Recovering odt files

[sebastian1234]

We accidently got folder of very important odt files deleted. I immediately turn of the computer and how now retried some of these files with the help of a recovery program.

But unfortunately the files are corrupt and I can not even open them with 7zip. I there anything we can do to retrieve at least some of the text inside.
I have attached some of them

I do really hope some of you can help

[robleyd]

Check the Recycle Bin to see if the folder is there.

[sebastian1234]

Well i checked all possible places.
1. The libre office backup folder. But so stupid the auto backup is not enabled by default.
2. Recycle bin
3. Temp files

The only thing i got is corrupted restored files

[robleyd]

I am unable to recover anything from those files unfortunately.

[sebastian1234]

thanks for trying. how did you try?

[robleyd]

ODT files are simply a zip file containing a number of files and directories that contain the document information. I renamed the files as .zip and attempted to unzip them which failed. I attempted then to repair the zip archive which also failed. As a last attempt I opened your files with a hex editor in case there was any recoverable data, of which there was none.

[RoryOF]

Just to confirm: I also got nothing from these files.

[sebastian1234]

Thanks for trying

[nehavilash]

Thanks for all the help so far, I’ve tried similar methods, but the files are still corrupted. Is there any specific file recovery software that might work better for corrupted ODT files?

[LastUnicorn]

You should know that if you are using an SSD (not a hard-drive with a physical spinning disk) and you deleted the files then you will most likely not be able to recover the files in an uncorrupted state. It's as simple as that. By way of experiment in the past I have tested deleting files on an SSD and then immediately tried to recover them. Not one attempt at recovery was ever successful, all were corrupt. There is an overview of the possibility of file recovery on an SSD here: Can Data be Recovered from an SSD

If you are using a hard-disk drive then file recovery will often work provided none of the file has not been overwritten with other data after the accidental deletion. Recovery on a flash drive is similar to that for a hard-disk.

If you want to go ahead and try recovery anyway and if you are on a Windows 10 or Windows 11 system then Windows File Recovery is the best recovery tool to use as you can specify file types easily with with. You can get that recovery tool from the Microsoft store at Windows File Recovery – Download.

If you are not on Windows 10 or 11 then give Recuva a try.

[nehavilash]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I understand the limitations with SSD recovery now. I’ll check out Windows File Recovery since I’m using Windows 11. If that doesn’t work, I’ll give Recuva a try.