Need some help to repair corrupted/damaged word files

[Vercogen]

Hi

Can anyone help met to repair a badly damaged/corrupt word file, i tried a few programs from google, but nothing can repair it.

regards

 

[Veex]

How did it get damaged?

 

[Vercogen]

How did it get damaged?

Accidentally formatted my HDD, used software to get my files back, but they are all corrupted.

 

[Necropolis]

is it a new .docx or older file?

If I new one then see if you can open the file with 7zip or something similar - if you can extract the file and then inspect the extracted files with Notepad to see what you can see.

 

[Vercogen]

is it a new .docx or older file?

If I new one then see if you can open the file with 7zip or something similar - if you can extract the file and then inspect the extracted files with Notepad to see what you can see.

Does not want to extract with 7zip

 

[supersunbird]

Accidentally formatted my HDD, used software to get my files back, but they are all corrupted.

Recuva? deep scan turned on?

 

[Vercogen]

Recuva? deep scan turned on?

Will try this, its been a while back when i formatted it. So I hope it is still recoverable.

 

[supersunbird]

Will try this, its been a while back when i formatted it. So I hope it is still recoverable.

The issue is if you have overwritten the files with other data, not when you formatted...

 

[Vercogen]

The issue is if you have overwritten the files with other data, not when you formatted...

yep, it was overwritten, but the first time i recovered it, it was not

 

[backstreetboy]

Hi

Can anyone help met to repair a badly damaged/corrupt word file, i tried a few programs from google, but nothing can repair it.

regards

In word:
File > Open > Browse > Select File > (next to the Open button click the dropdown) and select Open and Repair.

 

[Necropolis]

Also worth a shot:

Try and find a copy of pkzipfix online somewhere - throw the file at it and see what happens.

 

[Demi1538524]

Hi，Vercogen

The Word doc/docx file is actually a zip archive containing one main document.xml file and several supplemental files. You can find more detailed information about the Word doc/docx file format by searching on Google with the keyword “Word doc/docx file format”. If the archive file is corrupt, or the main items in the archive are damaged or corrupted, then you will not be able to open the file correctly with Word. In such a case, the first step is to try to use the built-in repair or recovery function in the Word, to see if it can repair or recover the corrupt file. If not, then you need to resort to a third-party repair Word software to scan the corrupted file and recover Word data for you. It is also possible to find a data recovery expert or company to do the task, but in most of the cases, they will also use a third-party tool to do the recovery for you.

The main difference between using the software by yourself and by a third-party service company is:
(1) The company is familiar with the data recovery industry so he knows which software is the best one. While you need to search and compare the software online by yourself, which is time-consuming.
(2) The company purchases the software for multiple usages, while you purchase the software for one-time usage only. So normally the service fee may be cheaper than the license fee for the software.
(3) DIY will keep your data confidential while do the recovery via a company may cause data breach.

If you want to perform a DIY recovery, then you can try the following methods:

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/w...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/w...o-view-recovered-files-again-HA010354297.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/w...ave-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/w...y-task-pane-to-recover-files-HP003078411.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/w...k-pane-to-recover-your-files-HP010140613.aspx

for more detailed information.

3. If the above methods do not work, then you can try DataNumen Word Repair at:

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

I have used the tool in the past and it helps recovering some valuable data for me. The tool has a free demo so that you can try to see if it works on your file or not before you buy.

Hope this will help. Good Luck!

 

[WAslayer]

Accidentally formatted my HDD, used software to get my files back, but they are all corrupted.

the problem here lies most likely with the way you recovered the files.. if you went with the quick scan option in the software you used, it would have done minimal scanning for lost files and returned some files with their names in tact.. trouble with this is if your data is fragmented, stored in different places on the hard drive, a quick scan would find only the beginning part of the file including the file name based on the file index table (i think this is what it is called) and provide you with what looks like a recovered file but it is in fact incomplete.. a deep scan would disregard the file index table and scan for files across the entire disk and put them back together to give you much better result.. you can try a deep scan and pray that you have not already overwritten the sectors where the data you need is located..

 

[Aquadyne]

Hi，Vercogen

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 Excel 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!

Thanks for a very thorough and detailed response to the OP.

Mad Reps

 

[Venomous]

Have you tried the manual tricks shared in this article - http://wordpress.semnaitik.com/2013/10/24/repair-word-document-manually/

The above article contains few easy tricks to repair Word file manually, i.e. without using any 3rd party paid tool. All you need to use is Microsoft Word program, that's it. Also, you can try to open a corrupt Word file in OpenOffice Writer and other Word processor programs.

A year later ??? :erm:

 

[The_Librarian]

A year later ??? :erm:

Thread necro.