[Hint] How did I fix my ODT file

[kbhmorten]

Thank you all for helping.

Unfortunately nobody knows how someone (trying to help) at the hospital converted this file beyond recognition.

@rory: It was written in writer originally on Win8 PC as .odt. Then moved to usb stick after this. Dont know why she didnt make a copy
But it was working fine until she brought it to the hospital.

@John: I understand you regarding the carrot explanation.



Is it still possible to get data from the Win8 PC you think? Or would the file be on Hospital computer? If on hospital computer it is impossible to get back.
I can try searching the Win8 PC, but will this give me anything as it was closed correctly last time on that PC...?

Thank you..

[RoryOF]

I'm in haste, so I make only one quick suggestion: check you personally that the file is definitely not present on the original computer then try the methods John_Ha listed in this posting
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1532&start=300#p348959

Edit: I suggest you download Recuva or PhotoRec on another computer and bring it to the original computer on a USB stick. I'd run that program immediately, before doing much on the original computer. Download on other computer so as not to overwrite possibly existing but deleted data on the original computer.

[kbhmorten]

Thank you all for helping. It has been impossible to retrieve the file. But thank you very much for trying to help me out

[Cuenthe]

Hey guys...

My boyfriend and I have been travelling for quite a long time now and started with a budget some weeks ago. Now suddenly yesterday the file showed to be currupted and I have no clue what I can do to repair it.

I tried 7zip, zip repairs and so on but somehow it isn't working.

Can somebody do their magic or at least try it on our file? It would be greatly appreciated.

We have some Swiss chocolate we would mail you if you manage to solve our problem (No kidding)! )

Thank you so much for your help!

Cynthia

https://www.mediafire.com/?j9w312rb1iqy3pj

[John_Ha]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, and even sorrier not to qualify for the offer of Swiss chocolate, but your file is completely full of zeros and no data is in it.

If you are lucky you might be able to recover some of the tem[porary files Calc wrote while you were editing the file - see Using RECUVA to recover Writer temporary files

These may also be useful.

Using 7-ZIP

Inside an odt file

Hints on how to prevent it happening

Another on RECUVA

[RoryOF]

I also got nothing from it, but I have my own Swiss chocolate anyway

[John_Ha]

While travelling (or any other time) it can be quite useful to email something important to yourself (or save it as a draft email on the email website). That way, you always have a backup ...

[JC1]

I was hoping for some help as I'm having trouble trying to salvage some odt files. Compiling a book of student poetry for non-profit literary arts program and two of the submissions came in and were damaged, and efforts to get resent have not been successful. I've not had success with my limited skills so hoping someone can save the day and salvage files (even just the content, as the format is limited to either left aligned or center aligned). The deadline is looming for me and really want to include all students who submitted so any help is greatly appreciated.

Files:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/hy65b8timc31k1s/dz.odt
http://www.mediafire.com/view/02yqc1ricqryw5y/mc.t.odt

[acknak]

Sorry, I can't find any recoverable content there. They're both too badly garbled.

[LanceGardner]

Hey, I'm in the same boat as everyone. Working on a story, and now nothing. I really am at my wit's end. :S I can't work out how to unzip to see content separately... I zip, I unzip and it's the same as before. Hopefully someone more computer savvy can help me. Please!

http://www.filedropper.com/bad

[LanceGardner]

Hi, I can't work out how to unzip it to see the individual files. It's a story, I really hope somebody else has better luck or can tell me exactly what the process is for recovering data... I can't work out how to split it so that the content is separate, let alone the later stages. I've hosted it here, if I can host it anywhere else or give any information, please let me know. I've learnt my lesson, I'll make backups... I'm just so desperate to get this fixed!

http://www.filedropper.com/bad

[LanceGardner]

Hey, I keep trying to post here and it's not working. Let's see if I have better luck this time.

I'm not very tech-savvy, but I am in the same boat. I have learnt my lesson about saving files! This is a story, I would be incredibly grateful if somebody who understands this better than me could try to recover it or walk me through it. I've attached the file, I don't want to face the idea I've lost it. Please help! Using version 4 on windows 8.1.

[floris v]

I'm sorry, all # signs mean the data is totally lost. See 22 pages term paper replaced with pound signs.

[John_Ha]

If you are lucky, you might be able to un-delete some of the temporary files which Writer wrote while you were editing the file, and then deleted when you closed Writer.

Using RECUVA to recover Writer temporary files which are now deleted

Another on RECUVA

These may also be useful

Using 7-ZIP

Inside an odt file

Hints on how to prevent it happening

[Chris Tiberius]

Hi good people..

