the file is 37kb and 1 or 2 pages long. I cannot open it and any repair attempts have failed. I tried within MSWord and several programmes on the internet. Can anybody help? 5 Euro bounty via PayPal offered. Thank you.

Attached Files

broken file.docx (37.4 KB, 10 views)

The attachment is not a DOCX format document. It is a binary file made up of a lot of zero length bytes. There is nothing that can be done to recover whatever it may have contained originally.

__________________
Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) (2002-2019)
Visit my web site for more programming tips and ready made processes www.gmayor.com

Thank you. It's weird. Was part of a group of files that I copied off a USB stick, or uploaded it directly to Google Drive. I don't know if the file was broken in the first place. Maybe the copying/uploading process did this. Of the maybe 10 files all but two can be openened normally.

Use of a USB stick with Word is the most frequently-reported cause of loss of documents. Word doesn't play well with these. You can transfer the files to/from such a stick in Windows, but opening them in Word directly from the stick can result in loss. Likewise, saving directly to the stick from Word.


The second most-reported cause of loss of documents is opening directly from an email. Save to the hard drive then open from the hard drive. (This doesn't result in destruction of the documents, just inability to find them before the operating system deletes them.)