Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi all. My computer shut down in the middle of me adding to a very long list of research and now the file is corrupted. This is 2 weeks of very important work gone. Can anyone help? I've attached the file. Thanks so much in advance! I am not very good with computers. I will absolutely create a back up next time!!

Hi, and welcome to the community forum.

I'm afraid the file is corrupted beyond recovery; it is entirely filled with null bytes. If you do not have backups, as soon as possible do the following:

Download Recuva (Windows only) or PhotoRec for Win, MacOS, Linux and other OSes (only one needed) and let it do an in-depth 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.

For more information on the corruption, see [Tutorial] The Dreaded Pound Signs: file reduced to ####

You might also consider using the Timestamped backup extension.

Ok. Thank you for your help! I much appreciate it.