A very urgent question for many users is how to recover a damaged word document, or how to recover a lost document. I think everyone had such a problem as losing a document. For example, you typed something important in the program, there was a failure, Microsoft Word crashed (closed), and after opening you do not find anything, or the document does not open at all. To prevent this from happening in the future, I have prepared an article where I will show you what you can use in order to restore a damaged version of a document.

How to repair a damaged Word document?

Let's say you tried to run a document file and saw the following error message.

This error already contains several recommendations from which you can understand what to do, for example, make sure that there is enough disk space, whether you have permission to use the document and edit it.

In this case, we can return the document using Word itself. Just open the icon of this program to start Word, and then go to the left to the item "Open" and select the item "Overview".

In the explorer that opens, look for the document you want to open, click on it once so that its name appears in the field "File name"... Then you select the item from the drop-down menu "Recover text from any file" and click "Open".

If the document is very voluminous and you have applied many design styles, then it is not always successfully restored. Sometimes part of the text disappears, or there is text, but without formatting styles. The main thing, of course, is to restore the integrity of the document.

How to recover a Word document [Method two]

From the above, it is clear that the first method does not always help, although it is worth using it. Let's move on to the next method.

Open Microsoft Word again and go to the File menu, then "Open" and the button "Overview"... Find the damaged document and click on it. Then click on the arrow where the "Open" button is and select the option there "Open and restore".

How do I restore a Word backup?

Sometimes a file can get lost, you cannot find it anywhere. In this case, the program usually creates backup copies of the document, in order to open it you need to proceed as follows:

Open Word and go to the "Open" section, then click on "Browse". Remember where you saved the document and navigate to that folder. In the pop-up tab, select "All files", look for the lost document. Focus on the name and date. Sometimes such a document may be called "Backup copy ...".

In case of failure, you can go the other way. Open the search field in Windows and enter the extension of the backup copy of Word files - * .wbk. It is more likely that such a file will open, but the point is that it may not be one and the names may not match, so you will have to open and watch each one.

Autosave in Word, or how to recover a saved copy of a document

Usually the program automatically creates backups of the document after a certain period of time. They are usually found along the following path: C: \ Users \ Username \ AppData \ Roaming \ Microsoft \ Word.

Autosaved document names can start with the word "Autocopy ...", and the format of such files will be * .asd... To open such a file, you need to double-click on it.

Bonus option - a program for recovering Word files

I myself have never been interested in third-party Word recovery programs, but they can help if none of the above methods helped. I can cite the Hetman Office Recovery program as an example. The utility, unfortunately, is paid, perhaps there are analogues that I will add to this article. To use Hetman Office Recovery, you just need to install it on your computer and check the disk for lost and damaged documents.

The program will find documents and show them in its window with real names. If you want to restore something, you select them with checkmarks, then the matter is small.

Business solutions

If using the online recovery service is not possible, you can download one of the following OfficeRecovery.com utilities:

In addition to the ability to recover information at home, they also provide unlimited options for recovering a large number of files, professional support and many other options useful to corporate users.

Video Tutorial for OfficeRecovery Online Service

About OfficeRecovery Online File Recovery Service

OfficeRecovery Online is the latest cloud-based service that dramatically reduces the time from file corruption detection to full recovery.

The service provides a simple form for uploading a damaged file for recovery. After downloading, the processing usually lasts from several seconds to several minutes, after which the user is offered paid and free options for downloading the recovery results.

Many file formats are supported, including Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Access databases, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG, and RAW images.

Also, users can discuss file corruption and recovery problems on facebook integrated into the service.

To recover a file that is not yet supported by Online Recovery, please use the downloadable utility from the OfficeRecovery site.

OfficeRecovery Online File Repair Description

Corrupted data are files that suddenly become unusable and cannot be opened with the program in which they were created. There are a number of reasons why a file might be damaged. And in some cases, it is possible to fix and restore the damaged file.

