Corrupt Word documents on a USB stick are generally not recoverable by any means. You may be able to use some recovery software that reads the USB memory directly, but even that's not guaranteed to produce anything useful. Failing that, you'll need to restore your dissertation from your latest backup and re-create whatever's been lost.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Paul,

Thanks for the reply! In everything I've read, working directly off a USB is ill-advised. I thought I was being savvy in doing so.

I tried opening the document using a text file, PDF, recovery options, etc. Fail. Coincidentally, I plugged the USB into a PC (I almost exclusively work off Mac) and opened the document using some text-like option akin to Mac's TextEdit. I was able to miraculously recover the majority of what I had completed, graphs and special text not included.

Again, your response is much appreciated.

-Max