Probable Corrupt Excel File

[Lee Ann]

I am using version 2002 Excel. The file I am trying to open is a multi sheet
workbook. It contains many links. When there are no problems opening the
file, it will ask whether or not I want to disable/enable macros. With this
corrupt file, it does not ask this question and just opens. When opened, I
have lost my multiple sheets and now I have only one which has 12,952 lines
of characters. The single sheet contains the file name on the tab. Instead
of an XLS extension, thre is now an XLSM extension. Also, when trying a save
as, the properties indicate this to be a Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Macro
Enabled Workbook.

I've heard that saving it as an htm and then converting back to the xls can
take care of corruption and I've tried that with no success.

Lastly, I have a couple of like files acting this way and they are all on a
thumb drive. I don't know if corruption on this thumb drive may be an issue
as well.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Don Guillett]

Your problem may?? have happened because you saved your file to the drive.
NEVER do this. Always save your file and COPY to the removable media.......

 

[Lee Ann]

These are not my files - I'm just trying to fix the files if I can. I'm not
sure how the files were originally saved on the thumb drive and am just
looking for a repair if it can be done. Thank you.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Can you find someone with xl2007--just in case it really is a normal xl2007
file.

Maybe you can install the xl2007 Compatibility Pack:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...70-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

If you know(?) that the file is really an xl97-xl2003 format, maybe you can try
opening it in OpenOffice:
http://www.openoffice.org, a 60-104 meg download or a CD

Lots of people have said that it can recover stuff that excel can't.

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

 

[Don Guillett]

If desired, send the file to my address below and I'll, at least, take a
look.

 

[Lee Ann]

I appreciate the suggestions. Nothing seems to work, though. The file is
not that important that I need to go professional.

Thanks again.

 

[Don Guillett]

She sent file. I tried 2007 and open office and got garbage. xl2003 locked
up my computer.

 

[Dave Peterson]

And you tried openoffice?

I appreciate the suggestions. Nothing seems to work, though. The file is
not that important that I need to go professional.

Thanks again.

 

[Don Guillett]

Dave, I did. See my post.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I read your post, but it didn't reach my brain!

 

[Don Guillett]

Happens to me, I forget, how many times a day.

 

[curiousgeorge408]

Your problem may?? have happened because you saved your file
to the drive. NEVER do this. Always save your file and COPY
to the removable media.

Please enlighten me. Why?

Are you referring to the error-proneness of removing the flash memory
without doing a Safe Removal, so saving to disk first provides a
convenient back-up?

Or is there something more to it?

 

[joeu2004]

I am using version 2002 Excel.
[....]
Instead of an XLS extension, thre is now an XLSM extension.

I'm no expert, but isn't that the root cause of your problem? I
believe an XLSM extension indicates that the file had been saved using
Excel 2007 (at one time). I suspect that such a file is not
necessarily backward compatible. That is, it might not be usable by
earlier versions of Excel.

So I suspect the __original__ file was not corrupted. You simply
needed to use Excel 2007 (for now) to open the file.

However, based on Don's experiments, I suspect the file is __now__
truly corrupted. I wonder if you saved the using Excel 2002; so now
the file has useful content in Excel 2002 format.

Can you locate the original file? Perhaps it is still on the thumb
drive. If so, use Excel 2007, not Excel 2002, to open the file. If
you do not have Excel 2007 and you do not want to purchase it, you can
probably find Excel 2007 at a public library, Internet cafe or Kinkos
(or similar copy center with computer services).

Once you open the file using Excel 2007, I believe you have the option
to save it in a form compatible with an older Excel. But that might
not work well if someone has modified the workbook using features that
are unique to Excel 2007. In that case, I suspect your are SOL.

Lastly, I have a couple of like files acting this way and
they are all on a thumb drive. I don't know if corruption
on this thumb drive may be an issue as well.

If the other files are also Excel workbooks, they might not be
corrupted at all, but simply in Excel 2007 format. The same might be
true of files saved by other MS Office 2007 products (Word etc).

One final thought.... Any chance that the files had been transfered
from one computer to another using FTP?

That's an Internet file transfer program. I cannot tell you how many
times I mistakenly FTP non-text files in ASCII mode instead of binary
mode. The result is indeed corrupted files insofar as FTP may have
inserted additional "characters" into the file.

I suspect it is not a very likely source of the problem in your case.


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