Corrupt Exel Document

[Pete Patel]

Hello,
I am unable to open a excel. The file was ok a few days
ago, but changes made by a unknown user must have corrupt
the file. When I try to open the spreadsheet I get this
error.

'Quote Numbering.xls' cannot be accessed. The file may be
read-only, or you may be trying to access a read-only
location. Or, the server the document is stored on may
not be responding.

(Only option you have is retry or cancel. I hit cancel
and the document closes)

I tried opening the file to from my desktop and got the
same error. I'm able to open it in Wordpad, but it's
unreadable. I also tried repairing the file but excel
failed to do so. Please let me know if there is anyway to
extract or fix the file. We do not have this file backed
up and it has critical information.

Thank You,

Pete Patel

 

[David McRitchie]

Hi Pete,
First of all I would not touch the file with any utility until you
make a copy of the file sort it offline, and make another
copy online and work with the copy.

If you opened the file in notepad and saved it that would do
it in. What you want to do is open wordpad, notepad or
others of similiar ilk, and then drag the file into wordpad.
I think I'd use notepad though. It just gives you an idea
if any data is there. If you see recognizable data that
is lot better than seening nothing.

Look in the same directory for files without any file extensions
with funny names, see if they will open in Excel (check the dates).

One of ways of destroying an Excel file is to open it in Word
and save it.

Take a look at
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/backup.htm#recovery
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