Word 2007 : corrupt files - help needed

[Charles]

Hi,
I have Word 2007 SP1 on XP SP3, part of a Small Business Server 2003 network.
Problem: my .docx file suddenly became corrupt after saving, closing Word
and attempting to open it again: the message is something like "impossible to
open file .. errors identified.." (Sorry this is probably not the exact
English error message, I am translating from French). I can then click on the
"error details" box and I get "Non specified error ... location:
part/word/document.xml Line: 2, column: 2890765", which of course means very
little to me.
What is more (and which why I am in serious trouble): the backups and extra
copies I had sure to make along the way (not only on the network drive, but
also on the local disk) are equally corrupt! These were earlier versions of
the same document at various points of the drafting.
This document is big (about 110 pages) and full of tables, figures, images
and boxes (size is about 5,000 Ko, which I guess is quite big indeed).
I have found a piece of sofware called "Recovery toolbox for Word" on the
internet and was at least to recover the text -- but all the tables and the
formatting are gone...
It would be fantastic if someone could help me out with this. Basically I
have 2 questions:

- Why did this happen and how to avoid it ? I am absolutely terrified that
that horror movie might happen again since I have no idea what is causing it.
- Is there any chance to recover the full document?

Any help greatly appreciated
Charles

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello Charles

I have Word 2007 SP1 on XP SP3, part of a Small Business Server 2003 network.
Problem: my .docx file suddenly became corrupt after saving, closing Word
and attempting to open it again: the message is something like "impossible to
open file .. errors identified.." (Sorry this is probably not the exact
English error message, I am translating from French). I can then click on the
"error details" box and I get "Non specified error ... location:
part/word/document.xml Line: 2, column: 2890765", which of course means very
little to me.

that's one of the benefits of the new file format. By unzipping, one
would be able to take a look and see if anything at this position in the
referenced file looks suspicious, maybe correct or at least delete it,
and hope for a change to the better. I can't say I've done this so far
(for lack of documents that 2007 was unable to open, so far <knocks on
wood>).

What is more (and which why I am in serious trouble): the backups and extra
copies I had sure to make along the way (not only on the network drive, but
also on the local disk) are equally corrupt! These were earlier versions of
the same document at various points of the drafting.

That sounds suspiciously like not really a problem with the documents,
but with the environment (the Word installation itself, an Add-In, etc.).

Can you create new documents on this machine? Open other existing ones
without trouble? Can you test one of these documents on another
installation?

This document is big (about 110 pages) and full of tables, figures, images
and boxes (size is about 5,000 Ko, which I guess is quite big indeed).

Number of page and size does not strike me as something Word should have
trouble with. Very long tables, very large images/OLE objects maybe.
Complex textbox-like layout, but that's usually not something I
contemplate in a long/structured document in the first place.

I have found a piece of sofware called "Recovery toolbox for Word" on the
internet and was at least to recover the text -- but all the tables and the
formatting are gone...
It would be fantastic if someone could help me out with this. Basically I
have 2 questions:

- Why did this happen and how to avoid it ? I am absolutely terrified that
that horror movie might happen again since I have no idea what is causing it.
- Is there any chance to recover the full document?

See above: try a different machine first before fearing the worst. After
you've done this (and provided the documents don't open somewhere else),
and if possible, you may send me the smallest sample file (earliest
version) so I can take a look whether it opens here.

HTH
Robert

 

[Charles]

Many thanks for your reply Robert. Unfortunately, I am afraid that the
mystery continues:
- none of the various versions of the document open on at least 2 other
computers (one with Vista, one with XP, both with Word 2007)
- I can still read without any problem other .docx documents on my machine,
as well as create new ones, which are not corrupt and can be read by myself
and other machines.
- another piece of info that I did not mention and that might be useful: a
colleague of mine had exactly the same problem on an earlier version of the
very same document the day before and also lost a lot of work (had to go back
to an earlier shadow copy on the server and redo the work, exactly what I am
about to do myself) - We had hoped that the problem would happen once only
but obvisouly were wrong
- I would be pleased to send you one of the earlier corrupt versions,
thanks. How to do it?
- in desesperation, I have myself opened up the .docx by renaming with a
".rar" extension and could access the incriminated "document.xml" file (the
one being flagged as corrupt if the error message); but was not able (and
competent) to edit it at all
- again, since we don't understand what is going on, we are very concerned
that this will happen yet again. Any pointers as to avoid this, even if we
don't understand the underlying cause: maybe save the work as a .doc file?
Swtching to a more reliable word processor? - after this episode any
alternative (OpenOffice?) is suddenly very attractive to us.
Thanks again for you assistance Robert
Charles

 

[Charles]

Update: I think I am beginning to see a pattern in what's happenned.

- the files became corrupt when I opened them on my machine and only after I
exited Word loaded it again - regardless of which machine created and last
saved the files.
- this also applies to the accident of my colleague, which was 'revealed'
(or so we thought) when I attempted to open it -- I had assumed that it was
corrupt before I tried to open it but now I believe it may have been that by
attempting to open on my machine Word 2007 messed with it. Yes this is
strange because one has to assume that Word somehow writes onto the files
when trying to open them.
- Could that be related to that mysterious (to me) business of "normal.dot"
file or something similar? Could it be when Word reloads on my machine it
reloads a corrupt template which then conflit with .docx files? Makes sense
at all? If so, how to delete the corrupt templates or "normal.dot" thing?

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello Charles

Update: I think I am beginning to see a pattern in what's happenned.

- the files became corrupt when I opened them on my machine and only after I
exited Word loaded it again - regardless of which machine created and last
saved the files.
- this also applies to the accident of my colleague, which was 'revealed'
(or so we thought) when I attempted to open it -- I had assumed that it was
corrupt before I tried to open it but now I believe it may have been that by
attempting to open on my machine Word 2007 messed with it. Yes this is
strange because one has to assume that Word somehow writes onto the files
when trying to open them.
- Could that be related to that mysterious (to me) business of "normal.dot"
file or something similar? Could it be when Word reloads on my machine it
reloads a corrupt template which then conflit with .docx files? Makes sense
at all? If so, how to delete the corrupt templates or "normal.dot" thing?

as to the corrupt documents, see the following generic article:

How can I recover a corrupt document or template – and why did it become
corrupt? (by Dave Rado and John McGhie)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

From your description, it does sound like there's something fishy on
your installation. I'd try "detect and repair". You might also want to
open Word in Safe mode and then open one of the recovered (good) files
to see if that does not mess the file up. Then, chances are you have an
Add-In (or malware) running.

Why is my “Blank Document†not blank? (by Suzanne Barnhill)
http://word.mvps.org/fAQs/AppErrors/BlankDocNotBlank.htm

talks about opening in Safe mode.

As to sending me the file, if you can manage it by email (size), the
email I'm using to post here is valid. Or you can put it on a webspace
(yousendit.com etc.) somewhere and post the link here. No guarantees
here really, as I've never really ventured much into the file structure
myself ...

Greetinx
Robert

 

[Charles]

Hi Robert, thanks for the links
Yes I agree that there must be something wrong with my installation. I will
try "detect and repair" an reinstall if needed. But not just now, because in
the meantime I just have to finish this report so I am keeping Word open day
and night until we deliver ! This seems to work. I am also asking my
colleagues to open the file in read only mode and make extra copies every
half an hour or so -- and check that the file is working.
I don't think I need to bother you with the file (unless you are interested
in studying this particularly bad case of malfunctionning? Or if you think it
could shed light on what's wrong with my installation?), since I have
reformatted and rewrote everything now. Plse let me know if you still want
the file. Thanks,
Charles