WORD 2000 documents not readable anymore ???

H

Hans Pesata

Hi!

I had to reinstall a friends computer due to a virus problem and
I installed WINDOWS 2000 Professional.
I didnt format the hard-disc so her word-documents werde still there.
I installed Office 2000 but whens she now tries to open her documents, WORD
just displays boxes and rectangles instead of characters.

how can I fix this ?
maybe she has had another language/font in the system before I reinstalled
it ?
how can I find out what to use/install so she can read her documents again ?

any help with this would be greatly appreciated,
thanx in advance!

best regards,
Hans Pesata
 
T

TF

Hans

You were too late: the virus has already destroyed her documents. I hope
that the user now has a good up-to-date Anti Virus Utility installed?



: Hi!
:
: I had to reinstall a friends computer due to a virus problem and
: I installed WINDOWS 2000 Professional.
: I didnt format the hard-disc so her word-documents werde still there.
: I installed Office 2000 but whens she now tries to open her documents,
WORD
: just displays boxes and rectangles instead of characters.
:
: how can I fix this ?
: maybe she has had another language/font in the system before I reinstalled
: it ?
: how can I find out what to use/install so she can read her documents again
?
:
: any help with this would be greatly appreciated,
: thanx in advance!
:
: best regards,
: Hans Pesata
:
: ------------------------------------------------------
:
: My eMail-address has been changed due to spam.
: eMail-replies can be sent to [email protected]
:
:
:
:
:
:
 
H

Hans Pesata

Hi Terry!
You were too late: the virus has already destroyed her documents. I hope
that the user now has a good up-to-date Anti Virus Utility installed?
Click to expand...

Thanx for your reply!

I am not quite sure if it really was a virus, the PC didnt start anymore.
I reinstalled WIN2000 and Office2000 and did a full scan with AntiVir,
which didnt find any infected files ?!

I also was not able to import her Outlook Express files.
OE didnt find any messages with the .DBX files.

she now has a McAfee virus software running.

which virus destroys WORD and Outlook Express files ?

best regards,
Hans
 
T

TF

Hans

There's a whole load of viruses that destroy the document contents without
destroying the structure - so both Windows and Word see the documents as
though they are document. Whilst the file structure remains intact, the
actual contents are replaced with rubbish - usually predominantly square
boxes. I didn't know it did the same to .dbx files though, but if it can
destroy Office files, why not Outlook files too.

To see if it is the result of the virus, copy a couple of her documents and
try to open them on another PC with Word. If it exhibits the same problem,
then it was a virus that did it.

Terry


: Hi Terry!
:
: > You were too late: the virus has already destroyed her documents. I hope
: > that the user now has a good up-to-date Anti Virus Utility installed?
:
: Thanx for your reply!
:
: I am not quite sure if it really was a virus, the PC didnt start anymore.
: I reinstalled WIN2000 and Office2000 and did a full scan with AntiVir,
: which didnt find any infected files ?!
:
: I also was not able to import her Outlook Express files.
: OE didnt find any messages with the .DBX files.
:
: she now has a McAfee virus software running.
:
: which virus destroys WORD and Outlook Express files ?
:
: best regards,
: Hans
:
:
:
 
H

Hans Pesata

Hi Terry!
To see if it is the result of the virus, copy a couple of her documents and
try to open them on another PC with Word. If it exhibits the same problem,
then it was a virus that did it.
Click to expand...

When I open a document on another PC using in Office XP, WORD asks me which
kind of codepage I want to use for it,
it suggests Windows (Standard). I see a lot of wired characters and
sometimes sentences appear like "run in DOS mode."
I tried different codepages but it was always the same

best regards,
Hans
 
T

TF

Hans

That confirms that the documents were all destroyed by the virus.

Terry

: Hi Terry!
:
: > To see if it is the result of the virus, copy a couple of her documents
: and
: > try to open them on another PC with Word. If it exhibits the same
problem,
: > then it was a virus that did it.
:
: When I open a document on another PC using in Office XP, WORD asks me
which
: kind of codepage I want to use for it,
: it suggests Windows (Standard). I see a lot of wired characters and
: sometimes sentences appear like "run in DOS mode."
: I tried different codepages but it was always the same
:
: best regards,
: Hans
:
:
 
H

Hans Pesata

Hi!

thanx for all the helpful replies!

I looked at the documents with a hex-editor and could see that the content
was overwritten with nulls ...

best regards,
Hans
 
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