OOo 3.2 killed my spreadsheet

[OOdestroyedmyxls]

Hello,

I have the following problem. I have openoffice 3.2 and I was working on 3 documents (2x writer, 1 calc). Then my computer started to hang up. Firefox wasn't working anymore so I decided to save my work and shut down and restart.

After restarting I wanted to open my documents again but I got a dialog about a defect Recovery.xcu (same problem like here http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=103171) and that I can repair. So I did. And suddenly all of my 3 documents are worthless. The writers are full of ####### and the calc is full of empty space. And every time I open the docs I get a message about ASCI codes. I tried different but all with the same outcome. I searched a bit in the forum and found that there should be files in a backup folder. But the backup folder is empty and I used an undelete software to see if they might have been deleted by openoffice. But I could not find anything.

Is there any way or chance to recover the documents as I have stupidly not made any backups. How can they be so totally corrupt?
I always thought OO is better then MS office. But I am a bit shocked now. Also because I am apparently not the first one to have problems with the Recovery.xcu and the faulty recovery process.
MS office crashed a lot of times, but their recovery process worked at least.

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Sadly, nothing to do: 22 page term paper replaced with pound signs.

Check the temporary folder of the system (see in OOo Tools>Options>OOo>Paths). If there are folders like sgmlf.tmp with a file having the same name inside, make a copy of that file, rename it in .odt and cross your fingers.

Else, nothing to do I fear.

[OOdestroyedmyxls]

No nothing temporary, maybe because I was using xls and not odt...

But this is frustrating. How can something like this happen...

[acknak]

... Then my computer started to hang up. Firefox wasn't working anymore so I decided to save my work and shut down and restart.
...
How can something like this happen...

When the computer is not working properly--for example, losing power, crashing, system faults, etc.--anything can happen.

For some unknown reason, OOo seems to be more prone to losing data in such situations. The only solution is to make manual backups of important documents and always be prepared to lose the file you're working on at the moment.

It's very rare that files are lost (unless there is some consistent problem with your hardware or system), but you must be prepared for the worst. It's the same with any software, really.

[Hagar Delest]

See that one, it may help: [Solved] Recovering document (pages are blank after crash).

Good luck.