If your file has accidentally become corrupt / inaccessible for opening with the original software, don't despair! You no longer need to buy expensive software to repair just one corrupted file. OfficeRecovery Online introduces a brand new online service to help you instantly recover a corrupted file. All you need to do is simply download the damaged file using a browser, evaluate the quality of the demo recovery results and choose the solution that suits you best.

OfficeRecovery Online offers free / gratuit and paid options to get full recovery results. The free option assumes that full results can be received absolutely free of charge within 14-28 days. All you have to do is simply sign up for free results after the recovery process is complete. If you need to get the repaired file right now, instantly you just need to choose the paid option instead of the free one.

What if no data to recover detected in your file? You can order a non-refundable analysis of your file by our experienced technical team. In some cases, data recovery is only possible manually.

So, let's consider a standard situation that very often arises for an ordinary user: you accidentally deleted photos, videos, music and documents from your family archive; remembered them six months later; did not panic - we used the information recovery tools Hetman Partition Recovery (or, as a last resort, pc inspector file recovery), and got our images back; but one of the most important files is damaged! Now let's try to save him.

Hetman File Repair will be able to successfully recover files of graphic formats - digital photos and pictures even after the logical structure of an object is violated due to a virus attack. The program is easy to use, fast and efficient.

If you also have problems with the video, we advise HD Video Repair Utility- it understands different types of files and is made in an understandable language for a simple "user". Utility "one-button" - you clicked "open file", selected an object, waited and you can enjoy viewing.

Has no analogues in decoding broken office documents Recovery toolbox for Word. It is noteworthy that the result is displayed in the program window, i.e., the text from the document. This means that the only inconvenience in the free version is the need to copy it to a new sheet every time.

All applications reviewed made a positive impression. Each is worthy of attention, but a couple of the most interesting, in our opinion, are as follows.

All Media Fixer- the program supports different methods of recovering media files, is a good all-in-one tool for photos, videos and music. Of course, it saves from the impossibility of opening by banal overwriting of faulty fragments with normalization of the object structure, but almost all analogs work in this way.

MP3val- a very small but very remote utility. The program carries out editing of MP3 metadata and elimination of micro-crashes on audio tracks. After it, even the most "capricious player" and car radio will open files, and most importantly, breaks on songs, interruptions with switching to the next track, tags in "Albany" and other unpleasant things will disappear.

AnyReader designed to recover data lost on a scratched disk, faulty flash drive, HDD, or on a network with an unstable connection. Unlike standard OS tools or file managers, a single error will not interrupt the process. AnyReader will sequentially read each sector until it can save the file with minimal loss of quality.

IsoBuster, in addition to decrypting music and films from CD / DVD, he knows how to work with images, which will be highly appreciated by administrators. Here's a trivial situation - an ISO-packed backup archive was damaged during a system crash, and the recovery utility does not read it. To remedy the situation, you just need to "cure" the object using the menu in the interface of the IsoBuster program itself. Now the image of the disk, other drives or folders will work.

We have tried to take into account all typical situations and provide answers to most of your questions. But if they remain or you disagree with the opinion of the editorial board, welcome to the comments on the post!

To understand what a damaged file is, let us first consider what an intact file is, i.e. holistic.

An integral file consists of blocks written to some kind of data carrier. For simplicity, any medium will be referred to as a “disk” later in this article. Keep in mind that the fundamental principles of file storage are similar across disks, flash drives, CD / DVDs, and many other devices, so when we talk about “disk,” we're really talking about a wide class of devices.

A complete file is located on disk in the form of blocks, as shown in Fig. 1. When reading a file, the blocks that make up the file are compiled in a certain sequence, and the result is an image of the file in memory, ready for processing by the program. This is how most of the files that we use every day are opened - Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, pictures and everything else.

The attentive reader will notice that the blocks that make up the file are located in different places on the disk. This is an important factor in big influence both for damage and subsequent recovery of files.

