File now contains nothing but # characters

[JRS]

OK so my final paper is due in 3 days but all my meticulous notes are now gone! When I went to open up the file, ASCII Filter Option popped up asking me to choose the properties (Character set, default font,language, paragraph break). It seems no matter what character set I choose my notes are always represented by pages of #'s(the symbol). Unfortunately no auto backup of the file exists since I never even knew it could be enabled until things were too late. The file is an ODT and I'm using the latest Open Office running on windows Vista.

Title Edited. A descriptive title for posts helps others who are searching for solutions and increases the chances of a reply. (TheGurkha, Moderator)

[acknak]

Sorry, but I think your document is gone. The '#'s have always turned out to represent a file that contains nothing but binary zeroes--nothing there to recover, even if the .doc format could be recovered.

Did something "bad" happen to your computer? A power failure, system hang, or other abnormal shutdown/startup?

[TheGurkha]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

I already fear the worst, we have seen this several times recently. Although auto-backups were off, were you doing your own manual backups?

If the file is under 128K you can attach it here so we can look at it, or if it is too big you can use a free file hosting site like Zamzar and post the link here.

[JRS]

The last time I accessed the file successfully nothing like an unexpected shutdown occurred. I feel dumb now but the idea of manual backups never crossed my mind.

[TheGurkha]

This file is nothing but a huge collection of 0x00 hex bytes - nothing in it at all. Sorry.

[Hagar Delest]

The last time I accessed the file successfully nothing like an unexpected shutdown occurred.

A machine shutdown or a Writer crash?

[acknak]

Are you saving the file on a memory stick, perhaps?

I would consider it a serious problem if OOo can produce a corrupted file like this under completely normal circumstances.

[Hagar Delest]

For the record, some additional information in that thread: ###### No Text, perhaps you should check and see if you can reproduce it.