ASCII Being A Sod In OpenOffice

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GarethWales
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Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2017 9:16 pm

ASCII Being A Sod In OpenOffice

Post by GarethWales »

Hello Everybody

I am currently suffering from the much maligned ASCII thingymawotsit corrupting one of my Calc files.

Whilst I have partially resigned myself to losing the document, I am hoping against hope that I can save it.

If somebody can point me towards where/how I can upload it, then I would be most grateful.

The problem started when I had a power outage at home, all documents (Calc and Word) opened fine except the one which I needed the most (I'm not overly precious, but losing it would cause me some distress).

So if anybody can or would like to help then please let me know. If it goes then it goes, it's just more work for me down the line. Such is life, I guess!
Apache Open Office 4 on Windows 10 (for all the good it is currently doing!)
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RoryOF
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Re: ASCII Being A Sod In Open Office

Post by RoryOF »

As soon as possible do the following:

Download Recuva 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.

Almost certainly your file is damaged beyond all recovery; do the above soonest.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
GarethWales
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2017 9:16 pm

Re: ASCII Being A Sod In Open Office

Post by GarethWales »

Hi RoryOF

Many thanks for that, it's currently 48% of its way through downloading.

Will keep you updated as to if it saves the file or not - hopefully it will, but if it's gone then I'll have to try another way of finishing the task I was doing in the document which now won't open.

Might even be a blessing in disguise/wake-up call not to solely rely on the computer 100% of the time to save stuff.

I do have a file which is related to the one affected, so will print all of it out tomorrow so at least I'll have a permanent hard copy. Means more work but apart from Jury Duty for the next two weeks I should have some spare time, one of the perks of being self-employed.

Thanks once again!
Apache Open Office 4 on Windows 10 (for all the good it is currently doing!)
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RoryOF
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Re: ASCII Being A Sod In Open Office

Post by RoryOF »

You can upload your damaged file to the Forum for someone to look at it. The upload limit in 128kb; if it is larger than that, use a filesharing site and post the URL. However, the ASCII filter message almost always indicates loss of the data
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
GarethWales
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2017 9:16 pm

Re: ASCII Being A Sod In Open Office

Post by GarethWales »

Just done that, hopefully somebody will be able to help out.

Recuva is still loading.
Apache Open Office 4 on Windows 10 (for all the good it is currently doing!)
John_Ha
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Re: ASCII Being A Sod In OpenOffice

Post by John_Ha »

GarethWales wrote:The problem started when I had a power outage at home ...
... which caused the file to be corrupted - in fact, it was an empty file full of Nul characters.

For those searching, 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 or saved it, or as it was when it was last saved with AutoRecovery.

You may also find previous versions of the file in the folder it is located in, but which have since been deleted.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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