to an
external drive first, before you re-format and re-install.
get the most popular here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download

I can tell you it's a great tool to have around anyway.

BTW, if you have a proper Windows install CD/DVD you DO have the option to
repair the install, rather than a destructive re-install. Did you try that?

 

[Terry Farrell]

I don't see where I told you to do an On Boot disk check. I asked if you had
move the folder or done an on boot disk check recently which may explain why
the folder is damaged. Had you come back and answered no, then I would have
given further advice. However, even after a successful repair of the disk
structure (which I guess must have been damaged), there was no guarantee
that any of the documents in that folder were recoverable. After breaking
the structure completely, did you run the Recovery Console?

Terry

 

[its_my_dime]

Almost everything was backed up except, unfortunately, several months worth
of email

I always have copies of original programs; the issue there is time.

Did try the repair install with the windows CD - it wouldn't work.
Actually went through the whole Dell customer service list, item by item.
Just couldn't get anything to boot.

Will download the Linux CD "just in case" for next time.

Thanks.