[Solved] Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

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jeffrey t
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[Solved] Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

Need some help please. Using Windows XP Pro 2002 SP3.

Have been using OpenOffice on this computer for some years now.
Lately when tring to open a spreadsheet I get the 'Filter Selection' box, but no matter which option
I choose I can not open to view.

I have 33 spreadsheets and can not open 19 of these, they list now as 0 KB or 2 KB.
The dates on the 0KB are 13/01/2011 or mainly 25/01/2011 on the others.
AND 22 off the 33 WordDocs are also corrupt, all dated the 13/01/2011

There is a total of 41 files corrupted on the 13/01/2011 at 09:00.

Any ideas please, I need these files.
I have looked for backups on cd and on the computer.
Have found none yet. Did ask same question on other section an got no answer, please help.

Jeffrey
Last edited by jeffrey t on Sat Mar 12, 2011 1:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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RoryOF
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by RoryOF »

What happened your computer on 13/01/11? Did you have a virus attack?

First thing is to delete your User Profile
http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... 74&t=12426
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jeffrey t
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

No I have had no virus on or before that day, I checked, just some tracking cookies.

Also the other main corrupt days were 16/01 and 25/01.

What will deleting my user profile do?


Jeffrey
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RoryOF
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by RoryOF »

Deleting your User Profile (or renaming it) will cause OpenOffice to make a new default profile on next startup. This will not use any corrupt settings which may be causing files not to open. Deleting or renaming User Profile cures a high proportion of OOo problems. The User Profile does contain keyboard shortcuts, autotexts and other User Customisations, but if you don't know about User Profle you may not have any of these.
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jeffrey t
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

Ok, as a novice to these problems, could you tell me how to rename my user profile to get it done quicker, please.

I will try anythimg. The OOo is beyound me, I have seen this on other posts but don't understand it.

Jeffrey
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RoryOF
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by RoryOF »

OOo is shorthand for OpenOffice.org, the correct name for OpenOffice.

Details concerning the User Profile are in the URL I cited

I'm not on a Windows computer at present, so cannot check the path details for renaming User Profile, so in case I'm wrong I won't attempt tell you. Perhaps someone else can do so? I'm going off air for several hours.
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jeffrey t
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

thank-you will try it now and let you know. The OOo, I get it now.

Thanks

Jeffrey
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jeffrey t
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

OK I tried that and changed the user to user.old then created a new user but this did not fix anything, Bugger.
Will go now to bed and look again tomorrow. Thanks for your effort and input.

Also looked thru other folders of other files and not only S/sheets and word but adobe docs and others as well,
and 1 of mine was well outside the bad date range, being 29/02/2008

Jeffrey
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RoryOF
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by RoryOF »

I'd suggest an indepth virus check, having updated your virus definitions. I'd also do a scan for malware; malwarebytes is well spoken of - some malware scanners are bogus, but that one is OK. Download from its master site if you can;
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
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jeffrey t
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

I did a Malware and there were no threats, last scan was 31/12/10. I have auto scans in AVG and expect for tracking cookies there were no threats also.

Is there any way to repair these files, any files opened shows just funny shapes or marks.

Looking thru all the folders and files there would be at least 70% bad. This has not affected my other computer which has MS Excel and Word, thank Him.


Jeffrey
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by Hagar Delest »

If other files like PDF are affected, it means that this is not an OOo problem. I mean, it can't access those PDF files so there is no save malfunction. Have you opened all the files at that last save date? I also suspect some malware having damaged the system.
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by RoryOF »

If you recover anything, it may only be (partial) document content. At system level copy your file(s). Rename the copy file type to zip and try to open it with an archive manager (typically Winzip or 7zip) . If it reports that the archive is broken/incomplete and offers to mend it, let it. In the archive you may find a number of files and folders - you are looking for content.xml which should contain your content.

If such a file corruption catastrophe is caused by OOo (which I don't suspect), it is puzzling why it would affect files from other applications such as Adobe, as you report. Have you run Chkdsk on your drive recently? a corrupt or damaged sector in the directory for your working folder might give such an effect (zero or reduced length files).
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by RoryOF »

I've carried out a quick search; I think you ought look for information on a worm called Tearec-A (other names also), which seems to do the sort of damage you report. This might be a dead end, but one has to start somewhere. It also disables most antivirus programs.
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jeffrey t
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

Thanks for the replies. I have spent some time on this matter my self. I now have 104 files in total, 49 are still good, 45 went off on the 13/1/11, 8 on other dates in January 2011 and 2 much later.
Only near 50% not 70%!

