Recovering Corrupted Word Document

[Joseph C.]

I had a Word document saved on a flash drive which somehow lost all its files. :x

I tried various options before having to reformat the drive. The Word file was recovered using Recuva and it seems to be the right size.

However, no amount of repairs through the two methods of words file recovery has returned the text. All I'm getting out of 79kb is a handful of meaningless symbols. I have also tried using some online word recovery tools to no avail.

Has anyone had any success in recovering heavily corrupted Word files?

If I do manage to recover it I will vow to never use a flash drive for storing anything important again.

 

[arkmundi]

Best of luck! I'm a Linux man.

 

[The fingers]

Might try the Microsoft online forums.

 

[Joseph C.]

Might try the Microsoft online forums.

Tried their solutions already and have now tried six or seven online recovery tools. The best one so far just gave me pages upon pages of nonsensical symbols.

I think it is time to give up and take the hit of losing a couple of thousand words and move on. I have another copy of an earlier vision on another computer so I will use that copy. It sucks but I will have learned a valuable lesson - never trust a flash drive.

 

[drsolly]

never trust a flash drive.

Or any other kind of drive. The answer is backup. And the backup should be automated, or you'll forget to do it.

How complex it needs to be, depends on how important the data is. Here's what I do.

I have my main computer.
Each day, that's mirrored onto a similar computer. That's so I can just switch to using that within minutes of a hardware failure.

Each day, it's also mirrored onto a backup computer, on the 1st to the 10th of the month, that computer is called "back1". On the 11th to the 20th, to "back2". and on all other days, to "back3".

Why this revolving three-computer system?

Because if a file is accidentally deleted or get corrupted and I don't find out about it for several days, I still have a clean copy I can go back to.

This is probably more complex than most people would want; you have to decide how important your data is to you, look at the cost of a backup system, and decide accordingly, bearing in mind that a computer costs maybe £100 and a large hard drive about £50.

 

[bigmoose]

I thought I would share my method, as my income is from IP (Intellectual Property.) I got into this mode after I was the "lucky" guy that had his desktop PC in the act of writing to the disk when the utility guys cut the main underground power line with a backhoe. Even the corporate gurus couldn't recover the hard drive.

Backups. 3 total copies with one physically offsite and updated daily.

Desktop is on a UPS. Local NAS (Synology Network Attached Storage) is on a UPS. At the end of the day desktop updates NAS. NAS automatically updates corporate offsite Cloud Storage overnight. NAS updates laptop in the evening. If I do anything meaningful on the laptop, I update the NAS image before shutting down for the night. My IP file structures on the desktop, laptop, NAS and Corporate Cloud are identical. Anything I can do on the desktop, I can do on the laptop.

I have found that when things "tar ball up" I will typically blow one backup trying to figure out what went wrong. Having a safety beyond that is a lifesaver.

 

[tomtom123]

you can try this, maybe it can find a working version of the word file. I noticed that using recuva i can recover some files, but it's not readable lol.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13706/recover-deleted-files-on-an-ntfs-hard-drive-from-a-ubuntu-live-cd/

 

[tomtom123]

never trust a flash drive.

Or any other kind of drive. The answer is backup. And the backup should be automated, or you'll forget to do it.

How complex it needs to be, depends on how important the data is. Here's what I do.

I have my main computer.
Each day, that's mirrored onto a similar computer. That's so I can just switch to using that within minutes of a hardware failure.

Each day, it's also mirrored onto a backup computer, on the 1st to the 10th of the month, that computer is called "back1". On the 11th to the 20th, to "back2". and on all other days, to "back3".

Why this revolving three-computer system?

Because if a file is accidentally deleted or get corrupted and I don't find out about it for several days, I still have a clean copy I can go back to.

This is probably more complex than most people would want; you have to decide how important your data is to you, look at the cost of a backup system, and decide accordingly, bearing in mind that a computer costs maybe £100 and a large hard drive about £50.

CAn you tell me how you set this up? what program you use to the Mirror, is it automated or what?

Or by mirror do you mean u manually copy and overwrite all your documents everyday to an external hard drive?

 

[tomtom123]

I thought I would share my method, as my income is from IP (Intellectual Property.) I got into this mode after I was the "lucky" guy that had his desktop PC in the act of writing to the disk when the utility guys cut the main underground power line with a backhoe. Even the corporate gurus couldn't recover the hard drive.