Rice. 1. Integral file

Damaged file

A damaged file is a file that has undergone erroneous changes to its internal structure and data. As a result of such changes, the file becomes unusable or unsatisfactory for use.

Damage can be both critical, when the user completely loses access to the data, and partial, when only part of the data is lost, but access to the rest, untouched by the damage, part of the information remains.

An example of critical damage is a situation when a file cannot be opened / recognized by the original application in which it was created. If the application does not handle such situations strictly enough, the result may be a critical error (“crash”) of the application that tried to open the damaged file.

The main causes of file corruption

Here are the main causes of file corruption:

• Disk failure
• Impact on a file of a virus or antivirus
• Application errors
• User actions

Let's consider each of these factors separately and illustrate the most typical examples.

Recovering files after deleting from disk

Have you ever encountered a situation when, after clearing disk space, something needed was deleted along with unnecessary information?

In such cases, you usually have to resort to using utilities to recover deleted data. These applications work with the file system directly and, if information about the file has not been completely cleared from the system, restore the file to a greater or lesser extent. But pitfalls are possible here.

First, new data could have been written in place of an accidentally deleted file if you were actively working with the disk after deleting files. The reason is that the system uses the space freed up after deleting files for new data.

Another common case is the inability to completely recover the block sequence of a deleted file. In this case, applications, using internal algorithms, try to select the supposed blocks related to the files, which does not always bring the expected result.

Summarizing the possible damage when restoring files after deletion, the following typical problems can be distinguished:

• Part of the file is overwritten with new data.
• It was possible to restore part of the original file, but blocks that were not related to it were mistakenly assigned to the file. The illustration shows this file corruption situation.

Rice. 2. File recovered after deletion

Tips in case you need to recover deleted files:

• If you are not very competent, seek help from specialists.
• Stop immediately any operations with the disk where the deleted files were located;
• Use the utility to recover deleted files.
• Be prepared that deleted files may need further “disinfection” with OfficeRecovery programs and services.

Disk failure

There are often situations when problems arise in the operation of the carrier itself. A disk is a collection of blocks for storing data (in this article we use the abstract term "block" instead of the more specific "sector", "cluster", "track", etc.). Over time, when using the media, situations are possible when some of the blocks become unusable for further use and the data that was there before the failure becomes inaccessible.

It is especially unpleasant when data related to important files were stored in corrupted blocks. In this case, errors occur both when trying to read and when trying to write. It manifests itself like this: let's say that part of your Word document is stored in a damaged block. When Microsoft Word tries to open a file, it tries to read this piece from the disk, receives an error from the system about the impossibility of performing an operation, as a result, the word processor issues a message about the impossibility of opening the file.

If the file can still be read from disk, ignoring the bad blocks, it will have the damage shown in Figure 3.

Rice. 3. File from damaged disk

Tips for recovering files from a damaged disk:

• If the disk is damaged fragmentarily, some of the files can be read from it without damage.
• Files that are unlucky enough to be written into bad blocks need to be extracted using special utilities, and they will almost certainly require further treatment.

Impact of a virus or antivirus

Possible causes of data corruption can also be the effects of viruses and erroneous operation of antiviruses.

A detailed description of viruses and their types is beyond the scope of this article. But it is worth noting that some types of viruses can deliberately overwrite user files with garbage data in order to harm. Many viruses also do this in the course of their "propagation", writing parts of files with their service data of distribution on the user's computer and other machines, as well as for camouflage purposes.

If by definition we don't expect anything good from a virus, how does it happen that the source of damage is antivirus? Generally speaking, the principle of operation of the antivirus is reduced to reading the contents of a file and searching in a sequence of byte strings (“signatures”) characteristic of viruses known to it. Situations are not excluded when user data can be mistakenly interpreted as a virus chain and cut from the file for security purposes. Although antivirus algorithms have recently undergone significant improvements, such situations are possible from time to time. In fig. 4 shows a generalized view of the file after being damaged by a virus.

