Broken Excel File

[Pterocarpous]

A client just emailed an excel file to me she can't open.
I ran Excel Repair off of Advanced File Repair Studio 2005. No worky.
I've repaired another of her Excel files w/ this utility in the past so it's not a compatibility issue. (she keeps using floppy diskettes...)
The repair utility just says the file wasn't repaired.
Nothing worth mentioning in the log other than that.
Attached is a pic of the message I get when attempting to open the file.
I've played around w/ the attributes and security settings w/ no improvement.


I'd appreciate any help or suggestions.

TIA

[Pterocarpous]

bumpola......

[Kentigern]

I know I'm probably repeating checks you've already done :)
Could it be that some of the info contained in the file is located elsewhere, just an idea from the name of the file 'database'.
I once had one, where the guy had used an icon which was located in another folder, plus he hadn't given share rights to the main file.

[Pterocarpous]

I know I'm probably repeating checks you've already done :) Could it be that some of the info contained in the file is located elsewhere, just an idea from the name of the file 'database'. I once had one, where the guy had used an icon which was located in another folder, plus he hadn't given share rights to the main file.
Thankyou Kentigern. Any ideas are appreciated. I have a copy of the original file and to the best of my knowledge it isn't tied in w/ data from any other files. She just calls it a database - and it is one of sorts but not in the sense that we normally think of. It's just an excel file best I understand. I've messed w/ the attributes and security settings, too. Didn't help any. So I'm stumped... :confused:

[Kentigern]

Have you tried to open the file with notepad or QuickView, sometimes you can get the info that way.

Are you able to copy the file to another location, if yes this would indicate that the file is intact / not corrupted.

I have in the past changed the file extension to doc and opened in word, this sometimes works

[Pterocarpous]

...Have you tried to open the file with notepad or QuickView, sometimes you can get the info that way...Are you able to copy the file to another location, if yes this would indicate that the file is intact / not corrupted...I have in the past changed the file extension to doc and opened in word, this sometimes works...
I got really busy yesterday so didn't have time to respond 'till now. Turned out the error msg. I posted here originally was a red herring. I remoted in to her computer last night and transferred the file. Apparently the file she'd sent me via email had gotten damaged even worse. I don't know but the file I pulled off her HDD (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/h/hard_disk_drive.html) last night threw a completely different error message. Still, my Excel repair utility wasn't able to fix it.

I tried your suggestion, Kentigern, to try opening the file w/ a different application. I found I was able to open it w/ Microsoft Word. W/ a little futzing w/ the page setup, I was able to get the entire table to show up - apparently intact. I copied the table out of the Word document and pasted it into a new Excel document and viola! It worked! :bigggrin: The user squawked a bit because the formatting needed to be adjusted (row heights and column widths). :rolleyes2 In the end I convinced her she was fortunate I was able to recover the data, never mind the formatting!

So, THANKYOU, Kentigern! Great idea! I really appreciate your help!! :woowoo:

[Kentigern]

Your welcome - glad to be help :)