Backups. 3 total copies with one physically offsite and updated daily.

Desktop is on a UPS. Local NAS (Synology Network Attached Storage) is on a UPS. At the end of the day desktop updates NAS. NAS automatically updates corporate offsite Cloud Storage overnight. NAS updates laptop in the evening. If I do anything meaningful on the laptop, I update the NAS image before shutting down for the night. My IP file structures on the desktop, laptop, NAS and Corporate Cloud are identical. Anything I can do on the desktop, I can do on the laptop.

I have found that when things "tar ball up" I will typically blow one backup trying to figure out what went wrong. Having a safety beyond that is a lifesaver.

Whats a UPS?

 

[marty]

I use this software to back up.
http://www.cobiansoft.com/cobianbackup.htm
Use two external hard drives. Put one in a place away from my house in case the house burns or disappears.

For the corrupted word file, try changing the filename extension .doc .docx .more?

Are you using Windows? Try opening with a different word program. Forget about Microsoft Word.

These programs were made by volunteers all over the world. Looks like something happened to https://www.openoffice.org/ similar to what happened to this forum. Some company bought it with the intention of making money. Looks like the Open Office people went over to https://www.libreoffice.org/

I would start by downloading Libreoffice and try opening with that. Also try Notepad .txt or WordPad .rtf

Do you have any Ubuntu Linux friends? Try opening opening file on their computers. If there is nothing private on the word document? Upload the file to this forum and you will have the best bunch of computer experts on this planet poking at it.

Good luck!

 

[tomtom123]

I use this software to back up.
http://www.cobiansoft.com/cobianbackup.htm
Use two external hard drives. Put one in a place away from my house in case the house burns or disappears.

For the corrupted word file, try changing the filename extension .doc .docx .more?

Are you using Windows? Try opening with a different word program. Forget about Microsoft Word.

These programs were made by volunteers all over the world. Looks like something happened to https://www.openoffice.org/ similar to what happened to this forum. Some company bought it with the intention of making money. Looks like the Open Office people went over to https://www.libreoffice.org/

I would start by downloading Libreoffice and try opening with that. Also try Notepad .txt or WordPad .rtf

Do you have any Ubuntu Linux friends? Try opening opening file on their computers. If there is nothing private on the word document? Upload the file to this forum and you will best bunch of computer experts on this planet poking at it.

Good luck!

you say you put one hardrive in a place away from your house, that means you back up that drive remotely via internet?

 

[marty]

I use this software to back up.
http://www.cobiansoft.com/cobianbackup.htm
Use two external hard drives. Put one in a place away from my house in case the house burns or disappears.

For the corrupted word file, try changing the filename extension .doc .docx .more?

Are you using Windows? Try opening with a different word program. Forget about Microsoft Word.

These programs were made by volunteers all over the world. Looks like something happened to https://www.openoffice.org/ similar to what happened to this forum. Some company bought it with the intention of making money. Looks like the Open Office people went over to https://www.libreoffice.org/

I would start by downloading Libreoffice and try opening with that. Also try Notepad .txt or WordPad .rtf

Do you have any Ubuntu Linux friends? Try opening opening file on their computers. If there is nothing private on the word document? Upload the file to this forum and you will best bunch of computer experts on this planet poking at it.

Good luck!

you say you put one hardrive in a place away from your house, that means you back up that drive remotely via internet?

No I connect the computer to a external hard drive with a USB cable. When backup is finished, I carry the external hard drive to a top secret location away from my house.

 

[bigmoose]

Whats a UPS?

Sorry, UPS in my jargon is an Uninterruptable Power Supply with about a 30 minute stand up time.

 

[tomtom123]

=
No I connect the computer to a external hard drive with a USB cable. When backup is finished, I carry the external hard drive to a top secret location away from my house.

you do that everyday? that must be annoying as hell? IS this program better than manually dragging folders to the hard drive? i don't see the need for this program if it works the same way as me just dragging the documents folder to the external hard drive lol...what are the benefits?

 

[tomtom123]

Whats a UPS?

Sorry, UPS in my jargon is an Uninterruptable Power Supply with about a 30 minute stand up time.

what program do you use to do the remote backups? Also do you encrypt your files? for example, using truecrypt?

