Dear Fellow
I am using Window XP and MS Office XP.
My some of important files (not all) are damaged. When i open it, Word gives message for installing converter, in either case (yes or no), it does some kind of activity and then open the file.

But the file format is entirely change, it means not readable with strange font and symbols....

What i did..
(i) Use 7 types of word recovery software
(ii) Run Symantec Antivirus(corporate edtion, with current update)
(iii) many tips by getting help from many internet



BUT ahhhhh nothing help..

Would be please guide and help..These files are much important for me..as it contain my 7 months research data

With regard

Here is what I would do:

Has these Docs opened okay on my machine recently? If so, and Word's restore failed, I would do a system restore back to a date previous to my problem

See, whether you realize it or not, M$ is all the time updating something, or you have added a program

(System restore does NOT mess with your documents)

By the way, have you noticed this problem spreading to other Word Docs? If so, then this would be another reason to do a System Restore, particularly if you trust your anti-virus program

Dear zyzzyva57

Thanks for guide. But i dont know how to restore system files etc. Would you please guide ............

For XP, follow these steps....It is easy