Corrupt .ODT - Please help Crackles

[Username190]

Hello all,

My 9 year old daughter started writing a novel and for some reason the file has stopped working. Ordinarily I would have made an attempt and after a while let her know that its gone. But this was her first attempt at writing a long novel, she had written around 5-8 pages with many chapters and lots of detail. It is a book about a lost dog called Crackles.

I'm really needing some help to recover some of it if possible.

I have tried to follow the instructions given by Dr Google including looking for backup, renaming zip files but nothing has worked.

When opened in OpenOffice4 firth thing that shows up is:

- ASCII Filter Options

It doesnt matter what is selected it then says

- Document in use, locked for editing by: Unknown user, open document in read-only or open a copy of the document for editing.

Once again it doesnt matter what is done, the document only opens up with square shapes.

Transferring the .odt file to another program just says it is corrupt.

I have attached the file and hope a kind angel out there can help us out.

Thank you all for your time.

[RoryOF]

A file that opens as ### is damaged - possibly because of over-hasty power off of the computer before the internal buffers in the hard drive had written to disk.

You may be able to recover a previous version of the file - see [Tutorial] How to find and un-delete AOO temporary files for detailed instructions on how to

a) use Previous Versions (W7 and later) to recover previous versions of the file ;

b) recover your file as it was when you last opened or saved it, or as it was when it was last saved with AutoRecovery;

c) find previous versions of the file in the folder it is located in, but which have since been deleted;

d) un-delete the temporary files AOO wrote while you were editing the file, and then deleted. This will recover your file as it was when you last opened or you last saved it.

[RoryOF]

I have checked - the Crackles file you uploaded is damaged beyond repair (as I expected) and has no usable content. Use the methods outlined in my previous posting to try to find a temporary file on the computer.

The sooner this is done, the better chance of success, but there is no guarantee.

One consolation you might offer your daughter, which all writers will confirm: a rewrite is often much quicker, as the story is in one's mind. Also, a rewrite can be much better than a first draft.

[Username190]

Cheers, thanks for the prompt reply and advice