 

[r3volved]

No I connect the computer to a external hard drive with a USB cable. When backup is finished, I carry the external hard drive to a top secret location away from my house.

Ya right...we all know it's in an empty charger case

on topic...
Have you seen this list? http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-plus-ways-to-recover-a-corrupted-word-document

Have you run chkdsk? (this is a filesystem recovery, not specifically word doc recovery): chkdsk /f /v

Here's a 7-zip approach: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tr-dojo/recover-data-from-a-damaged-office-file-with-the-help-of-7-zip/

If you're getting a bunch of jibberish there is a small chance that the extension corrupted...in windows explorer, make a copy and change extension to .txt and then to either .doc or .docx

 

[Joseph C.]

I use this software to back up.
http://www.cobiansoft.com/cobianbackup.htm
Use two external hard drives. Put one in a place away from my house in case the house burns or disappears.

For the corrupted word file, try changing the filename extension .doc .docx .more?

Are you using Windows? Try opening with a different word program. Forget about Microsoft Word.

These programs were made by volunteers all over the world. Looks like something happened to https://www.openoffice.org/ similar to what happened to this forum. Some company bought it with the intention of making money. Looks like the Open Office people went over to https://www.libreoffice.org/

I would start by downloading Libreoffice and try opening with that. Also try Notepad .txt or WordPad .rtf

Do you have any Ubuntu Linux friends? Try opening opening file on their computers. If there is nothing private on the word document? Upload the file to this forum and you will best bunch of computer experts on this planet poking at it.

Good luck!

I will give your suggestions ago in the morning Marty. I've already rewrote a chunk of it.

Unfortunately, it is something I'm hoping to get published so I can't take the chance of uploading it to a public domain. I don't want to give the publishing companies any reason to decline my work. :wink:

 

[drsolly]

CAn you tell me how you set this up? what program you use to the Mirror, is it automated or what?

Or by mirror do you mean u manually copy and overwrite all your documents everyday to an external hard drive?

Partly, I use a program called "mirror". http://rumkin.com/software/mirror/
Partly I use rsync. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync

Rsync is really good, and it's free, and you can get it for Linux, Windows or Mac.

It isn't to an external hard drive - it's to another computer.

 

[tomtom123]

CAn you tell me how you set this up? what program you use to the Mirror, is it automated or what?

Or by mirror do you mean u manually copy and overwrite all your documents everyday to an external hard drive?

Partly, I use a program called "mirror". http://rumkin.com/software/mirror/
Partly I use rsync. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync

Rsync is really good, and it's free, and you can get it for Linux, Windows or Mac.

It isn't to an external hard drive - it's to another computer.

so this computer is on all the time? you have access to turn it on remotely? lol but yea seems like overkill

 

[marty]

=
No I connect the computer to a external hard drive with a USB cable. When backup is finished, I carry the external hard drive to a top secret location away from my house.

you do that everyday? that must be annoying as hell? IS this program better than manually dragging folders to the hard drive? i don't see the need for this program if it works the same way as me just dragging the documents folder to the external hard drive lol...what are the benefits?

I only back up every few months. I should back up any new or changed files every night while I am sleeping. BigMoose is smarter then I am. He backs up to a cloud. Please see picture as to what is a "cloud"

BigMoose's house is at the bottom of this image. The cloud is shown at the top. If my predictions come true? The internet will shut down. Electricity will no longer be for sale. Money will have no value. You all better stock up on caned food and bullets.

I back up every thing in my computer so I don't forget anything. Try dragging 500GB of files, folders, and who knows what? From one hard drive to another and you will see why a back up program is the way to do this.

Now to the subject of Mirrors. I might be wrong about all of this? There are two types of backups. Mirror and copy and paste or drag like I do. There are two types of computer failures. Hardware failure and software failure. Hardware failure is smoke, black screen, or other horrible stuff. Software failure is a virus, demons, sabotage, or a determined 4 year old making changes to the settings. Demons is what got into Joseph C's flash drive. Or he might have dropped it in a puddle?

In theory a mirror backup will restore your computer to exactly how it was before the smoke came out or other incident. In reality this seldom happens. A mirror back up only works on the same computer with the same hardware and operating system. After most hardware failures one replaces the bad part or buys a new computer. After most software failures one re installs the operating system. Or at least that's how I do it.