I have come to this forum as my final hope. I signed up and here I am. This project I have been working on suddenly corrupts on me when my pc got stuck and crashed. I had to switch the pc off and restart manually. I had other writer files / windows open as well, 4 in total, but only one was damaged and corrupted which I find curious. Anyway, I have tried various ways suggested here but to no avail. I'm using version 3.4.

If anyone, maybe acknak, as I have seen a big help throughout the forum would be so kind as to offer any tips or take a look. Nothing seems to be going my direction in my life right now. I can't take this right now. I swear if i don't fix this document i'm jumping off the damn bridge. Can't take this anymore.

Sorry.. here's the file..

[John_Ha]

I am sorry but the file is complete gibberish - there is nothing which can be recovered from it.

See my post immediately above yours for how to un-delete the temporary files which Writer wrote, then deleted, as you were editing the file. As the PC crashed without shutting Writer properly there is an excellent chance that the temporary files were not deleted, in which case they will hold the contents of the file as it was last saved and you won't even have to un-delete them - just rename them.

Of course, if you are backing up important data files you could just get it from your backup ...

Also see Hints to prevent its happening ... switch on Writer's Keep backup copy - this keeps the previously saved fred.odt file as fred.bak.

[Chris Tiberius]

I am sorry but the file is complete gibberish - there is nothing which can be recovered from it.

See my post immediately above yours for how to un-delete the temporary files which Writer wrote, then deleted, as you were editing the file. As the PC crashed without shutting Writer properly there is an excellent chance that the temporary files were not deleted, in which case they will hold the contents of the file as it was last saved and you won't even have to un-delete them - just rename them.

Also see Hints to prevent its happening ... switch on Writer's Keep backup copy - this keeps the previously saved fred.odt file as fred.bak.

Thanks for reply. Well, what if the file was opened from my external hdd, that's where i save them to, I keep A00 on my desktop.

[John_Ha]

what if the file was opened from my external hdd, that's where i save them to, I keep A00 on my desktop.

That does not matter. Read the first post - it tells you how to find where Writer stores the temporary files. They were written long before the PC crashed.

[Chris Tiberius]

what if the file was opened from my external hdd, that's where i save them to, I keep A00 on my desktop.

That does not matter. Read the first post - it tells you how to find where Writer stores the temporary files. They were written long before the PC crashed.

Gotcha. recuva found this in my external hdd folder I saved the original file to : ".~lock.the water door.odt#"

Edit: And that is the only thing I could find. My temp files are in same place as yours. No files there. And recuva couldn't recover anything with odt. Possibly doing system restore messed that all up. As I tried doing that several times and had other issues due to the crash that happened, which made a domino effect. I'm probably screwed...

[John_Ha]

recuva found this in my external hdd folder I saved the original file to : ".~lock.the water door.odt#"

That is the lock file created by Writer to prevent two people editing the same file at the same time - it contains nothing useful to you.

And that is the only thing I could find. My temp files are in same place as yours. No files there.

You are unlucky there are no files there - they have been deleted. So you need to un-delete them.

And recuva couldn't recover anything with odt.

You are not looking for .odt files! When Writer starts, it creates a folder in ...\Temp called something like sv166h3z.tmp. Inside that folder Writer creates a number of temporary files with names like sv166xxx.tmp. Writer then deletes these temporary files when it closes normally.

You are looking for these now deleted temporary files - that is for files with names like ...\Temp\sv166h3z.tmp\sv166xxx.tmp. These files are are actually odt files, but are named as .tmp files, and they contain the document text etc. Use Recuva to un-delete them and rename ...\Temp\sv166h3z.tmp\sv166xxx.tmp to ...\Fred.odt. Now open Fred.odt with Writer.

Note that there may be several folders like ...\Temp\sv166h3z.tmp\ and ...\Temp\ql821g9h.tmp etc, where each folder was created when Writer opened an odt file.

[Chris Tiberius]

You are looking for these now deleted temporary files - that is for files with names like ...\Temp\sv166h3z.tmp\sv166xxx.tmp. These files are are actually odt files, but are named as .tmp files, and they contain the document text etc. Use Recuva to un-delete them and rename ...\Temp\sv166h3z.tmp\sv166xxx.tmp to ...\Fred.odt. Now open Fred.odt with Writer.

Note that there may be several folders like ...\Temp\sv166h3z.tmp\ and ...\Temp\ql821g9h.tmp etc, where each folder was created when Writer opened an odt file.