Please note that virus / antivirus damage is not disk related. From the point of view of location on disk and reading from it, the file is fine. Damage zones do not coincide with the boundaries of blocks on the disk, but there can be either fewer or more blocks.

Rice. 4. Damage to the file as a result of the activity of a virus, antivirus or due to an error in the program

Application errors

A common factor in user data corruption is a bug in the application used to view and edit files. This factor can bring problems both independently and together with other factors (power outages, the impact of antivirus on the application, insufficient RAM). Problems almost always arise when changes are saved to a file.

Here is a typical scenario: in Photoshop, a volumetric image was edited, significant edits were made, then when trying to save the changes, the application crashes for one reason or another. The file is partially written and thus damaged. When trying to open the saved image again, the application cannot cope with this, since the internal structure is not integral.

This is just one example of potential causes of application crashes. In this case, the “clinical picture” of damage is close to what can be seen with damage by viruses / antiviruses. To get an idea of ​​it, see fig. 4.

• If there is a single case of damage, then it is almost impossible to get to the bottom of the cause of the failure. Too many factors and their combinations can lead to error. As a preventative measure, make an out-of-order backup of your data.
• If damage occurs regularly, then it is worth considering under what circumstances it occurs. To get rid of the problem, you have to look in several directions. Enter the error messages that are given to you in the search engine - often along with the description of the error, you will find its solution. Update the program that corrupts files. Install operating system updates.
• Damaged files can be recovered using special utilities.

User actions

User actions can also damage files. A striking example is the disconnection of a flash drive from a computer at a time when all the accumulated changes are not recorded on it. This is how you get broken documents, spoiled photos.

We are not inclined to blame users for damage, considering situations such as described more as imperfections in computer systems.

Here are a couple of simple tips for users:

• If possible, never edit files located on media that can be easily disconnected from the computer (flash drives, external drives, etc.). Use these devices only for transporting data, and before editing, copy the files to a stationary disk on your computer.
• Use the OS's Safely Remove feature if available for the removable media. This will allow the system to write data that is in the system write buffer to the media.
• Do not click “Yes”, “OK”, etc., without understanding exactly what the program or system is asking you. This could be a request to delete your sensitive information.

How to recover damaged files

At the end of the article, let's say a few words about how to restore corrupted data, and what criteria should be presented to the results of recovery.

The key to recovering user data is understanding the internal structure of each file type that needs to be fixed. After analyzing the damaged file, the remaining intact / undamaged user data is consolidated into a new integral file. The data that was overwritten, alas, cannot be restored.

Damaged data recovery applications work according to the following scheme:

• The damaged file is analyzed based on the knowledge of the data format.
• If possible, the corrupted overhead is corrected to allow access to the maximum amount of user data.
• If the file storage structure allows, then heuristic algorithms for finding lost data are launched. Lost data is understood as information to which, as a result of service data corruption, links in the file were lost.
• The extracted user data is added to a re-created file in the original or related formats.

What to expect from the results of file recovery? Each file corruption is unique in its own way and affects the amount of data that can be recovered. If the service data irrelevant for recovery is damaged in a file, then we can often talk about one hundred percent recovery of user information. If a piece of important information is overwritten, then it is possible to recover only the data that remained intact in the process of damage.

Often users do not understand this fact and expect to receive their file in its original form after recovery. Unfortunately, this almost never happens.

When assessing the quality of recovery, it is recommended to focus on whether data for further use has been recovered from a file. If this is the case, then the restoration should be considered successful, since it has already saved time and effort in recreating the original set of information.

OfficeRecovery Utilities recovers data from over 50 different file types, from Word and Excel to Exchange and Oracle. If you're experiencing file corruption, please try the OfficeRecovery programs and services. The company's specialists are also always ready to work on complex special projects for corporate data recovery.

OfficeRecovery software.

