Leopard Upgrade -> File Format Not Valid -> every file iscorrupted??? = I am up the creek

[Brianintride]

Hoping someone has an idea on this one.

I recently upgraded a clients small network (4 comps) to OS X 10.5
The machines were a mix of 10.3 and 10.2 machines. I cloned all
machines to ext hard drives and did an erase and install of Leopard on
each.

While there were certainly a few issues around the upgrade, mostly
everything went fine...then the client tried to open his excel files,
consisting of client databases and other essential information. No
bueno.

The excel files were stripped of their extensions at some point and
finder calls them "unix executable files." Excel will not open them.
I get the "[filename].xls: File format is not valid" error. Same
result if I append .xls to the files. I have tried to open the excel
files in word, and also tried to open them in windows. I have tried
every office recovery program for windows I can find. the best result
is a jumbled mess with some info inside but all formatting is gone.

I have tried "open and repair" in windows. "Unable to read file," it
says

Can't help but think this has something to do with the upgrade. there
were some strange permissions issues post upgrade but everything is
working fine since i fixed them.

Ver much looking forward to solving this problem.

Thoughts? Thanks in advance!

Brian

 

[cr4sh0v3r1d3]

Two comments:

1. If the files are less than 1 Mb, I would suggest trying to upload
one to docs.google.com. It seems like you are having file encoding
issues, and being web-based makes google docs very file encoding
agnostic. A long shot, but worth a try.

2. Explain exactly what you mean by "I cloned the drives." Did you use
any software other than Disk Utility?

3. Did you move the files back on to the 10.5 machine before trying to
open them, or were they mounted from the external drive?

 

[Diane Ross]

Hoping someone has an idea on this one.

I recently upgraded a clients small network (4 comps) to OS X 10.5
The machines were a mix of 10.3 and 10.2 machines. I cloned all
machines to ext hard drives and did an erase and install of Leopard on
each.

Did you upgrade to 10.5.1? How did you bring back data? Did you install
Office from the CD and update?

The excel files were stripped of their extensions at some point and
finder calls them "unix executable files." Excel will not open them.

If you do a Get Info on the Excel file, can you select Excel from "Open
with: Microsoft Excel"?

 

[Brianintride]

Two comments:

1. If the files are less than 1 Mb, I would suggest trying to upload
one to docs.google.com. It seems like you are having file encoding
issues, and being web-based makes google docs very file encoding
agnostic. A long shot, but worth a try.

Google says: We're sorry, but we were unable to upload this document.

2. Explain exactly what you mean by "I cloned the drives." Did you use
any software other than Disk Utility?

I used super duper to create a clone, did an erase and install of
Leopard, then used migration assistant to move them back

3. Did you move the files back on to the 10.5 machine before trying to
open them, or were they mounted from the external drive?

Both. files moved back were what initially indicated the problem,
then I tried to pull files off of the external hard drives as well.

 

[Brianintride]

Did you upgrade to 10.5.1? How did you bring back data? Did you install
Office from the CD and update?

Yes, 10.5.1

Installed from disk image of CD, upgraded to 11.3.9. The client was
probably not this up-to-date before my upgrade. They have to run
satellite internet and therefore skip upgrades because of slowness

If you do a Get Info on the Excel file, can you select Excel from "Open
with: Microsoft Excel"?

once i select show all applications, I can select MS Excel from the
list. It ends in the same "file format not valid" error

 

[Diane Ross]

once i select show all applications, I can select MS Excel from the
list. It ends in the same "file format not valid" error

You need to determine if it's an Office install problem, User folder
corruption or base OS files.

1. Switch to a new User in System Preferences and test there. If the problem
goes away then it's in your User's folder. If the problem still exists then
it's a base OS file. Since there are no combo updaters to use for Leopard
then I would try an "Archive & Install" to fix the problem.

2. If the problem went away in the new User, then you'll need to

A) test for corrupt preferences
B) use "Remove Office" and reinstall again

Your install process of using Erase and Install SHOULD have resulted in a
good install. You did everything right.

Let me know what you find when testing.

 

[PhilD]

once i select show all applications, I can select MS Excel from the
list. It ends in the same "file format not valid" error

When you do "get info" on an individual file, what file extension does
it give? (You might have to check/uncheck the appropriate box to see
this. Sorry, at the moment I cannot remember which way round that
works).

PhilD

 

[fyz]

You can try a popular Excel file recovery tool called Advanced Excel Repair to repair your Excel file. It is a powerful tool to repair corrupt or damaged Excel files.

Detailed information about Advanced Excel Repair can be found at <http://www.datanumen.com/aer/>

And you can also download a free demo version at <http://www.datanumen.com/aer/aer.exe>

Alan

 

[CyberTaz]

According to the web link you posted this utility - good as it may be -

1- Doesn't handle OOXML files - formats prior to 2007/2008 only, and
2- It is Windows-Only, so not of much use to most Mac users.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac