[IaBi]

Hi,

Im wondering if somebody could help me into how i can open an excel file that when i try to open it i get the following message: "Excel could not open the file "X" because the format or the extention is not valid. Check that the file has not been damaged and that the extention coincides with the format of the file".

 

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Hi labi,

 

Still sounds like file might be corrupted or even possible virus. Should be a way in Excel to repair it.

 

http://answers.micro...23-38e6924ceb89

[jds63]

Hi labi,

 

Still sounds like file might be corrupted or even possible virus. Should be a way in Excel to repair it.

 

http://answers.micro...23-38e6924ceb89

[IaBi]

Hi jds63,

I have tried all those options, however i still have the same message appearing, Any ideas?

[jds63]

Not familiar that much with this kind of issue. Did not know what version of Office you have. Any other Excel files show same ?

[IaBi]

I know, its a really strange issue, i have never seen this type before either. Its Office 2007 and up to now, no other excel files have been affected.

[IaBi]

Also, i have been trying to use programs designed to recuperate the data from damaged files but they all seem to come back with the same answer "There is no data to recuperate" it seems that all the data has been removed. I have done several virus checks but the whole system is clean. Would restoring the system back to a earlier date help recuperate the lost files?

[jds63]

Also, i have been trying to use programs designed to recuperate the data from damaged files but they all seem to come back with the same answer "There is no data to recuperate" it seems that all the data has been removed. I have done several virus checks but the whole system is clean. Would restoring the system back to a earlier date help recuperate the lost files?

No i do not think it would restore a file, but could restore Excel itself, worth a try . So all Excel files that are created now are with same issue ?

[IaBi]

No new excel files are created with this issue and work perfectly fine. The problem is just this one file.

[jds63]

o.k. then as you must know and i felt that file is corrupt. Only way would be try to repair it throught Office, some of ideas from article link before. No backup of this file from Excel ?

Still try system restore, but i am not positive it will help.

Edited by jds63, 27 October 2014 - 05:15 PM.

[keithy_sunny]

When an Excel file is corrupted, then you can try several methods to recover it:
 
1.(Free Method) First of all, you can try to repair the file manually in Excel, as follows:
 
(1) On the File menu, click Open.
 (2) In the Open dialog box, select the file you want to open, and click the arrow next to the Open button.
 (3) Click Open and Repair, and then choose which method you want to use to recover your workbook.
 
You may find more information about this at:
 
http://office.micros...A001034656.aspx (for Excel 2003)
http://office.micros...7017.aspx?CTT=1 (for Excel 2007)
http://office.micros...2840.aspx?CTT=1 (for Excel 2010)
http://office.micros...9554.aspx?CTT=1 (for Excel 2013)
 
2.(Free Method) If method 1 fails, there are still several methods to recover your Excel file manually with Excel, including writing a small VBA macro, as below
 
http://office.micros...1#_Toc337637262
 
3.(Free Method) Third, there are also free tools from third-parties that can open and read Microsoft Excel files, for example,
 
3.1 OpenOffice at http://www.openoffice.org. This is a very famous open source project that is designed to support Office file formats, including Excel files. The software can run under Windows.

3.2 LibreOffice at http://www.LibreOffice.org. Another free office suite.
 
3.3 KingSoft Spreadsheets at http://www.kingsofts...fice/free-excel. This is a free Windows tool that can open Excel files.

3.4 Google Drive at https://drive.google.com/ also support to load Excel files.

Sometimes when Excel fails to open your file, these tools may be able to open it successfully. If that is the case, then after the Excel file is opened, you can just save it as a new file which will be error-free.
 
4.(Free Method) For xlsx files, they are actually a group of files compressed in Zip file format. Therefore, sometimes, if the corruption is only caused by the Zip file, then you can use Zip repair tools such as WinRAR at http://www.rarlab.com to repair the file, as follows:
 
4.1 Assuming the corrupt Excel file is a.xlsx, then you need to rename it to a.zip
4.2 Start WinRAR, go to "Tools > Repair Archive" to repair a.zip and generated a fixed file a_fixed.zip.
4.3 Rename a_fixed.zip back to a_fixed.xlsx
4.4 Using Excel to open a_fixed.xlsx.


There may still be some warnings when opening the fixed file in Excel, just let ignore it and Excel will try to open and repair the fixed file. If the file can be opened successfully, then you can just save the contents into another error-free file.
 
5.(Non-Free Method) If all above methods do not work, then you may try third-party tools such as DataNumen Excel Repair at
 
http://www.datanumen.com/excel-repair/
 
It supports both .xls and .xlsx format. I have used it to recover some Excel files successfully. It provides a free demo version so that you can try to see if the data you want can be recovered or not.
 
Good luck!

[IaBi]

Unfortunetly, none of the above methods work, and neither doing a system restore can i gather back all the information.

[jds63]

Unfortunetly, none of the above methods work, and neither doing a system restore can i gather back all the information.

Unforunetly i do not know another answer if OP suggestion which was good did not work. Good part is Excel works fine creating new files, was just that file that is corrupted.

 

What can be a good idea in case any problems with your HDD, bad sectors, corrupt system files is run a Checkdisk, then System file checker. Won't hurt.

 

Not sure what Operating system you had,but i prefer this method 

 

At Administrator Command Prompt, in Windows 8, on keyboard, Windows key + X, select   Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows 7 left click start menu, right click command prompt and select " Run as Administrator" . 

 

Copy and paste this into Command Prompt         chkdsk c: /f /r

 

Will ask you do you want to schedule a chkdsk next time computer restarts  [y]   [n]    select  [y]   reboot PC. This will take awhile, least hour or more.

 

After it finishes and reboots. Open same Admin Command Prompt, copy and paste this      sfc /scannow

Edited by jds63, 29 October 2014 - 03:12 PM.