Word Files corrupting

win 7 Home Edition, Word 7, previous good form, new Ram (128) addressd recently.

I'm finding that more of my Word files cannot be opened because they are corrupt according to the error messages I get. The icon at the left of the file name goes dull or whites out.

Any one know what causes this or what can be done about it?

Is there a program for opening them? I've tried WordPad and Note Pad but without much success. I cant find a free program for opening them. I'm stumped, any ideas?

thanks to all contributors.

a reply to: Azureblue

Drag them over to a USB and see if they open on a different computer. Another idea is to upload one of your broken Word docs to a PDF Converter site. A successful conversion tells you the problem is on your computer.

Open Office is a free Office suite.

If it isn't too late, it's a good idea to keep back-ups of Word docs on CD or portable drives.

a reply to: Azureblue

Is this a conspiracy website?

Then ... I bet the answer to your problem is to buy the upgraded versions of Windows and Office ... and a new computer.

a reply to: Azureblue

www.openoffice.org...

Here is a free alternative to MS Office.

a reply to: Azureblue

if MS Word isn't opening them, I doubt any other DOC editor will be successful.

Could be disc corruption, unless it's an SSD. and if it is a bad HDD, it will likely be affecting more than word files?

Worst case scenario, but I can't see why they'd be corrupted otherwise.

a reply to: Azureblue

The 'greyed'-out' icons make me think that you might have a wrong file association which is exposing temporary files as if they were Word documents (or vice versa)?

Or, perhaps, the files are 'locked' by a process (like some sort of incompatible add-on) that is not allowing the file to close. The file system would then be unable to access the file in the file manager until Windows was restarted, which may also not work as Word itself may not be able to update the locked file & therefore it is incomplete.

Try disabling all add-ons in Word and see if that helps. If you start Word with the 'Ctrl key' held down, it starts in safe mode with no add-ons.

I can (vaguely) recall seeing something similar with an older scanning/OCR package that turned out to have lost compatibility after Word 2007. The latest version of the same scanning software had no issues at all but the interim fix was to disable the add on.

File-locking also could be an anti-virus compatibility issue, too.

a reply to: Azureblue

I was gonna add to what Kandinsky siggested with this exception: Open the file(apparently damaged and al) and re-save it anyway as rtf. file and then try and open it.

Good luck...may work

Another thought is ransomware. Maybe these files are "locked down" or encrypted. Try opening Word, by itself, and see if it throws any errors.

JT

a reply to: chr0naut

Generally a locked file will result in the alert that the file is locked by another process, and won't open in a corrupted state.


It, from description, resembles when you undelete a file where the disc space has been over written. Corrupted data. Which is the same as a faulty hdd.


Locking the file wont let you open it at all, in general. so I'm still wondering on what medium the word files are stored. faulty cd/dvd burn? an old hdd (if 128 is the amount of ram, I'm guessing it's not 128gb) which infers an old old machine.

Another thing, if they are old word documents, newer versions may need to convert elements to be compatible and if this is the case, they may actually corrupt them on the fly. Hopefully, you've not resaved anything.


The previous advice to try an online converter makes most sense. if it is successful, you have hope if not, you need to find an old version of word, or something that entertains the elements in the document.


backwards compatibility with M$ products can result in some unexpected results.... trust me, I have tried to open old projects I was working on years ago, and oh hell no, easier to start again than fix the issues it fixed.... Oo

a reply to: Azureblue

PS, wordpad and notepad are not very good for opening a word document, no matter the version.


simply put, they are plain text editors, wordpad being a little more rich text. but there is no ability for them to render the document in any readable form given that word is more a defined structure, not plain text. Even wordpad opening it as an RTF file, is not going to do it.


Open office, but like I say, it mimics the format almost 100%, but if Word wont, it wont either.

One more thought, if the machine is not old, and the documents are not corrupt, what is the extension they have?

could it be they were saved in one format, but you're opening them in another?

that would do it also.

a reply to: Azureblue

If you have a hotmail/live/msn email account, upload it onto their skydrive or whatever it's called and try opening it on there. I'm not sure if Google Docs can open such things, but try with that if you have a gmail account.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: Azureblue

Drag them over to a USB and see if they open on a different computer. Another idea is to upload one of your broken Word docs to a PDF Converter site. A successful conversion tells you the problem is on your computer.

Open Office is a free Office suite.

If it isn't too late, it's a good idea to keep back-ups of Word docs on CD or portable drives.

Great idea, I should have thought of that, thank you.

a reply to: Snarl

Na, I run Office 7 still.

a reply to: Macenroe82

Thanks, I will wait until my Office 7 *hits it self then I will do that. Perhaps thats what is happening now?

a reply to: mysterioustranger

good idea, thanks

originally posted by: Greenblaz
Another thought is ransomware. Maybe these files are "locked down" or encrypted. Try opening Word, by itself, and see if it throws any errors.

JT

No it doesn't throw any errors but the numbers of affected files in going upwards
thanks

originally posted by: Snarl
a reply to: Azureblue

Is this a conspiracy website?

Then ... I bet the answer to your problem is to buy the upgraded versions of Windows and Office ... and a new computer.

Im not putting much into that line at this stage but perahps it could the disk as it 2-3 years + old ??

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: Azureblue

The 'greyed'-out' icons make me think that you might have a wrong file association which is exposing temporary files as if they were Word documents (or vice versa)?

Or, perhaps, the files are 'locked' by a process (like some sort of incompatible add-on) that is not allowing the file to close. The file system would then be unable to access the file in the file manager until Windows was restarted, which may also not work as Word itself may not be able to update the locked file & therefore it is incomplete.

Try disabling all add-ons in Word and see if that helps. If you start Word with the 'Ctrl key' held down, it starts in safe mode with no add-ons.

I can (vaguely) recall seeing something similar with an older scanning/OCR package that turned out to have lost compatibility after Word 2007. The latest version of the same scanning software had no issues at all but the interim fix was to disable the add on.

File-locking also could be an anti-virus compatibility issue, too.

Thanks for that. its just occurred that its also not uncommon to find that when hit the "Shutdown' button, it has been known to hang all night unitl the next morning. It takes some time to shut down it does shut down. It never seems to shut down farily quickly like it does when its new. I sometimes tell it to shut down by force because its hanging.

Might that have something to do with it?
thanks

a reply to: mysterioustranger

thanks