How to Recover Corrupt Excel Files

By eHow Computers Editor

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Computer files become corrupt sometimes and Excel files are no exception. Sometimes there are reasons, like computers being turned off inappropriately, corrupt sectors on a hard drive, or viruses. Other times there is no rhyme or reason, it just happens. Not many things are more maddening than this, but now there are ways to try recover some and at times, all the data.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Step1

Launch Microsoft Excel using the Excel executable icon or through the "Start" bar.

Step2

Click "File", "Open" and an Open window will pop up. Highlight the file that is corrupt by clicking the file just once. Click the arrow to the right of the "Open" at the bottom of the window. Select the option "Open and Repair."

Step3

Select "Repair" when the window directions prompt you. If Excel is unable to repair the file it will give you the option to "Extract Data." Pick this option and save the new file. If changing the name of your file be sure that all calls to this file get changed also.

Step4

Try saving the file in HTML format if Excel stops responding while working in the spreadsheet. Select "File" then "Save as Web Page." A new Save Window will pop up.

Step5

Pick the option "Entire Workbook" in the new window. Click "Save" and close the file. Reopen the new HTML file that you just closed, by selecting "File" and "Open." Wait for the file to completely open and then do a "Save as Type" and select "Microsoft Excel Workbook."

Step6

Rename the file to a different name so not to overwrite the old one. Some data may be lost by saving as HTML but at least the entire file will not be lost. This same procedure can be used to recover files, but instead of saving it as HTML you save it as XML Spreadsheet format.

Step7

Buy third party software to try to repair the file or try defragging the hard drive.

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Comments

fyz1 said

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on 3/1/2008 It is so complex. I would rather try a popular Excel file recovery tool called Advanced Excel Repair to repair your Excel file. It is a powerful tool to repair corrupt or damaged Excel files.

Detailed information about Advanced Excel Repair can be found at http://www.datanumen.com/aer/

And you can also download a free demo version at http://www.datanumen.com/aer/aer.exe

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