Each of us was likely to find ourselves in a situation where, due to some kind of system malfunction or emergency shutdown of a particular program, a previously opened or expected to open document did not open. Applications associated with such objects usually display messages that the file is damaged, reading is impossible, and more. And if this is an important document on which you worked day and night, and you need to edit it immediately? Let us briefly dwell on some basic methods of recovering damaged files by looking at a few typical situations and objects that are most often affected by damage. Of course, it will not be possible to describe absolutely all possible situations, therefore we will take office documents, multimedia objects, archives and databases as the main examples.
The simplest method for opening damaged documents
In general, a lot of experts, as a simple step, do not recommend using specific methods for opening damaged documents in their associated applications or through the use of software that supposedly can restore such objects, but it’s much easier to act.
If we assume that some object does not open due to system malfunctions in the operating system itself, when a full reboot of Windows follows an error, it is quite possible that an automatic rollback to a working state or system recovery with manual selection of a rollback point will help.
The most effective means are sometimes called the most common system reboot with the choice of starting in safe mode. It is very easy to do.
In the OS of the seventh modification and below, such a start can be performed quite simply by using the F8 key at boot, and for the eighth and tenth versions, you can use the advanced start options or standard reboot while holding down the Shift key. Alas, relying only on these methods is not worth it. Therefore, it is better to take the following steps.
Archive Data Treatment
One of the most common situations associated with the inability to open documents is damage to archives. If you downloaded such a document from the Internet, the archiver, when trying to open it for unpacking, will display a message that the file is damaged, reporting CRC problems indicating an unexpected end of the archive. In the simplest case, you can simply try to download the desired document again from the same site or from another source.
However, in almost all modern applications of this type, there is a special function for restoring archives.
For example, in the popular WinRAR program, you can use the repair tool, which is called by pressing the corresponding button on the right side of the main panel, and then specify the desired archive format. If the integrity of the archive cannot be restored using this method, and the program, when you re-open it, again reports that the file is damaged, try to extract documents from the archive container one at a time. It is possible that the critical data remained intact, and problems are observed only with the accompanying descriptive objects, which are not particularly important.
What to do if a Word document file is damaged?
Word documents are most often affected by all kinds of crashes. Typically, when you restart, the editor himself suggests choosing an automatically saved copy for recovery, however, in some cases, manual intervention may be required.
If the program itself does not recover the damaged file or the copy you need is not listed, try opening the object directly from the editor. But instead of opening, expand the drop-down list by clicking on the "Open" button and clicking on the "Open and Restore" item.
DOC file recovery: alternative methods
Another interesting and quite effective method is the use of the built-in converter in Word. If it is missing, in the programs and components section, find the office suite, click the change button, and after starting the installer, install the additional component.
When using it, open the file from the editor, but as an action already in the file type, select text recovery from any document. Everything is simple.
If the program displays a message that the file is damaged and after that, use the most complex technique. First create a new document, enter some text, and then save the document. Next, copy all the text from it, create a new document again and go to the “Paste Special” item in the paste menu. Use RTF formatted text and links as an object. Now, in the editing menu, select the links item and select the associated document and apply the action “Change Source”. Finally, through the review, find the damaged document and open it, after which, in the editing section, select the links item again and use unlink. At the end of these steps, you will be asked to break all the links. Agree to that. All data from the damaged document will be transferred to a new file.
Note: to avoid such situations in the future, in the program settings, go to the save section and set the autosave period to the minimum (1 minute). Finally, pay attention to the fact that sometimes the most common change of document extension helps. Try, for example, changing the format from DOCX to DOC or vice versa. If nothing helps at all, use the Word Recovery Toolbox. Finally, you can try to convert the standard Word document to PDF, and then open it in the editor, and then save it in the desired format.
Opening corrupted spreadsheet files. Nuances
If the “File is damaged” error occurs when opening the tables, just like in the previous case, you can use the open with recovery or change the extension.
However, saving documents with the names of problem books in the SYLK format (.slk) is considered a more effective method. When you reopen the SYLK document, the data can be transferred from the damaged table to a new one, after which you can save the new book in one of the standard formats.
Another technique is to select a damaged file when opening a document from the program, then press the cancel button and then in the first cell (A1) enter the formula " = filename.xls! A1" (without quotes). After that, the data from the damaged table will be transferred to this cell, and to view the contents you just need to increase its size.
Note: similarly to Word, you can try to restore documents in Recovery Toolbox for Excel utility.
Simple actions with graphics
If you have a damaged image file and it doesn’t open any of the well-known programs for viewing or editing graphics, in the simplest case, you can, again, change its original extension to .jpeg.
If this does not help, the best option is to use utilities like Doctor Image or JPEG Recovery.
Audio and video files
As for audio and video, it is easier and best to use utilities specially designed for recovery. However, if the damage has not reached a critical nature, to simplify the actions, you can use any of the known converters that convert formats between themselves. It is entirely possible that they will ignore errors or damages contained in such multimedia objects, and the created files in the converted format will open without problems in the program you need.
As an intermediate solution, you can, for example, use audio editors to extract audio from video. After that, you will need to save the audio track to a separate document (if it was it that was damaged), and then in the video editor replace the original track with the audio from the new document.
Database file damaged: what actions to take?
But with databases it is not so simple. But there is a way out. For cases when the same 1C program reports that the database file is damaged, you can use the most usual method of copying the entire document to any other empty directory. Then you will need to connect to the database, indicating its location. Zeroing the cache sometimes helps to partially get rid of the problem, since everything can be in order with the database, but it is the cached data that is corrupted.
It is also advisable to use the built-in program tool in the administration console as a database testing and recovery tool. In addition, in case of failure during the standard operation, you can change modes, including and disabling various verification functions. In general, the settings here are very thin, and an experienced user can configure the system at their discretion.
Finally, in the same “1C” package, you can run the special applet chdbfl.exe, which is located in the bin directory in the root directory with the installed program, then open it for execution, and activate the error correction item as an executable action.
How to delete a damaged object?
Finally, let's see how to get rid of a damaged object of any type if it is not deleted, but it bothers you on the disk or in some section.
The simplest and safest method is the use of a small Unlocker utility, in which it is enough to select an undeletable object and then set the deletion as an action. If you cannot get rid of the file in this way, first open the tree of processes using the file, complete all of them, and then repeat the deletion.
Are there any universal programs for recovering damaged files?
There are no universal utilities for all occasions that work with absolutely all types of data and file formats. However, strangely enough this may sound, you can use general-purpose programs like R.Saver or R-Studio to repair damaged objects. Firstly, at the end of the scan, they display lists of all the files and folders that have not yet been deleted. Secondly, when restoring temporary objects deleted by some editor automatically, you can try to restore the original damaged document due to them.
In general, do not underestimate the converters. They quite often ignore errors in files (of any format), and after conversion, files that are initially inaccessible for reading and editing open without problems. Minor defects, of course, can persist (especially in the case of multimedia), but as an option, when nothing helps at all, they are not only possible, but necessary.
Note: due to the fact that file corruption may be due to banal occurrence of errors on the disk, it is strongly recommended to check it using the chkdsk N: / f / r command or its extended version of chkdsk N: / x / f / r, where N is drive or partition letter.