That Danny!
How to repair a corrupted Microsoft Word file that would not open?
“Corrupted Word files” refers to files that you tried to open in Word, and couldn’t for some reason. Sometimes you would get a message that they are corrupted, whereas other times Word would simply say that it can’t open them.
Follow these steps:
1. Check that the corrupted Word file name is in the format “name.doc” (where name is the name of your file, then a dot (“.”) then the extension “doc”. For example danny.doc. If it isn’t, right click on the file, select “Rename” and change the file’s name to this format.
2. Some newer versions of Word (e.g. Microsoft Word 2007) have a repair option. To see if yours does, open Word, select File–> Open, choose the corrupted file (but don’t open it yet). You will notice that next to where it says “Open”, there is a little drop-down arrow. Click on this and change the option to “Open and Repair”, then click on it.
3. If the above didn’t work, the next option (which usually works) is to open your corrupted Word file with Open Office – a free office suite that is compatible with Microsoft Word documents. Here’s how:
-
- Download Open Office from OpenOffice.org – it’s completely free, but is a big download, so will take some time, depending on your connection speed.
- Click on the downloaded file to install it and follow the installation wizard.
- From your Program Files menu open “Openoffice.org Writer” (Go to Start–> Programs–> Openoffice.org –> openoffice.org Writer)
- Now use Openoffice Writer to open your corrupted file (File–>Open)
- Once opened, save it again using File–> Save As and ensure you change the “Save as type” in the menu to Microsoft Word 97/2000/xp (or the version that you have).
- Open your reclaimed file in Word.
4. Still no luck? The next step is to use the free WordRepair utility as a last resort. It was free at the time of writing, and does a good job of opening corrupted Word files, but you lose all your formatting, and hence it is the last on this list.
If all the above didn’t work, it is likely that your file is in a really bad way. If you are a business and it is business critical, then there are professionals who may be able to help. If your corrupted file is encrypted or password protected, then your changes are lessened still.
Good luck!
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Where is fine tool-repair docx file, is a program to fix doc files, can repair docx file of Microsoft Office 2007, repair word files through network, can solve next errors: Word unable to read file, .doc file is not in the recognizable format, Word 2007 unable to read file docx, Word cannot access read-only document, cannot read word file because corrupted, Microsoft word this file is not in a recognizable format.
from what i’m seeing, every time i get to like 40 something pages on the story i’m writing, the file goes AWOL and says file cannot be found, try one or more of the following. check spelling or try different file name.
plus.
http://socrtwo.info/word_repair.htm – this page lists 13 free and freeware ways to recover WOrd doc files and 15 ways to recover docx ones for free. My free services at saveofficedata.com, is temporarily suspended. I may go back to hosting it for free…Also some of the software I listed at http://godskingsandheroes/software I recently made into shareware, but I might switch back again. The titles are however available on CNET for instance still for free.
none of the above works for me what else can i do?:((
Jay,
Try the commercial corrupt Word Repair [program demos to see if any work. A list of commercial corrupt file repair program vendors is here: http://www.s2services.com/corrupt-file-commercialware.htm. You can also send me the file at socrtwo@s2services.com. I charge $22 but only if successful. There are commercial services too to at: http://www.s2services.com/corrupt-file-services.htm. They may charge a bit more.
ahh it still doesnt work thanks anywayss:)
yeah, thanks, this helped me more than the microsoft website did
Thanks a lot…
I hv tried step 1-4 and now I’m pretty sure I can’t repair my file :(
It opened …from the pulldown “open and repair” next to the open button of the dialog box.
thanks very much! :)
Thank u very much 4 the information…. it works. :-)
im freaking out my 3 page essay for social studies isnt workin i downloaded the openoffice and nothing i tried opening it but it didnt say anything about it being corrupted the page just remained blank what does that mean?! the essay is due tomorrow and i have already re typed it three times and all three times it said it was corrupted and i saved it everytime as a completely new file. what do i do to get it back?
Jessi,
Look here:
http://socrtwo.info/word_repair.htm
http://www.s2services.com/corrupt-file-commercialware.htm
http://www.s2services.com/corrupt-file-services.htm
Seeing you are a student, you can also send me the file and I will try to fix it for free. My E-Mail is socrtwo@s2services.com.
I have a 2 page report, but once I opened it with OpenOffice, it was all in wierd writting (like so: lôèkXÆi±€##Ò?ú?I%?ÿÓô) and there is about 1375 pages. This is bad cause it’s due next week.
Help?
Thanks for the advice. I was struggling to open a 40 page document that I had written up on a very tight deadline. Managed to get it open after downloading OpenOffice. I would’ve been really messed up if I had lost all that work!
i cant seem to open my homework which is very important :(
, when i click on my essay (done in Microsoft word 2007) it keeps saying ‘the document economic essay.docx’ caused a serious error the last time i was opened.would you like to continue opening it? so i clicked yes and another box opened saying ‘the file cannot be opened because there are problems with the content’ :( plz help
Jamil,
Try downloading this free application and open the file in Safe Mode:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/corruptexcelrec/
Otherwise go over this document which is a fairly exhaustive list of steps for recovering Word files here: http://socrtwo.info/word_repair.htm. The docx section is further down the page.
You can also try to recover an older, deleted or temporary version by right clicking on the file in Explorer, choosing ”Properties” and then choosing the “Previous versions” tab if you have it.
Additionally these two commercial programs will scour your hard drive for temporary and deleted versions of the file, perhaps recovering the document:
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/ - search for both doc and docx files. It looks like the extension might have been wrong and it wasn’t docx in reality.
http://www.dposoft.net/word.html?abstradrome - try Word Regenerator trial first here and if it works purchase it with this link because I get a referral fee:-): http://goo.gl/jgXEJ
Most of the suggestions listed here are for free ways to recover file. However you may need to resort to the last two commercial solutions mentioned or those you can find by searching Google or Bing for word corruption recovery.
Good luck. This is a frustrating problem I know.