Opening Corrupt Excel files

Sometimes one gets unlucky and a file is corrupted. This may result in the file not opening at all or in error messages during opening.

Here are some options to try and open a corrupt file or retrieve information out of it.

Set calculation to manual( Open Excel, Choose Tools, Options from the menu, click the Calculation tab and choose Manual. Hit OK. Now try to open the file.
Open the file, but disable macros (assuming you've set macro security to medium: Tools, Macro, security)
As soon as you've clicked the disable macros button, press control-pageup or control-pagedown, thus changing sheets. Sometimes the corruption is inside a chart on a specific sheet, changing the sheet to another may prevent a crash, enabling you to copy the other sheets.

If that does not work, try creating a link to the file in an empty cell in a fresh workbook. Type this formula (adapt path, filename and sheetname):

='c:\my documents\[MyFileName.xls]Sheet1'!A1

and copy right and down. This at may get you the worksheets values.

if you don't know the sheet names, omit it by entering this:

='C:\PathToFile\[MyFileName.xls]'!A1

and press enter. If XL (2000) is able to extract them, it will prompt you for a sheet name.

Sometimes the Excel viewer, Word or even Internet explorer (v5) enables you to open the file and copy information out of it.

If the file is not protected, maybe you can open it with OpenOffice (www.Openoffice.org).

Also, Excel XP and 2003 can sometimes repair XL files with trouble. Simply choose File, open, select the problem file and instead of simply hitting the "Open" button, click to the right of it on its tiny down arrow to expose more options (see screenshot below)

Finally, sometimes a corrupt file that still can be opened, can be cured using this method (Excel 2000 or up):

Open the file
Save-as filetype Webpage
Close the file
Open the html file
Save-as normal Excel workbook.

Comments

Showing last 8 comments of 113 in total (Show All Comments):

Comment by: arslan (12/29/2011 11:59:26 PM)

when im open my excel 2007 file problem shown that could not be found.check the spelling of the file name and verify that the file location is correct.

if you are trying to open the file from your list of most recently used files,make sure that the file has not been renamed,moved or deleted.

Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (12/30/2011 12:28:51 PM)

Hi Arslan,

Have a look at this page:

http://www.jkp-ads.com/articles/startupproblems.asp

Comment by: JEEVA (1/14/2012 12:48:20 AM)

WHERE IS TOOL BAR IN EXCEL? HOW TO OPEN CORRUPTED FILE?

Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (1/15/2012 11:13:35 AM)

HI JEEVA,

What Excel version are you using?

Comment by: SHIKHA BHUYAN (3/13/2012 8:10:05 PM)

sir,one of ppt file is showing an error while opening it...."The office open XML file...can't be opened coz there are problems with the contents

The file is corrupt n cnt b opnd"

Bt it opening in other pcs...is it a problem in any of my softwares??

Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (3/15/2012 2:47:25 AM)

I'm afraid the file has become corrupt and that is why Powerpoint refuses to open it. You can try to use the OPen and repair option if Powerpoint has that available (click the dropdown arrow next to the Open button in the File, Open dialog).

Comment by: Kiran (4/2/2012 3:50:48 AM)

I have written a code in VBA , there are forms as well. Actually i have done this for generating reports in excel by extracting data from SQL database. This was working properly on PC with Excel 2003. After that some softwares were installed on PC. Now on with the macros enabled and running the report , an error occurs which shows Invalid procedure call or argument and then it enters the Excel VBA code. Here on clicking the report form it gives an error- "System error &H80070057 (-2147024809). The parameter is incorrect." If the macros are disabled with notification and if then i click on an object on the form it gives an error-" Automation error. Unspecified error."

The thing is that this report is working without any problem on another PC with Excel 2003. Can i get a solution to this problem?

Thanking in advance.

Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (4/2/2012 7:57:38 AM)

Hi,

Look in Tools, References, perhaps one is marked "Missing". Usual suspect : Calendar control (unavailable to Office 2010).

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