Recovering a corrupted file help

[vll1018]

Hi all, new here and joined because I'm having trouble figuring this one out. I was doing some writing this morning, and after I saved the file I closed my laptop. It unexpectedly powered down at some point and when I started to go back to writing this afternoon, the file looked like this ##############

Row after row of nothing but that. No words left at all. I did manage to get the back up copy from auto recovery, but several edits and new paragraphs are still missing. So far, I've tried pretty much every suggestion anyone can think of. Make a copy and convert it to a zip file. It says there's nothing in the zip file. No content.xml. Tried installing libreoffice. Said the file couldn't be repaired. Downloaded the free trial version of practically every recovery tool known to man. Nothing. Kernel for writing got me closest. Said the file was successfully recovered.

But that recovered copy looks like this: PK##### That's it. One short line and then blank pages.

So I tried the tutorial here about finding temporary files. I found one from the right time frame, but when I opened the folder the file inside had the wrong date. And was also empty after being changed to .zip.

Is there anything else I can do at this point with the supposedly recovered file that says PK#####? Or the corrupted original?

[robleyd]

As you probably read in [Tutorial] The Dreaded Pound Signs: file reduced to #### , the original file is totally empty of any daa.You have tried recovering temporary files and had no success. Your only option now is to work with what you have been able to get from file recovery.

For future peace of mind you might consider installing the Timestamped backup extension, which will allow you to make multiple, timestamped backups of your documents.

[vll1018]

Well...that's pretty much the worst thing you could've said. I've been trying all day to get the darn thing back, but at least it's only a couple paragraphs.

IDK if it's relevant or not, but when I went to open the file it had something about registering and choosing the language. Followed by disaster. What was up with that?

[robleyd]

What was up with that?

OpenOffice was terminated while it was trying to close and the user profile was also damaged in the crash. On restart, OpeOffice tries to create a new profile, part off which involves entering your name etc. See [Tutorial] The OpenOffice User Profile for more information on the profile

[RoryOF]

It is possible (outside chance) that Recuva or PhotoRec (only one needed) may find a deleted work file. Download one of these and let it do a deep search of your hard disk. But there is no guarantee!