All characters in the file turn to a 'ÿ' character

D

don winiecki

In MS-Word 2002, XP Professional

At several times over the past six months, I've
experienced a corruption of files in which all characters
in the file turn to a 'ÿ' character.

Attempting to recover text returns an empty file.

How can I fix and avoid this?
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

I believe this is usually the work of a virus and is generally irreversible.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

In MS-Word 2002, XP Professional

At several times over the past six months, I've
experienced a corruption of files in which all characters
in the file turn to a 'ÿ' character.

Attempting to recover text returns an empty file.

How can I fix and avoid this?
 
T

TF

Don

As Suzanne has stated, there are some viruses that destroy the data contents
inside a document file whist outwardly maintaining the document structure so
that Windows and Word both still see it as being a valid document. However,
when you open the document it contains just the garbage character.

It may be a corruption of the storage medium or the network, etc., but this
seems unlikely as the document would no longer be seen by either Word or
Windows as a valid document as would refuse to open unless you used the
Recover Text from Any File option.

--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP
http://www.mvps.org/word/

In MS-Word 2002, XP Professional

At several times over the past six months, I've
experienced a corruption of files in which all characters
in the file turn to a 'ÿ' character.

Attempting to recover text returns an empty file.

How can I fix and avoid this?
 
D

don winiecki

I've kept and regularly updated Norton Antivirus on this
system since it was purchased. No viruses are detected by
a scan of the system by that software.

For this reason, it seems unusual to conclude it is the
work of a virus.

In addition, not all .doc files are so affected -- very
few actually! This is not to say, however, that the loss
is trivial.

Will the automatic virus checking in Office 2003 eliminate
it if it is a virus and otherwise, what options do I have
to prevent it from occurring in the future?
 
T

TF

Don

Is this just a stand alone computer and do you always save the documents to
your hard disk drive? It does seem strange that you cannot find a virus -
and that would seem to rule out that possibility. The other common form of
corruption is saving to a floppy disk or some other unsuitable removable
media - though I don't see why the result would be a document comprising all
one character: normally using a floppy destroys the document so that it is
unrecognisable.

Without more clues it is going to be difficult to diagnose the problem. I
can only suggest that if this happens again that you try to think back to
what may have occurred on the previous day which could have had a bearing on
this. Of course, if you have some other form of storage (CD-R) make a back
up of your document files regularly.

Terry

I've kept and regularly updated Norton Antivirus on this
system since it was purchased. No viruses are detected by
a scan of the system by that software.

For this reason, it seems unusual to conclude it is the
work of a virus.

In addition, not all .doc files are so affected -- very
few actually! This is not to say, however, that the loss
is trivial.

Will the automatic virus checking in Office 2003 eliminate
it if it is a virus and otherwise, what options do I have
to prevent it from occurring in the future?
 
D

don winiecki

Thanks for your comments Terry,

The computer on which this occurs is, in fact, a
standalone notebook computer. I often move files using CD-
RW to another machine at work.

No other computers I use have produced the symptoms
described here. All other computer I use have the same
operating system (WinXP-Pro), word processor (Word
2002/XP) and antivirus system (Norton Antivirus v7.6...).

_don
 
T

TF

Don

Well I wish I could be more help but I can only suggest monitoring this and
see if you can find that missing clue.

Terry

Thanks for your comments Terry,

The computer on which this occurs is, in fact, a
standalone notebook computer. I often move files using CD-
RW to another machine at work.

No other computers I use have produced the symptoms
described here. All other computer I use have the same
operating system (WinXP-Pro), word processor (Word
2002/XP) and antivirus system (Norton Antivirus v7.6...).

_don
 
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