Word Files corrupting

a reply to: mysterioustranger

thanks

originally posted by: LoneWrecche
a reply to: chr0naut

Generally a locked file will result in the alert that the file is locked by another process, and won't open in a corrupted state.


It, from description, resembles when you undelete a file where the disc space has been over written. Corrupted data. Which is the same as a faulty hdd.


Locking the file wont let you open it at all, in general. so I'm still wondering on what medium the word files are stored. faulty cd/dvd burn? an old hdd (if 128 is the amount of ram, I'm guessing it's not 128gb) which infers an old old machine.

Another thing, if they are old word documents, newer versions may need to convert elements to be compatible and if this is the case, they may actually corrupt them on the fly. Hopefully, you've not resaved anything.


The previous advice to try an online converter makes most sense. if it is successful, you have hope

if not, you need to find an old version of word, or something that entertains the elements in the document.


backwards compatibility with M$ products can result in some unexpected results.... trust me, I have tried to open old projects I was working on years ago, and oh hell no, easier to start again than fix the issues it fixed.... Oo

Im running a PC with a HDD which it partiitioned. I've had the disc for about 2-3 years.
thanks

originally posted by: LoneWrecche
One more thought, if the machine is not old, and the documents are not corrupt, what is the extension they have?

could it be they were saved in one format, but you're opening them in another?

that would do it also.

Thats a thought, 99% of them are saved as .DOCX but a few are .DOC so i need to check that, thanks.

originally posted by: Azureblue

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: Azureblue

The 'greyed'-out' icons make me think that you might have a wrong file association which is exposing temporary files as if they were Word documents (or vice versa)?

Or, perhaps, the files are 'locked' by a process (like some sort of incompatible add-on) that is not allowing the file to close. The file system would then be unable to access the file in the file manager until Windows was restarted, which may also not work as Word itself may not be able to update the locked file & therefore it is incomplete.

Try disabling all add-ons in Word and see if that helps. If you start Word with the 'Ctrl key' held down, it starts in safe mode with no add-ons.

I can (vaguely) recall seeing something similar with an older scanning/OCR package that turned out to have lost compatibility after Word 2007. The latest version of the same scanning software had no issues at all but the interim fix was to disable the add on.

File-locking also could be an anti-virus compatibility issue, too.

Thanks for that. its just occurred that its also not uncommon to find that when hit the "Shutdown' button, it has been known to hang all night unitl the next morning. It takes some time to shut down it does shut down. It never seems to shut down farily quickly like it does when its new. I sometimes tell it to shut down by force because its hanging.

Might that have something to do with it?
thanks

Yeah, Windows caches writes to media and at shut-down should try and flush all buffers and commit all writes. If you have pending delayed writes that cannot complete, it'll really impact shut-down times. Get a hard drive test utility and see if you've got issues there. Also delayed writes appearing in the system log of event viewer are a thing of concern.

Also, don't wait until the drive fails, back up your stuff ASAP.

a reply to: Azureblue

'welcome...that sometimes works...Hope it does for you as well. And awhile back...MS seemed to switch the .doc files with the docx....still, they could be read.

Good luck

originally posted by: chr0naut

originally posted by: Azureblue

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: Azureblue

The 'greyed'-out' icons make me think that you might have a wrong file association which is exposing temporary files as if they were Word documents (or vice versa)?

Or, perhaps, the files are 'locked' by a process (like some sort of incompatible add-on) that is not allowing the file to close. The file system would then be unable to access the file in the file manager until Windows was restarted, which may also not work as Word itself may not be able to update the locked file & therefore it is incomplete.

Try disabling all add-ons in Word and see if that helps. If you start Word with the 'Ctrl key' held down, it starts in safe mode with no add-ons.

I can (vaguely) recall seeing something similar with an older scanning/OCR package that turned out to have lost compatibility after Word 2007. The latest version of the same scanning software had no issues at all but the interim fix was to disable the add on.

File-locking also could be an anti-virus compatibility issue, too.

Thanks for that. its just occurred that its also not uncommon to find that when hit the "Shutdown' button, it has been known to hang all night unitl the next morning. It takes some time to shut down it does shut down. It never seems to shut down farily quickly like it does when its new. I sometimes tell it to shut down by force because its hanging.

