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Opening documents changed to all # signs

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:16 pm
by raysibley
Hello, When I just opened my open office saved document, the english text was gone and the whole document was just ############### signs.
I restarted my computer, when prompted for enlish language I clicked OK and then it just opened with all ################## icons and no english. What
happen to my text? Can it be restored? thank you

Re: opening documents changed to all # signs

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:22 pm
by RoryOF
Your file is badly damaged, probably beyond useful repair.

As soon as possible do the following:

Download Recuva or PhotoRec (only one needed) and let it do an indepth recovery of deleted files on your computer. You may get a file containing some or all of your data (or not). Do this as a first priority; other use of the computer may overwrite any existing but deleted files and prevent their recovery. There is no guarantee that you will recover anything useful.

Do the above soonest! Do not wait for anything else - there is little prospect of recovering anything from your file, so do this NOW!

Re: opening documents changed to all # signs

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 10:40 pm
by raysibley
Any idea what could have caused the corruption. Saved the doc last night, worked on it this morning, everything fine. Restarted the computer but did not add or delete anything. When opening the document found it all ############# for 9 pages of work in Enlish text. Recuva wants to do a 4 hour scan of the whole computer but I doubt it can recover a corrupted file like this. Any body have another suggestion. thanks

Re: Opening documents changed to all # signs

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 5:03 pm
by John_Ha
See [Tutorial] How to find and un-delete Writer temporary files for instructions on how to identify and un-delete the temporary files Writer wrote while you were editing the file, and then deleted. You should be able to recover your file as it was when you last opened it or as it was when last saved with AutoRecovery. You may also find previous versions of the file in the folder it is located but which have since been deleted.