damaged file

[Rich Vellinga]

I closed and saved and excel file and came to open it the next day. I
got an "unable to read file" message. Being that this is a very
important document I am wondering if someone could help me with
how to retrieve the data or what even happened. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi Rich,

You don't mention what version of Excel you are using on what version of
what computer operating system, so all I can suggest are some very general
troubleshooting steps.

Try opening the file a different way. If you were double-clicking, try using
File > Open.

Try copying the file to a different computer and see if it opens there.

Try opening the file in a different version of Excel.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

All responses should be made to this newsgroup within the same thread.
Thanks.

About Microsoft MVPs:
http://www.mvps.org/

Search for help with the free Google search Excel add-in:
<http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm>

 

[Ron Nelson]

I had the same thing happen to me after I update the excel ver. 10.1.5.
I have tried to copy the file to another computer with an older version
of Excel and I still get the unable to read error message. Any other
ideas or fixes?

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi

Norton Utilties has a file recovery feature that might help you recover an
older version of the file if it has not been overwritten.

Head to http://www.versiontracker.com or http://www.download.com/ and look
for some version tracking software. There's a lot available at very
reasonable prices.

You can also turn on Excel's automatic backup feature. When you use Save As
click options and check the box to automatically create a backup.

The last two suggestions won't restore your file, but make help you in the
future.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

All responses should be made to this newsgroup within the same thread.
Thanks.

About Microsoft MVPs:
http://www.mvps.org/

Search for help with the free Google search Excel add-in:
<http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm>

----------

 

[J.E. McGimpsey]

I had the same thing happen to me after I update the excel ver. 10.1.5.
I have tried to copy the file to another computer with an older version
of Excel and I still get the unable to read error message. Any other
ideas or fixes?

First, did you repair disk permissions after the update:

OS 10.2.x: Run the Disk Utility (in the ./Applications/Utilities
folder). From the First Aid tab, click "Repair Disk Permissions".

OS 10.1.5: Run Repair Privileges (same folder, or download from
Apple: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106900

If your document is really corrupted, Win XL02 has an advanced
algorithm for recovering corrupted files. If you have access to
XL02, you could try that.

Open Office (http://openoffice.org) has opened files for me that XL
(both Win and Mac versions) wouldn't. Open Office runs on the X11
platform (http://www.apple.com/macosx/x11/) and is not trivial to
install, but instructions are on the OO site.

 

[D. Austin]

I have the same thing happen also, I discovered it was with files that were
created in a older ver. of XL and were just modified in OS X. The other
common characteristic was that the workbook used a lot lookup tables. I
have learn from past headaches that I only modify this file in a classic
version of XL. I have also tried some the fixes listed below and none of
them saved my file. I just had to restore a backup and redo all my labors.