Might that have something to do with it?
thanks

Yeah, Windows caches writes to media and at shut-down should try and flush all buffers and commit all writes. If you have pending delayed writes that cannot complete, it'll really impact shut-down times. Get a hard drive test utility and see if you've got issues there. Also delayed writes appearing in the system log of event viewer are a thing of concern.

Also, don't wait until the drive fails, back up your stuff ASAP.

I used Hard Disc Sentinal up until a few weeks ago and it was saying it was a power thing and replace the cables (never really what cables) anysway I then used a another set of cables to connect to the hard disc and things were much better then but some Word files still keep corrupting.

What would a reasonable life expectancy of a Seagateh HDD be? I use the computer for most of the day nearly every day?

thanks

originally posted by: Azureblue

originally posted by: chr0naut

originally posted by: Azureblue

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: Azureblue

The 'greyed'-out' icons make me think that you might have a wrong file association which is exposing temporary files as if they were Word documents (or vice versa)?

Or, perhaps, the files are 'locked' by a process (like some sort of incompatible add-on) that is not allowing the file to close. The file system would then be unable to access the file in the file manager until Windows was restarted, which may also not work as Word itself may not be able to update the locked file & therefore it is incomplete.

Try disabling all add-ons in Word and see if that helps. If you start Word with the 'Ctrl key' held down, it starts in safe mode with no add-ons.

I can (vaguely) recall seeing something similar with an older scanning/OCR package that turned out to have lost compatibility after Word 2007. The latest version of the same scanning software had no issues at all but the interim fix was to disable the add on.

File-locking also could be an anti-virus compatibility issue, too.

Thanks for that. its just occurred that its also not uncommon to find that when hit the "Shutdown' button, it has been known to hang all night unitl the next morning. It takes some time to shut down it does shut down. It never seems to shut down farily quickly like it does when its new. I sometimes tell it to shut down by force because its hanging.

Might that have something to do with it?
thanks

Yeah, Windows caches writes to media and at shut-down should try and flush all buffers and commit all writes. If you have pending delayed writes that cannot complete, it'll really impact shut-down times. Get a hard drive test utility and see if you've got issues there. Also delayed writes appearing in the system log of event viewer are a thing of concern.

Also, don't wait until the drive fails, back up your stuff ASAP.

I used Hard Disc Sentinal up until a few weeks ago and it was saying it was a power thing and replace the cables (never really what cables) anysway I then used a another set of cables to connect to the hard disc and things were much better then but some Word files still keep corrupting.

What would a reasonable life expectancy of a Seagateh HDD be? I use the computer for most of the day nearly every day?

thanks

Seagate has stopped using the 'Mean Time Between Failures' (MBTF) measure and now use 'Annualized Failure Rate' (AFR), which is a percentage, not a number of hours.

Generally, HDD mechanisms across all brands have MTBF values somewhere between 300,000 to 1,200,000 hours (34.34 years to 137.36 years) powered on (Remember that these are statistical averages and some drives just die because...).

So I wouldn't suspect that you could wear-out a drive in a PC under any normal circumstances. Most PC's die after about 5 years and are rendered obsolete by new tech. way sooner.

HDD prices aren't usually as valuable as the data they contain so if a drive is suspect, it's best not to risk things.

If the software was suggesting power issues, just check that your PSU has the grunt to run all the hardware. A low power, cheaper PSU may be totally inadequate if you have fast mechanical drives, fast, older CPU's and powerful video cards.

We see corrupt errors on Office files more recently of late. One thing I've found is if protected mode is one for your Office products, then files that may have originated from an email or the web (especially if opened directly from email), will get that error. Doc is Office 2003 and earlier, and Docx is 2007 and later. If using an older version, can use a compatibility editor to open newer document types:

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack

Finally if actually corrupt, Office products have a open and repair option. Need to browse to the file location in the Office product, and then change Open to Open and repair.

A final thing you may be able to do, a trick I've used in the past, is to open a blank document, and insert the corrupt one, which often will get by whatever formatting errors are making it unable to open. You can do that from Insert > File > Text from file, and browse to the corrupt document.

Good luck!

You can reinstall Word program or I suggest to try Disk drill file recovery tool, www.cleverfiles.com... . It's a free tool , by the way. Sometimes it may be easier to just recover all available files, but it is up to you how you want to approach this process.