File is corrupt

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BenjaminA
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:15 pm

File is corrupt

Post by BenjaminA »

I was away from my computer for a couple of hours. I had to plug it back in, and when I did, my file was unable to open. All I get are hashtags and paragraph marks, not that there are as many as I actually used. I installed an update for Firefox recently, but I doubt it affected it. The icon for the document is currently different from the others on my desktop. When I go to open it, it asks me for ASCII filter options. Then I can open a Read-only Copy or Copy, but neither option works. My other Open Office documents are intact. Also, on the corrupt document, my options are limited, though if I copy and paste to a new document, I have more control over my options, not that it's helping. Any help would be appreciated. :bravo: I was 30-100 pages into my document.
OpenOffice 4.1.3
John_Ha
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Re: File is corrupt

Post by John_Ha »

Welcome to the forum.

I am afraid all your data is gone - the ###### says the file is full of zeros. It looks like you let the battery run low and when it did, eventually the voltage fell so low that all the data held in memory was lost. Never walk away from any PC if anything you value has not been saved to disk!

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 may only get back what was in the file when you opened it.
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.
BenjaminA
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:15 pm

Re: File is corrupt

Post by BenjaminA »

The disk is a smart idea. I had been saving to USB until I switched computers. I guess I forgot what I was doing. (Unless by disk you mean hard drive, not sure.)

I was about 200 words into my writing session before I left my computer. It sounds to me like you still have hope for the remaining pages that were saved on previous days? I've been working on this document since about December 27.

I looked through your tutorial, got to where I could see hidden files, got some to show, and found a location in one file for C:/Users/bande/AppData/Roaming/OpenOffice/4; which is close to what it says in your tutorial because of the AppData or Roaming bit. It also has today's date stamped on there. I went to the location and copied the file there to desktop, renamed it fred.odt, and opened it with Open Office. It has a new message that says Lockdata, but I can't make much sense of it. Is that supposed to be the recovered document if it's to recover? Have I gotten as far as I can get into your tutorial, or is there more I can do at this point?

I did send half the document to myself at some point, so with any hope, I won't have lost 100% of it, worst case scenario.
OpenOffice 4.1.3
BenjaminA
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:15 pm

Re: File is corrupt

Post by BenjaminA »

Also forgot just quick here to mention, one of the files that appears is .~lock, and when I open it, it creates a copy that's .~lock.~lock etc. over and over, always with the file name. I don't know if that has anything to do with the issue.

EDIT: One other thing I forgot to mention is Open Office wanted me to reregister, so I put in my name and opened Open Office like I just downloaded it before I knew I lost the file. I've been going through AppData/Local/Temp and folders that look like svagjviy.tmp and naming them to fred.odt. It looks like I had another file open too, and I got that one back. I'm not sure what I can do about the other one at this point. :arrow:
OpenOffice 4.1.3
John_Ha
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Re: File is corrupt

Post by John_Ha »

Forget the lock file - just delete it. It has no data.

If you email me the file you recovered I will look at it - use the envelope icon to the right of my post.
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.
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: File is corrupt

Post by John_Ha »

Sorry - that method does not allow you to attach a file. I have sent you a message with my address or use this [email deleted]
Last edited by John_Ha on Tue Jan 03, 2017 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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.
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: File is corrupt

Post by John_Ha »

BenjaminA wrote:... by disk you mean hard drive, not sure.

Hard drive, memory stick. Anything which does not lose it when power is removed or the PC crashes.
BenjaminA wrote:It sounds to me like you still have hope for the remaining pages that were saved on previous days?
Yes - you should be able to get back the temporary files which Writer wrote when you opened the file. So you should be able to get back everything except the 200 words you added.
BenjaminA wrote:I looked through your tutorial, got to where I could see hidden files, got some to show, and found a location in one file for C:/Users/bande/AppData/Roaming/OpenOffice/4
Follow the tutorial exactly remembering that
  • There is one route for .odt files - the deleted temporary files will be in C:\Users\bande\AppData\Local\Temp
  • There is a different route for .doc files.
  • If you had AutoRecovery set to ON there is a different route to find the AutoRecovery files. If they are gone, then look for the deleted versions of them.
  • If you has Create backup copy there is a different route to find the backup copy.
Ignore any lock files - they hold no data. When AOO is closed there should be none so delete any you find.
BenjaminA wrote:I did send half the document to myself at some point, so with any hope, I won't have lost 100% of it, worst case scenario.
Using email as a backup is a very good idea especially if you leave your emails on the server.
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.
BenjaminA
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:15 pm

Re: File is corrupt

Post by BenjaminA »

It looks like I had autorecovery on because it said it should save every 15 minutes. However, Create a backup copy was not on, and note that I did not manually turn either of these on myself, though it seems I had autorecovery. There didn't appear to be anything in the backup folder. I tried searching fred.odt_0.odt, but didn't find it anywhere.

