OpenOffice Document Reduced to #signs

[amboise]

When I opened my OpenOffice Writer document yesterday morning, instead of opening right up like it usually does, a small ASCII Options Filters box appeared asking me to specify properties. I clicked OK and when my document opened it was seven pages of ####### marks. I am on a HP laptop with windows 8, and my OpenOffice version is 3.4.1.

Failed efforts so far include:
I have searched throughout my computer looking for .tmp files that might contain copies of the lost data -- no joy.
I used a program called Recuva and performed a deep scan -- it was not able to identify any recoverable copies or versions of the file.
My windows document recovery folders are empty.
I tried looking in my OO user profile -- nothing.

I am fairly confident that I can't find any alternate versions/copies/shadows of my document -- unless someone knows a secret computer ninja trick I am unaware of.
Is there any hope for extracting real data from the file I have?

[thomasjk]

Unfortunately no. Your file is completely corrupt. Hopefully you have backup copies. If not its time you implemented a backup plan.

[Hagar Delest]

Sadly, quite nothing to do, see: 22 pages term paper replaced with pound signs.
The file seems indeed empty.

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. If you have not rebooted, you might have those files still there.

[amboise]

so far, still no joy.

I recall back in the early 90s before windows 95 came out, if a file was corrupt, it was possible to do a file content key word search of all files in your computer. For example, if the document you were working on had a seldom used word like "cardiovascular" in it you could search for that word even if it wasn't in the file name. Every file with that word in it would come up on a list. My document had several rare words in it, so if that kind of search is still possible in my OS (Windows 8) I should be able to find at least remnants of my document somewhere.

Is that kind of document content search possible? If so, please tell me how to do it. Thanks.

[Hagar Delest]

I doubt this would be a solution but you can try.

Personally I use DocFetcher to index my documents. You'll have to index your documents and the temp folder first.