Can't open word files

[BaLi - X]

I am having a very bad time now, what happened is that i downloaded all my
data on my external hard drive as i had to reinstall my PC. later on i
connected that External HDD to another friends laptop for some work. Now i
have reinstalled my PC and everything but when i open any EXCEL or WORD
document a box opens title says " File Conversion" and then it says

Selects the encoding that makes your document readable, Text Encoding 1.
Windows (Default) 2. Ms-Dos 3. Other Encoding

which ever encoding i select it has garbage in the file.. i can't read.. all
my life long work from past 8 years are depends on it .. any one please help

** The laptop i connected my external hard drive had virus cuz of which the
files seems currpt.. i believe..

 

[Terry Farrell]

Sounds like they were corrupted when you copied them to the HDD. Did you
check them after they were copied to the HDD to ensure that they copied
correctly?

You can now try the following:

Use the Open and Repair option (in the Word File, Open dialog, click on the
little arrow attached to the OPEN button).
Use the Recover text from any file option (also in Word, File, Open, under
File Types).
Open the document in WordPad.

Note that only the first option will retain the formatting, the other
options will recover text ONLY.