Personal.xls - File error: data may have been lost

[G Lykos]

Ouch. Contains (should I say contained?) a library of assorted home-grown
utilities, and I made recent changes to it that aren't backed up.

Fixing the workbook removes the VBA section.

I can open the corrupted workbook file with Word, as suggested by others,
but the macro libraries appear a mishmash of text and special characters. I
tried the same on a good workbook with the same results, so have not given
up hope that the libraries are for the most part still readable.

The question, then: anyone know of a viewer that can be used on a corrupted
..XLS file to see native VBA modules displayed in readable format ? I'd be
more than pleased just to be able to hunt for and copy snatches of module
code in text format, to be pasted into a new workbook.

Thanks for any ideas!
George

 

[Dave Peterson]

You may want to try OpenOffice.

A few people have said that OpenOffice.Org has been able to open the file. Then
they clean it up and save it there. Then excel can open that cleaned up
version.

http://www.openoffice.org, a 60-104 meg download or a CD

I tried it a few months ago and IIRC, the VBA code was commented out (with
REM's???). But at least I could get to the code.

If the file is really important, there are commercial recovery services. I've
never used it, but you might want to check into:
http://www.officerecovery.com

 

[G Lykos]

YES!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Dave, this was OO 3.0.1 (current stable version), saving in current format
(not ODB), and it's all there (at least at the source code level). Macros
aren't even commented out in the recovered workbook, appear ready to run,
but at a quick look it appears that something under the covers is not quite
right. That's inconsequential - am setting up a fresh workbook and moving
them over; should reestablish the underlying linkages correctly.

BTW, this is XP, Office 2003, all updates.

What a relief.

George

 

[Dave Peterson]

I used to keep a copy of OO on a thumbdrive -- just in case.

http://portableapps.com/

Has a lot of utilities that'll work that way.

 

[G Lykos]

Thanks for the further suggestion. Incidentally, Excel Repair straightened
out the linkages, and the macros now work normally, without transplanting.
The humor is not lost that Office needs OO to keep it up and running...

 

[Dave Peterson]

Another reason to keep lots of backups, too!

Thanks for the further suggestion. Incidentally, Excel Repair straightened
out the linkages, and the macros now work normally, without transplanting.
The humor is not lost that Office needs OO to keep it up and running...