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2 Docx Files I saved on a USB stick won't open


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#1
ira_gaines

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Hi there,

I've recently been accessing a number of word documents on a USB stick after the computer where they primarily were being kept died. Basically I've been opening them on other computers and making alterations and saving them on the USB stick (as opposed to on the other computers) There haven't been any problems for the past week but now I find that two of the Docx files won't open. In both cases Microsoft Office says that they can't open because there are problems with the content.

In one case it says "Equal Expected. Location: Part: /word/document.xml, Line: 2, Column: 53639"

In the other "The file is corrupt and cannot be opened".

Can these be fixed, and what could be causing this?

Many Thanks for any help.
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#2
The Admiral

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Sorry for making you wait!

Here are a couple of steps that I found that could help you restore the data from these files.


1. In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Open.
In Word 2010, click File on the Ribbon, and then click Open.
2. In the Open dialog box, click to highlight your Word document.
3. Click the arrow on the Open button, and then click Open and Repair.

If you are still unable to open the file, Word can try to pull out the raw text from the file. The "Recover Text from Any File" converter has limitations. For example, document formatting is lost. Additionally, graphics, fields, drawing objects, and any other items that are not text are lost. However, field text, headers, footers, footnotes, and endnotes are retained as simple text.

1. In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Open.
In Word 2010, click the File Menu, and then click Open.
2. In the Files of type box, click Recover Text from Any File(*.*).
3. Click the document from which you want to recover the text.
4. Click Open.

(Taken from Microsoft Support)
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#3
ira_gaines

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Sorry for making you wait!

Here are a couple of steps that I found that could help you restore the data from these files.


1. In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Open.
In Word 2010, click File on the Ribbon, and then click Open.
2. In the Open dialog box, click to highlight your Word document.
3. Click the arrow on the Open button, and then click Open and Repair.


Didn't work. The same warning boxes just come up.



If you are still unable to open the file, Word can try to pull out the raw text from the file. The "Recover Text from Any File" converter has limitations. For example, document formatting is lost. Additionally, graphics, fields, drawing objects, and any other items that are not text are lost. However, field text, headers, footers, footnotes, and endnotes are retained as simple text.

1. In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Open.
In Word 2010, click the File Menu, and then click Open.
2. In the Files of type box, click Recover Text from Any File(*.*).
3. Click the document from which you want to recover the text.
4. Click Open.

(Taken from Microsoft Support)


When I do this, the file opens and a box comes up saying there were errors in the file, but it was opened by making repairs. There's also a scroll down box below that which has a line of text saying "Recovered Text Only 1". However, the contents of the file are all giberish, and there's no recognisable text.
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#4
happyrock

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do other computers have the same problem opening the files...
NOTE...if you remove usb flash drives without using the safely remove icon in the system tray you can ruin files and/or make the drive useless
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#5
ira_gaines

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do other computers have the same problem opening the files...



I don't know yet. I only have access to one laptop right now. My old one died as I mentioned and the other one in the house is being fixed.

NOTE...if you remove usb flash drives without using the safely remove icon in the system tray you can ruin files and/or make the drive useless


The truth is I've never actually used that icon for USB sticks (only for my ipod) and it's never caused any problems before. Why would not pressing that only corrupt two of the files on the stick?


Thanks
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#6
The Admiral

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Maybe those two files were the ones being written to - what rock pointed out is that if your computer is trying to write/read data from the drive and it is just taken out, that data doesn't get transferred completely and it could corrupt the files. Maybe those two files were the last ones to be open and Word was still trying to save the file when the USB stick was pulled out.

Another thing you could try (I've seen a couple of positive results out there on google) is to try opening the files with OpenOffice (download link).
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#7
ira_gaines

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Maybe those two files were the ones being written to - what rock pointed out is that if your computer is trying to write/read data from the drive and it is just taken out, that data doesn't get transferred completely and it could corrupt the files. Maybe those two files were the last ones to be open and Word was still trying to save the file when the USB stick was pulled out.



Hmm, but i would have definately saved and shut Word down before pulling the stick out. Would it still have happened none the less? Also, wouldn't pressing the safely remove icon during such an occurance have the same effect?

Another thing you could try (I've seen a couple of positive results out there on google) is to try opening the files with OpenOffice (download link).


Thanks, I'll try that.
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#8
The Admiral

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Hmm, but i would have definately saved and shut Word down before pulling the stick out. Would it still have happened none the less? Also, wouldn't pressing the safely remove icon during such an occurance have the same effect?

Sometimes, even though Word is closed, it is saving the file in the background, kinda depends on how much data you modified.



The safely remove icon will check to make sure it is OK to remove the stick, if not, it will give a message like "Unable to stop device "USB Stick" because the device is still in use. Try again later" and will wait until the computer is done accessing the data.
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#9
happyrock

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The safely remove icon will check to make sure it is OK to remove the stick, if not, it will give a message like "Unable to stop device "USB Stick" because the device is still in use. Try again later" and will wait until the computer is done accessing the data.


yep

I too never used that icon until I started getting external usb hard drives and flash drives from clients that were dead because of it...none of my tricks to recover data worked on any of them either
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#10
vally

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The safely remove icon will check to make sure it is OK to remove the stick, if not, it will give a message like "Unable to stop device "USB Stick" because the device is still in use. Try again later" and will wait until the computer is done accessing the data.


Some times we don't realize that our usb drive is being scanned by the antivirus so if you just pull it out you could loose any file not only the one you are working on.

I have found that if you right click on the drive (while in my computer / explorer)and hit eject it is quicker than checking the usb icon on the bottom
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