Also, I now notice I might have needed the Recuva program to go through the search. I don't know how I missed that . I'm trying it now.
OpenOffice 4.1.3
BenjaminA
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:15 pm

Re: File is corrupt

Post by BenjaminA »

Again, like I kinda said, Open Office wanted me to reregister when I opened that document I'm missing. I think it may have changed the document. I don't know if there's anyway to undo it, particularly it asking me what language it's in, which should be Times New Roman. The other document I had up I was able to recover, but I didn't find any outstanding icons to try, even with a computer-wide search. I ran Recuva, but it turned up nothing. I might be lost on this one. Let me know if you think reregistering with my name had anything to do with it.

It sounds like I should be able to find it, but there are a lot of folders there with game genie-like codes and a few that look like what I should be looking for. I just don't know at this point, particularly with the computer-wide search for the document turning up few results. Should the document have the name I originally titled it?
OpenOffice 4.1.3
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
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Location: UK

Re: File is corrupt

Post by John_Ha »

BenjaminA wrote:Should the document have the name I originally titled it?
No. Read the tutorial - it explains the names you are looking for.
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.
BenjaminA
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:15 pm

Re: File is corrupt

Post by BenjaminA »

Is that 0.odt a zero?

My title also has spaces in it, so I've been using spaces to search for the document, like Spaceman 2.odt.

EDIT: I've searched fred.odt_0.odt and fred.doc_1.odt where fred is the file name, also untitled_0.odt just in case. In case I didn't really have autorecovery on like I think, how do I search for deleted files like it says to? I don't see any specific method there, not as detailed as for the other two methods.
OpenOffice 4.1.3
John_Ha
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Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: File is corrupt

Post by John_Ha »

Ask someone with computer expertise to help you.

As you were editing a .odt file follow this route from the tutorial, looking for files with names like C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Temp\sv2ju1mk.tmp\sv2ju21c.tmp:
1. Recovering .ODT files which have previously been saved

In this case, you were editing a .odt file like fred.odt. if you manage to undelete a file, you get back the complete fred.odt file as it was the previous time it was saved. It will be called something like C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Temp\sv2ju1mk.tmp\sv2ju21c.tmp, so copy it to the desktop, say, and rename it fred.odt, and open it with OpenOffice. Note that it is very unusual for a folder to be called C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Temp\sv2ju1mk.tmp\, with a " . " in the folder name, but this is what Writer does. You will therefore be looking for files called something like C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\\Temp\sv2ju1mk.tmp\sv2ju21c.tmp where xxxxxx is your username. Unzip sv2ju21c.tmp. If it is a .odt file (some may be graphics files) then rename sv2ju21c.tmp to sv2ju21c.odt and try to open it.

You also get back all the images, both those already in the document when you opened it and all the images added since. You do not get the text added since the file was last saved.
As you say you had AutoRecovery set to on, and you were editing a .dt file, follow this route from the tutorial, looking for files like C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice\4\user\backup\fred.odt_0.odt. If you cannot see any, look for deleted versions of C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice\4\user\backup\fred.odt_0.odt. " 0 " is a zero.
2a. Recovering the AutoRecovery file for an existing fred.ODT which was being edited

If you were editing fred.odt, then Writer creates an AutoRecovery file called fred.odt_0.odt in the Backup folder. Navigate to the Backup folder and look for fred.odt_0.odt. If it is not there, then use Recuva and try to find a deleted version of the file. If you do manage to find it, it will have the entire contents of the document as saved at the AutoRecovery time it was created.
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.
mrvtz
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2017 4:49 am

Re: File is corrupt

Post by mrvtz »

This is my problem. The file is corrupted. Graduate thesis file.Help!!!
Windows 10/Open Office 4.3.1.
mrvtz
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2017 4:49 am

Re: File is corrupt

Post by mrvtz »

John_Ha wrote:Sorry - that method does not allow you to attach a file. I have sent you a message with my address or use this [email deleted]
Open office file does not open There is important information in Master's Thesis.The file is broken :shock: Help!

[Eğitici] Dreaded Pound Signs: dosya #### olarak azaltıldı

It did not :crazy: :crazy:
Windows 10/Open Office 4.3.1.
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