Mr Cobian explains it better then I can.

Q: I want your program to create a mirror for me. When I delete the original file, I want the program to delete the backup copy.

A: This is a terrible function to have in a backup program. Please do NOT ask me to add this function. Imagine what would happen if a virus deleted your files and when you go to Cobian Backup to restore the files you find out that Cobian Backup deleted the same files because it is mirroring the information! NEVER ask me to add this.

Update. In version 10, a mirror can be implemented for uncompressed local backups.


Q- Please, I want the program to make a mirror.

A: Ehem.


Q- Please, please pretty please add a mirror function.

No. But I'll tell you a secret. If you create a task of the type "Full", and select the "Create separated backups" option, and set the "Keep x backups" to 1, you will always get an exact copy of your files. Only, don't tell anybody else.

Now go download Mr Cobian's backup program before he sells the code. I am using version 10. Read the instructions and back up before "the smoke comes out" You can set the software to backup automatically or manually like I do. You can backup through a wire or through the air. Can also use FTP.

Mr Cobian explains it better then I can.

Cobian Backup is a multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network. FTP backup is also supported in both directions (download and upload).

FTP = File Transfer Protocol. That is how I upload content to web sites. I use FileZilla for that.

 

[bigmoose]

what program do you use to do the remote backups? Also do you encrypt your files? for example, using truecrypt?

I have satisfactorily used truecrypt. I also use Entrust with certain clients. I have also had great success with SyncBackSE to sync desktop to local NAS (Synology Network Attached Storage), laptop to local NAS, and NAS to off site server/cloud through VPN tunnel. SyncBackSE is versatile and can run on it's own with a predetermined schedule. It has never "burped" once in the last 3 or 4 years of daily use. Also the stuff I backup is in the same file structure on each machine.

Entire hard drive operating system images of the main laptop and desktop are backed up to the NAS on a monthly basis. I have three identical laptops. I use one and hold 2 in reserve. One of the reserve laptops has a operating system image update on it quarterly. This ensures that the backups are valid, and I that I can pull an image off the NAS successfully and install it. There is a duplicate desktop sitting on the floor in my main office.

Yes, I am over the top. I cannot afford to loose my IP (Intellectual Property). It is irreplaceable to me and I have no one to go whine to if I loose 35 years of work and background. Not to mention no one is going to pay me to replicate it...

PS: I have also had two USB thumb drives issue an audible snap, and one a flash and cease to function. My bet is a cheap tantalum cap blew and took the PCB with it. I don't trust them. Good to take a ppt presentation to the conference room, not good for secure storage.

 

[drsolly]

Yes, the computers I'm backing up to are on all the time.

When I mirror, I'm only mirroring the data, not the operating system. With any sensible mirroring system, you can choose what to mirror. So if the main computer goes toes-up, I can just start using the mirror.

On the issue of "when you delete a file, it's also deleted from the mirror", yes that true. That's why I also mirror to three other computers, to back1 on the 1st to the 10th of the month, to back2 on the 11th to the 20th, and to back3 on all other days.

So if I delete a file then realise I need it after the mirror has run, I can still go back to the version 10 days ago. In 20 years, I've only ever needed to do that once.

I don't use "the cloud" for backup. You can translate "the cloud" as "someone else's computer". Someone else might:
1) decide to go out of business
2) accidentally give my data to someone else
3) deliberately give my data to someone else
4) anything else that they decide is best for *them*
5) lose my data and not tell me

If the cloud service is "free", that's ten times worse, because I don't have any comeback. If it isn't free, why should I pay for a service when I can buy a cheap second hand computer for £50, and add a good quality, new 2tb hard drive for another £50.

 

[tomtom123]

what program do you use to do the remote backups? Also do you encrypt your files? for example, using truecrypt?

I have satisfactorily used truecrypt. I also use Entrust with certain clients. I have also had great success with SyncBackSE to sync desktop to local NAS (Synology Network Attached Storage), laptop to local NAS, and NAS to off site server/cloud through VPN tunnel. SyncBackSE is versatile and can run on it's own with a predetermined schedule. It has never "burped" once in the last 3 or 4 years of daily use. Also the stuff I backup is in the same file structure on each machine.