Oh ok, sorry about that , i get it now.

i see recuva getting from AppData\Temp a bunch of these files: \Temp\ocr4785B.tmp\ so I'm checking them all I guess. Every time I rename and change extension to .odt, and open it up in writer I get this pop up btw, just showing, i don't get it.

[John_Ha]

If you cannot open it with Writer, then see the post about Inside an odt file.

Open the odt file with a ZIP utility (like PK Zip for Windows or 7-Zip). Extract the file content.xml. Open it with a text editor like Notepad. It has all the text mixed up with the formatting tags. Delete the tags.

Or, create a new odt file called fred.odt with a few words of text. Use the zip utility to remove Fred's content.xml and put content.xml from the recovered file into Fred. Open Fred.odt as normal - you should see your formatted text.

If you want, send me a Private Message (PM on right) with the recovered file (if less than 128k) and I will have a look at it.

Note that there are likely to be many .tmp files - concentrate on the most recent files. The files may already have been partially or totally overwritten so while it usually works you may be unlucky.

[Chris Tiberius]

Ok thanks, but not sure what to send you there are many recovered files. I'll keep checking. Can you clarify/elaborate on "extract file content .xml". I don't see an option or any "content.xml when I try to 7-zip it.

[John_Ha]

When you unzip, you should see this. Now extract content.xml - with 7-Zip just drag it out.

Try unzipping a good odt file so you know what to expect.

If you don't see those files, the recovered file is corrupted.

[John_Ha]

Sorry - I misread your comment

i see recuva getting from AppData\Temp a bunch of these files: \Temp\ocr4785B.tmp\ so I'm checking them all I guess

Although \Temp\ocr4785B.tmp looks like a file it is not - it is a folder.

You need to look inside it to find the temporary files - called something like ocr4769p.tmp within the ...\Temp\ocr4785B.tmp folder, where the first 5 characters are the same.

Hence you are looking for files called something like ...\Temp\ocr4785B.tmp\ocr4769p.tmp

[Chris Tiberius]

Sir, I think because I did system restore the file may not be there. All temp files are listed well after the crash. After it crashed and I couldn't figure it out, I figured system restore would do the trick naively, unfortunately. That has to have something to do with it, right?

[John_Ha]

System Restore should not itself affect it.

The problem is that when a file is deleted, the file is still there on the disk, but it is marked "OK to use this part of the disk". When somethimg needs to be written to disk, Windows looks for bits of the disk which are available so the longer you wait, the more stuff you write to the disk and the more likely the file will be overwritten with new data. Each time you boot the PC, Windows writes hyperfil.sys which is typically about 3GB of data to disk.

If Recuva cannot un-delete the ...\Temp\ocr4785B.tmp\ocr47XXX.tmp files you have no hope.

Ir Recuva can un-delete the ...\Temp\ocr4785B.tmp\ocr47XXX.tmp files, you may be lucky, and the files are OK. But you may be unlucky, and part of the file may be OK, but part may have been overwritten.

[Chris Tiberius]

I see. THat makes sense. Thanks for explaining that. As it turns out, I ended up rebooting countless times because I had trojans/objects from a download, which was causing the problems. So it caused me to reboot many times, including system restore. I arrived here after all the chaos. Wish I could have gone here first thing.

If anything, i'll be able to never have this happen again because of this forum and your advice. Silver lining/bright side I guess. After some time has passed I have decided to re-do the work. It sucks, but I can do it, just need the motivation. I feel better emotionally after some time has passed.

Thanks for your help John. Btw added some screenshots here just to show you.

[John_Ha]

If you want to validate that you are doing it correctly, open an odt file. Check inside ...\Temp\ to see what the temporary file is called. Make an edit in the odt file and save the file. Close AOO.

Now try and recover the temporary file which AOO should have deleted when you closed it. When you have recovered the file, look inside it with the Zip utility to see what it is and and if it is the document file, rename it to odt and open it with Writer.

[Chris Tiberius]

If you want to validate that you are doing it correctly, open an odt file. Check inside ...\Temp\ to see what the temporary file is called. Make an edit in the odt file and save the file. Close AOO.

Now try and recover the temporary file which AOO should have deleted when you closed it. When you have recovered the file, look inside it with the Zip utility to see what it is and and if it is the document file, rename it to odt and open it with Writer.

Well, weird, when I open a new file , nothing gets updated in that temp folder. I edit/save, nothing gets updated there.