Read-error This is not a Winword6 file

[athenodorous]

Hello all, hope you're keeping well.

I have a similar problem to others I've seen in this forum, although their fixes haven't worked for me. I'm hoping against hope that in the last couple of years some new options might have popped up.

My computer rebooted itself yesterday while I was in the middle of editing a document, and now my file appears to be corrupted. Unfortunately, I was saving it in Word97/XP format (I have since learned on this forum that that's a no-no.) Now when I try to open it, it first tells me it's locked for editing by "Unknown user", and prompts to open a read-only or a copy. Both give me this error: "Read-error. This is not a Winword6 file".

Things I've tried:

-Opening it in LIbreOffice and Word (I get a corrupted file message)
-Converting it in Zamzar (same)
-HxD
-Renaming to .txt (this and HxD recover about the first half of the document, and the rest is garbage characters)
-Recuva (the temp and backup folders turn up empty)

I periodically make backup copies, so my work is not completely lost, but I'm missing the last 3 pages and it would be great if I didn't have to rewrite them.

At any rate, if anybody has any bright ideas, I would very much appreciate their input.

I'm using version 4.1.5 on Windows 8.1

Thanks!

[Zizi64]

My computer rebooted itself yesterday while I was in the middle of editing a document, and now my file appears to be corrupted.

Please upload/share the damaged document here.

Unfortunately, I was saving it in Word97/XP format (I have since learned on this forum that that's a no-no.)

Never work in a foreign, obsolete, and never standardized file format!!!!! And always create more than one backup copy of your important document onto various media.
https://extensions.libreoffice.org/exte ... amp-backup

[athenodorous]

Hello Zizi64,

Thanks for your prompt reply. And trust me, I've learned my lesson about file formats!

Here's a link to the file: https://files.fm/u/tbyht84x

Thanks so much for taking the trouble.

[Zizi64]

Sorry, I missed it, that it is not a docx type file (not an zipped XML archive), but it is an obsolete binary fileformat document.



I just downloaded and opened your sample file with my Libreoffice 6.2.8 version. Appeared some garbagged parts on the pages in it.
Then I converted it into ODF (.odt) file format.
Then I renamed the file to .zip extension, because the file size gave us some hope.
Then I unpacked the .zip archive.
But nothing more are located in the Content.xml file than a lot of pound sign (#)

I can not repair it.

[athenodorous]

Yes, I suspected it was beyond repair. Thanks for trying, I very much appreciate your effort!

[RoryOF]

You may be able to recover all, part, or none of your lost file by the methods in this tutorial. If your file is a short file, a rewrite may be more satisfactory

As soon as possible try the methods in this tutorial
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 (is there something similar on MacOS and Linux?);

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.

There will be nothing usable in your damaged file - waste no time with it. Try the recovery methods above. I had not noted that the file was type .doc - the preceeding remark applies to files of type /odt.

[John_Ha]

If you did not save it while you were editing it then all new edits will be lost as they were only ever held in memory.

See your text.odt for 90,000 words from your file ending with

Two of the bateau-teams did likewise, forming a more manageable mound from the scattered wood. In the meantime, a long boom of chained logs had been stretched across the river, and the bateaux on either end were coming back to encircle the approaching timber and corral it into the boom. When the logs were in the bag, the two ends were joined, and the whole business was hitched to the raft. This remarkable feat concluded, Junior looked away to see that they were approaching a blazing-red building on the right-hand bank. Baptiste walked over and put h

You will need to reformat it and add full stops and, for some reason, apostrophes.

As the file was corrupted it would not unzip so I extracted the data by opening the file with HxD. There is no more user data in the file.

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