Entire hard drive operating system images of the main laptop and desktop are backed up to the NAS on a monthly basis. I have three identical laptops. I use one and hold 2 in reserve. One of the reserve laptops has a operating system image update on it quarterly. This ensures that the backups are valid, and I that I can pull an image off the NAS successfully and install it. There is a duplicate desktop sitting on the floor in my main office.

Yes, I am over the top. I cannot afford to loose my IP (Intellectual Property). It is irreplaceable to me and I have no one to go whine to if I loose 35 years of work and background. Not to mention no one is going to pay me to replicate it...

PS: I have also had two USB thumb drives issue an audible snap, and one a flash and cease to function. My bet is a cheap tantalum cap blew and took the PCB with it. I don't trust them. Good to take a ppt presentation to the conference room, not good for secure storage.

YEa it's overboard but since you make your money with your IP, if your data is gone, you lose everything, so for you it's necessary. but for me not really.

However, could you explain for about the Synology Network Attached Storage?

is it basically a hard drive that you buy and could be put somewhere else, in your case, you put it in your work place? and it has internet access and you just use a program to update it? something like this? http://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Network-Attached/dp/B005YW7OLM

This means the storage device is on 24/7?

OR am i completely wrong and you don't buy and operate your own device, you only lease an NAS and just upload to it? like uploading to a cloud server?
Also is this the program you use? diskstation manager 5.0? http://www.synology.com/en-us/


Thanks!

 

[tomtom123]

Yes, the computers I'm backing up to are on all the time.

When I mirror, I'm only mirroring the data, not the operating system. With any sensible mirroring system, you can choose what to mirror. So if the main computer goes toes-up, I can just start using the mirror.

On the issue of "when you delete a file, it's also deleted from the mirror", yes that true. That's why I also mirror to three other computers, to back1 on the 1st to the 10th of the month, to back2 on the 11th to the 20th, and to back3 on all other days.

So if I delete a file then realise I need it after the mirror has run, I can still go back to the version 10 days ago. In 20 years, I've only ever needed to do that once.

I don't use "the cloud" for backup. You can translate "the cloud" as "someone else's computer". Someone else might:
1) decide to go out of business
2) accidentally give my data to someone else
3) deliberately give my data to someone else
4) anything else that they decide is best for *them*
5) lose my data and not tell me

If the cloud service is "free", that's ten times worse, because I don't have any comeback. If it isn't free, why should I pay for a service when I can buy a cheap second hand computer for £50, and add a good quality, new 2tb hard drive for another £50.

That 3 different backup tactics is smart :x

But yea i don't like Cloud storage either, i don't trust putting my data online, i prefer offline storage via external hardrive. I also tried Dropdox and i didn't like it because 1) it's a cloud server and i don't trust it 2) the mirror function sucks

Everyone talking about putting your data on this cloud this, cloud that...Cloud smouh.....These are the same people who love sharing all their private info on facebook and complains when facebook gives their Iinformation to the NSA. Too much HYpe about the "cloud". Also people acting like it's a recent idea, the "cloud" has been around since the internet was here, they just used that word in recent years to market the same old idea.

 

[bigmoose]

is it basically a hard drive that you buy and could be put somewhere else, in your case, you put it in your work place? and it has internet access and you just use a program to update it? something like this? http://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Network-Attached/dp/B005YW7OLM

This means the storage device is on 24/7?

OR am i completely wrong and you don't buy and operate your own device, you only lease an NAS and just upload to it? like uploading to a cloud server?
Also is this the program you use? diskstation manager 5.0? http://www.synology.com/en-us/
Thanks!

Yes that is the type of Network Attached Storage that I use. I have the 4 bay version. It is local and powered 24/7 and is on an Uninterruptable Power Supply. I am still running an older version of DiskStationManager. I tend to not upgrade firmware/software if I am not having any problems. The Synology box has more features and power than I have fully utilized. I may not be using it's full potential. I do leave the desktop on 24/7 also. When I was at a large installation, they found that engineers who left their workstations on 24/7 had a lower failure rate than those that power cycled every day. Both my laptop and desktop "mount" part of the file structure on the Synology and see it as simply another "local" hard drive.

For offsite storage (cloud), I have a client that offers me unlimited storage on their server farm. Selected files from the NAS (Synology) disk station are updated on the cloud nightly under the supervision/control of the desktop. Perhaps the Synology could do this itself, but I knew how to do it the other way and it works!