What's happened to my Word files!?

Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
edited February 2006 in Spyware & Virus Removal
Recently I upgraded an O/S from Windows 98 SE to Windows 2000. Since that has been done, some of the Word files are seriously messed up. They show an extension name ".PHP" instead of ".doc" and when opened they display encoded text (you know, with Page Break
and all the tiny black squares etc.)
I have tried changing the extension to .doc and got the prompt to insert Office 2000 Pro, which I did to no avail. Have tried "open with" but all that has done is change the icon to a plain white square with blue Word logo on itt (similar to what a .tmp file looks like).

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers.:cheers:

Comments

  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    Please run a VERY recently updated antivirus program. There are viruses that will corrupt Word files like that.
  • Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
    edited February 2006
    Problem is that this has been happening since the install and prior to this point the computer had not been accessing internet, emails or foreign disks etc. Also, over the last week or so I have run about 6 or 7 different anti spyware & antivirus scans because of this bloody "Spyware Strike" trojan.
    Thanks for the suggestion though, much appreciated.
    Cheers:cheers:
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2006
    This does appear to be a symptom of operating systems of any kind. I'm moving the thread to the security forums for better exposure.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited February 2006
    i have had a similar thing happen to a bunch of my files when my one of my harddrives was heading south. first files started getting corrupted, then it started emitting the painful whine of death. i backed up everything on it to other places, and pulled it from my rig.

    try an integrity scan from the hdd manufacturer and/or chdsk.
  • Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
    edited February 2006
    Thanks for your input. I have recently discovered that the person whose O/S I upgraded previously had a program called "Home Publisher", which was apparently a Microsoft product. I had never heard of it....but I reckon if I can track down a copy, it will probably solve my problem, otherwise he will have to do without the files. Thanks to all that contributed to this post!!
    :cheers:
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited February 2006
    Just a suggestion, try opening the files with notepad. You will loose all of the formating but you will possibley be able to save the content as a .txt file which you can open in word.
  • Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
    edited February 2006
    Funny you should say tht actually Rich, cos initially the files appeared as wordpad after the upgrade, cos obviosly Windows defaults to this if it can't find the software it requires. But even then it displayed the files as gobbledegook. Thanks for the suggestion though.:thumbsup:
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