So.... 4500 words into a thesis and it gets corrupted. Can anyone recommend a method or service that could recover it?? Yes, I'm a dope for not backing it up but this has never happened to me before!!!
Piriform Recuva could recover older versions of it that still exist on your hard drive, but difficult if it's the same file name.
Word docs are really a collection of files that show as one file. It's a very long time since I last did this but I recall that all I did was Google the problem and there was a reasonable fix to recover a lot of data. That data may well be in an XML file, which is the major part of the collection of files. If you're using a Mac, sorry, I can't help you. If Windows, change your explorer settings to show hidden files in the folder you last saved it in. Also, Word has a built-in recovery system in think...
I've googled it and used the word recovery tool. I've ended up with a lot of symbols running to 400 odd pages. Is that the xml your talking about?
It would seem so. Try using an xml editor to open it if it just looks like 'symbols'. Odd that the Word tool doesn't show plain text.
What version of word are you using? - assuming one of the standalone versions rather than Office 365? What’s the file extension - doc or docx? What operating system are you using? What happened to corrupt the file? Are any other files corrupt?
The chances of recovery are slim. You might get lucky if you open the Word app and have a historical list showing in recently opened files. Pick an older version if there is one and resave it under a different name. If you back up your PC ( you really should do) then restore from a backup. System restore is shite, I never, ever fixed any issue with Windows system restore. I use Acronis and do automated full backups twice a week. Both methods recovered my damaged Excel files, but the rule is ALWAYS keep back up versions of important docs. When my girls were at Uni, I bought them USB hard drives for that purpose. My work files I save on two different machines so I always have copies. I also rename with different version numbers too so have previous copies instead of always overwriting the main doc ( Can you tell I have also been burned before ?)
1. Word 2006, although I do have a Office 365 subscription. 2.Doc 3. Windows 10 4. I left it open while playing a game, I think it corrupted it then. 5. No Thanks!
Ah, couldn't remember when Microsoft changed all the programs to be xml based and everything changed to '###x' instead of 'doc', 'xls', etc file extension. Sorry - can't help you with your .doc files other than what's been said above...