Excel is a program that is included in the Microsoft Office package and is needed to create, edit and view documents. The main purpose of Excel is to work with graphs, charts and tables, but you can also recycle other objects. There is a version of the program for a stationary computer, as well as for mobile devices and an online analogue. In the process, you can create multi-page documents (Excel workbooks) that are saved as an independent file in one of the popular extensions or remain in the cloud storage if you use OneDrive.

First of all, you need to configure the automatic saving of all changes in the document.

All programs from Microsoft Office have a function of automatic saving of changes. This is necessary in order not to lose the progress in the document, if the user forgets to click "Save", a power failure or computer breakdown occurs. Thus, if a problem occurs, you can revert to an older version, and you do not have to restore everything manually. In addition, you can recover data from a damaged or unsaved document using third-party methods:

• Online services;
• Downloadable programs.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to restore data if you forgot to save the changes or a failure occurred. Therefore, it is best to prevent loss of information.

The easiest way to do this is to set a smaller autosave interval:

1. Click on "File";
2. Select the link "Options";
3. Open the "Save" tab;
4. In the "Saving Documents" area, make sure that the item "Autosave every" is activated;
5. Set a small interval so that the computer has a better chance of saving data from loss in case you forget to save it or if there are system failures;
6. Click OK.

Another option to help you avoid losing your data is to use Excel OneDrive. It is a Microsoft platform that organizes cloud storage of information. Working in OneDrive, the user not only does not lose data if he forgets to save it or if a failure occurs, but also does not lose the document itself on an electronic computer. The service periodically saves progress in the background, and they are located on a virtual disk. You can use OneDrive spreadsheets or sync your Excel with it.

The third way is to use the "Change history" function. In order to access the list of versions, you must enable this feature in advance:

1. Click on the "Review" tab;
2. In the Tracking group, select Fixes.

If the command is not available, you need to disable file protection. In "Review" - "Protect" click "Restrict Editing", then disable protection (if a password is set on the file, you will have to enter it).

Recover data with Excel functions

The 2010 version of Excel has new features. It has become easier to recover information if it has not been saved, or a failure has occurred. New features include the emergence of tools for undoing changes that were made by accident, synchronization with the online storage, the ability to use Excel on mobile devices, and more.

Recovering an unsaved file

Before attempting to retrieve data from an unsaved document, make sure it was created. It is impossible to restore a file that has not entered the system - such a table will have to be done again manually. To avoid canceling the creation, periodically press the "Save" button or set the automatic function.

Before closing the Excel spreadsheet, a notification will be displayed prompting you to save the changes to the document. If the file has already been created, you can recover the data even after clicking "Do not save". This also happens when a program, computer or power supply fails. A copy of the most recent version of the document will be available for recovery. In order to return to it, you need to find a backup:

1. Open the Excel workbook you are having problems with;
2. Click on "File", go to "Details";
3. Run the function "Recover unsaved books".

After you click on the last button, the program itself will display on the monitor a list of document versions that you can refer to. You can view the contents of each and decide which one you want - usually the most recent one. This function can be accessed more easily: click on "File", then select "Recent".

Remember that the storage period for the draft version of the file is 4 days - then they are simply deleted. Therefore, restore should be done as quickly as possible after you discover that you have lost your changes. Drafts also disappear, if later you edit the file, saving the progress, the program considers that they are no longer needed.

As a rule, when starting a document that has not been saved, Excel shows a window where you can select one of the latest draft versions. Choose the copy that contains the most data, as well as the most current. If it was not possible to return them partially or completely, then it will never work - you will have to fill in the table again.

Recovering unwanted changes

If you have entered data that is not needed in the table and want to restore the previous version, try:

• Press Ctrl + Z one or more times. This combination undoes the last action and can make the table look like it did some time ago. The function will not work if the document was closed and opened - then the information from the buffer is deleted.
• Find previous versions of a document using a function that is now available in Excel 2010 and later. Click "File" - "Details", then use "File history" if the option is enabled. You will most likely be able to revert the archived version.
• Find copies of the document itself in the state in which it was before the change. It may have its counterpart on a portable device, in your downloads folder, or elsewhere.

