the MOST

Maybe you’ve had that one Excel workbook that you’ve used for years. It’s probably even traveled with you from one version of Excel to the next and even outlasted a desktop or two. But then one day the workbook with years worth of data won’t open. You click on it, nothing, you try to open it directly from Excel, nothing.

Most likely, you have a corrupt file.  It is difficult, if not impossible, to diagnose why a file has become corrupt.  It usually happens when a file has been written and rewritten many times.  With a corrupt file, often your best bet is just to recover the data, if possible, and copy it to a new file.

Excel has some built in recovery actions available that may get your data back and won’t send you to an expensive data recovery company. When you are dealing with a corrupted file, Excel will often start a file recovery and attempt to repair the data when opening. But when a file simply doesn’t open, you will need to try a manual recovery. This is not a guaranteed fix but worth a try.

Manually Recover a Workbook:

1. Make a copy of the file you are attempting to open; this will allow you to go back and try other options later.
2. Rename the copy.
3. From the Microsoft Office Button in Excel select Open.
4. In the Open dialog box, select the copy you have just made.
5. Click on the drop down menu arrow on the right side of the Open button.
   Select Open and Repair.
   • To recover as much of the workbook data as possible, click Repair.
   • To extract values and formulas from the workbook when an attempt to repair the workbook is not successful, click Extract Data.

For complete instructions and Options on repairing a corrupted workbook go to:
Microsoft Office Online

The Open and Repair feature is also available in Word and PowerPoint.