None of my photos are bad but all of my music on the computer is bad, If there are say 25 songs in a folder, it will show, say, 7 bad remove these bad ones and play and another batch goes bad, over and over.

I never had auto back-up on, I do now. I also did Chkdsk but it showed no problens that I saw.

I agree that it is not just in the OOo system, but I still need to try to find out the problem and if any-one else has had same problem.

With the music going off like that does it mean that the Virus(if that is what it is) is still active.

If I convert these good files to excel ect and transfer to my other computer could that infect that computer.

Thank-you again


Jeffrey
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by RoryOF »

I wouldn't chance _any_ transfer to your other computer until you have the problem settled. I would download to your other computer a malware detector, and I would rename it to some neutral name such as Fred.exe. Then I would transfer the USB key with this to your bad computer and run Fred.exe; the reason for this is that many Viruses will recognise common anti-virus and anti-malware programs and block them. You could do similarly with an anti virus program.
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jeffrey t
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

I have had Malwarebytes on both computers. Is this the best or do you recommend an other programme.

If I use Malware again I would have to delete that one on there to reinstall it again, as you say with a different name.

Now have searched 'malware' on this forum and will spend time looking there, Adaware and Spybot was mentioned.

I have used both in the past so will try the same, install on good computer, renane and transfer to bad computer.

So to transfer to here I would have to delete malwarebytes off here or will it be installed along-side?

Jeffrey
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by RoryOF »

I've used Malwarebytes in the past quite successfully - in fact used it yesterday as I described above on a friend's computer - who is a virus/malware magnet. You don't need to worry about uninstalling a previous version; it installs and runs under the new .exe name, as far as I remember overwriting the older components. The new name allows the executable start up, whereas a virus/Trojan may be smart enough to look for the names of common malware/antivirus files and stop them.
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jeffrey t
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

Well after all this and that I took the computer to the local computer shop and they said that it would be better and not that more $ to build a new better system than to try to rebuild and repair mine.

They scanned for virus and also found none, between the 3 of them they were sure that it was a 'old' corrupt hard drive that caused the problem, not virus or malware.

Out of may-be 20 albums of music ripped to the computer all were dead except ONE, don't know why. But I can re-rip songs I can't replace all the files lost.

So now I have a (wow) 500 gb drive, up from 80gb, I'm using 10gb! Intel Core 2 Duo CPU @ 2.8GHz and 2 gb Ram and a 320 gb external drive for back-ups.

Biggest mistake was not to have a back-up system in place, after all these years of luck it just ran out. BACK-UP. Also the dvd burner was dead so now a new one as well.

Thanks for your support

Jeffrey
ps I'm still going to try to recover these files, there was mention of a program to use.
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by Hagar Delest »

You can try PhotoRec (can retrieve much more than photos). I've used it successfully few months ago on my GNU/Linux system.
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jeffrey t
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

Well I was about to then realised that I now have a new hd (in a new computer) so that would be useless.

When I get around to rebuilding my other computer with the spare parts from the rebuild I will hook up the old corrupt drive and try recover then.

Thanks anyhow

Jeffrey
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jeffrey t
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Re: Can not open files, get 'filter Selection' box

Post by jeffrey t »

Thanks again for your help. I have had no other problems with the system since. Have not installed the old hard-drive here yet,
will do so asap. Of course it turned out to be a corrupt hard-drive, no virus.

I have used the external back-up drive as well as burning to discs.

The latest problem was when I shut down one night it said it would 'install updates and shut down auto', so I did.

Next morning I saw the lights on and it was still doing 2 of 9, so I had to leave it. When I tried to start that evening there was no power at all.

New unit was 3 weeks old and the power supply died, he said because of a spike?

Other problem was that they didn't transfer all programs and data across, like I have a hundred or so deep sea fishing marks in Google Earth that need copying.

I wonder how many people know what they have on there computer and where are all the install discs if they need them, like I do now. All mine from all computers are in a few boxes.


Cheers

Jeffrey
OpenOffice 3.2.1 on Windows XP Professional
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