Recovering a file damaged before saving

If an application, file, computer, or power source crashes while working with an Excel spreadsheet, it may be "corrupted." For example, the document will stop opening or show incorrect data. To restore it you need:

1. Open Excel, follow the path "File" - "Open" - "Open and Restore";
2. Select one of the versions, as is done in the case of unsaved changes;
3. Apply it and save progress.

Perhaps, during the specified option, some information will be lost that was added later.

Recovering a replaced file

If the file has been replaced by another, it usually fails to return its contents. You can prevent the situation by backing up - for example, using the "File History", which is available in Windows 7 and higher.

You can also try the Ctrl + Z key combination - it may work if the computer has not restarted. Then the original file will return to its place, and the new version will be deleted. Use this option more carefully, as sometimes you may need both versions of the document. If so, give them different names.

Data recovery using online services

In some cases, the functionality of Excel itself is not enough to return the file to its previous form. Then you can exploit free and paid programs on the world wide web - they do not need to be downloaded. With their help, you can restore more complex defects in documents.

There are situations when the document was saved, but does not open or does it incorrectly. This means that the information that it contains has been damaged, but Excel displays it incompletely or incorrectly. Files of this kind can be restored by uploading them to Office Recovery, a partially free online program from Microsoft that analyzes and, if possible, returns a document to a working state. For this:

1. Open your internet browser;
2. Go to the official Office Recovery service page (online.officerecovery.com/ru/);
3. Click on "Select file" and download the damaged Excel workbook;
4. Then click "Safe Boot and Restore" - the service itself will determine the format of the document, the type of problem and the option to solve it;
5. Download the final file (you can do this for free by writing a recommendation about the service).

The specified method allows you to recover not all problems with documents. For example, it is powerless when the data in the Excel workbook has been completely rewritten and then saved.

An alternative option would be to recycle Online Recovery from Munsoft. The services have similar functionality, but the second lacks the possibility of free work. To use it, go to onlinerecovery.munsoft.com/ru, upload the required document by clicking on "Select", and then carry out the recovery. You will be redirected to a screen where you can purchase paid access.

Data recovery using downloadable software

There are several ways to recover a damaged Excel document or get data back from it. This is done using various downloadable programs. All of them have broader functionality than online services. In addition, there are completely free utilities.

Using Recuva

Recuva is a completely free program that has good functionality for recovering deleted, lost or damaged data. Most often it is used by users who could not achieve the desired result using the Excel options. Its capabilities and advantages include data recovery from formatted and damaged media, deleted messages in mail services and music in digital players, folder structure and unsaved Microsoft Office documents. The free version of Recuva is enough to recover files - damaged or lost. More advanced options do not affect recovery in any way.

Algorithm of actions:

1. Run the program, select the file type ("Documents" for an Excel workbook);
2. Specify the path of the file location - the more precise it is, the easier it will be to find the document in the list;
3. Click "Next", then "Start" - a menu will appear in which you need to select a file;
4. Recover it by saving it to a different location.

Also, in some cases, it is more efficient to save in a different format.

Using Repair Excel Free

It is a free and efficient application for working with many extensions. The program supports Excel documents and can repair damaged workbooks. It is very easy to dispose of:

1. Open Excel and click "File" - "Open";
2. Select the damaged document;
3. In the same window, click on “Open and repair” in the drop-down menu.

Usually this program returns all data even from a damaged document.

Using ExcelFIX

The most popular and powerful, but at the same time expensive utility for working with lost and defective Excel files. It solves problems with documents that cannot be opened on a PC - it restores all kinds of objects in a book of any format. The demo version of Excel FIX allows you to view the recovered file, but does not allow you to download it.

Outcome

Most Excel users find themselves in a situation where they need to recover an unsaved or damaged document. There are several ways to do this, which differ in complexity and functionality. It is recommended that you first try to recover the document through Excel, and then switch to third-party programs, including paid ones.