Microsoft Word file recovery problem, how can I fix this?

[BrianThompson]

I used a disk recovery tool to recover some previously formatted files,
however I am having problems with the .doc files [MS Word]. I use MS
OFFICE 2003 and below is the message on the screen when I tried to open
the recovered word documents:

"Word experienced an error trying to open the file. Try this suggestions
- blah blah blah...."

I tried the suggestions but still couldn't open the document. I tried
opening with Notepad but all i got was some funny machine language. Any
help please! the files are so important.




--
BrianThompson

[felton1...@gmail.com]

When a Word document file is corrupted, then you can try several methods to recover it:

1. First of all, you can try the recovery function integrated with Microsoft Word, as follows:

1) On the File menu, click Open.
2) In the Look in list, click the drive, folder, or Internet location that contains the file that you want to open.
3) In the folder list, locate and open the folder that contains the file.
4) Select the file that you want to recover.
5) Click the arrow next to the Open button, and then click Open and Repair.

You may find more information about this at:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/recover-the-text-from-a-damaged-document-HP005189610.aspx (for Word 2003)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893672/en-us (for Word 2007/2010/2013)

2. Second, since Word 2003, it provides a "Document Recovery" or "AutoRecover" mechanism so that when Word is shutdown abnormally, the Word file being edited will be recovered when Word is launched next time, which makes the file recovery possible.

See below:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316951/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827099/
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/do-you-want-to-view-recovered-files-again-HA010354297.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/automatically-save-and-recover-office-files-HP010140729.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/recover-your-office-files-HP010354299.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/use-the-document-recovery-task-pane-to-recover-files-HP003078411.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/word-help/use-the-document-recovery-task-pane-to-recover-your-files-HP010140613.aspx

for more detailed information.

3. Third, you may also try OpenOffice to open and repair the corrupted document. OpenOffice is a free and open source software which is compatible with Word document. Sometimes it can open the corrupt document that Word cannot open.

You can get OpenOffice at http://www.openoffice.org/

4. For docx files, they are actually a group of files compressed in Zip file format. Therefore, sometimes, if the corruption is only caused by the Zip file, then you can use Zip repair tools such as WinRAR at http://www.rarlab.com to repair the file, as follows:

4.1 Assuming the corrupt Word file is a.docx, then you need to rename it to a.zip
4.2 Start WinRAR, go to "Tools > Repair Archive" to repair a.zip and generated a fixed file a_fixed.zip.
4.3 Rename a_fixed.zip back to a_fixed.docx
4.4 Using Word to open a_fixed.docx.

There may still be some warnings when opening the fixed file in Word, just let ignore it and Word will try to open and repair the fixed file. If the file can be opened successfully, then you can just save the contents into another error-free file.

5. If 1, 2, 3 and 4 does not work, then you may try third-party tools such as DataNumen Word Repair at

https://www.datanumen.com/word-repair/

It provides a free demo version so that you can try to see if the data you want can be recovered or not.

Good luck!

[johna...@gmail.com]

MS Word Recovery is an excellent application for accurately repair or recover complete data from corrupted or damaged MS Word file. By the help of that software user can repair multiple corrupted MS Word file in a single repair cycle. This software supports Unicode characters as well and all versions of operating systems. For any information, visit http://www.mswordrecovery.com/

[lucab...@gmail.com]

When MS Word files may be corrupt or become inaccessible, then you can utilize RecoveryFix for Word Document Repair tool. It's Recovers the all data like as title, header, footer, forms, hyperlinks, tables, graphs, WordArt and other data from corrupted or damaged MS Word file and it give the facilities to user recover multiple MS Word files in the single recovery cycle. To know more about this software visit here: - http://www.repairworddocument.org/

[IsabelBradford]

https://www.repairtoolbox.com/wordrepair.html - Word Repair Toolbox for
example is worth a try since the demo can let you see the possible
results.

I must ask though, because I'm the curious type, why not backup such
things on diskette or CDR? Even "expensive" USB CDRW drives are found
for 50USD and a CDR is less than 1 dollar. Recovery costs much more so I
always want to know what is keeping people from having what they can't
lose on some backup.




--
IsabelBradford

[ericte...@gmail.com]

Use Word Recovery Tool which can easily and carefully repair or restore with complete data such as OLE objects, images, forms, graphs, hyper links, tables, text, headers, and footnotes from corrupted or damaged word documents without any problem. For any query, Click here:- http://www.mannatsoftware.com/stellar-phoenix-word-repair.html

[trix...@gmail.com]

I think your Word file is corrupted. Sometimes, it happens when you used any unreliable recovery tool for recovering data. It copies content from original file during this process, it may damage the file or there are many reasons for corruption of Word file. In such situation, you can try solution from this link http://reatrix.com/how-to-repair-word-file-header and get repaired damaged Word document and recovers all the contents from it like text, OLE objects, hyperlinks and many more.

[jakeo...@gmail.com]

Word File Repair Software can repair word files documents that are created in any of the MS Word versions like 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000. This software fully supports all versions of Windows including 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000. For more info, visit here: - http://www.mozesoft.com/word-file-recovery-software.html

[jenmorleyp...@gmail.com]

How can you do this on a Mac?