*.xls file won't open even with Excel2002

[Ralf G. Toennies]

This particular file is about 700KB and it is routinely editted using
Excel 2000 and it is normally saved in Win95 format. Today it suddenly
closed itself and when I tried to reopen it Excel said it was already
open and asked if I wanted to revert back to the saved version. I do
not recall how I answered this but I could not get it to open and it
did not show up in the Window tab. When attempting to open the file,
the screen just remained inactive. Other files were open and I was
able to open new files. I decided to reboot and held my breath but all
I got was a message at the bottom opening autosave.xls and then the
familiar macro warning.
I read on this NG that Excel2002 might be able to open it and so I
emailed it to an Excel2000 user. When he tried to open it, he got a
message to the effect that Visual Basic Modules are now editted in the
V Basic editor, not the work book. To see your modules click the V.B.
editor etc. I have done this with my Excel2000 and see the individual
worksheets listed as well as the macros but I did not find anything to
help me open the file. Does the Excel 2002 have some additional
capabilities in the VB editor to permit the file to open?
What else can I do?

 

[Lady Layla]

So what error message are you getting trying to open the file? Try cleaning out
your temp directories and temp internet files, then rebooting



: This particular file is about 700KB and it is routinely editted using
: Excel 2000 and it is normally saved in Win95 format. Today it suddenly
: closed itself and when I tried to reopen it Excel said it was already
: open and asked if I wanted to revert back to the saved version. I do
: not recall how I answered this but I could not get it to open and it
: did not show up in the Window tab. When attempting to open the file,
: the screen just remained inactive. Other files were open and I was
: able to open new files. I decided to reboot and held my breath but all
: I got was a message at the bottom opening autosave.xls and then the
: familiar macro warning.
: I read on this NG that Excel2002 might be able to open it and so I
: emailed it to an Excel2000 user. When he tried to open it, he got a
: message to the effect that Visual Basic Modules are now editted in the
: V Basic editor, not the work book. To see your modules click the V.B.
: editor etc. I have done this with my Excel2000 and see the individual
: worksheets listed as well as the macros but I did not find anything to
: help me open the file. Does the Excel 2002 have some additional
: capabilities in the VB editor to permit the file to open?
: What else can I do?

 

[Ken Wright]

Ralf, I'll happily give it a go for you if you want to mail me direct - Need to
take the NOSPAM bit out of my email address though. 2000 has no tools for this,
but 2002 and 2003 have a repair utility in them. Likewise OpenOffice is also
very good at opening these. No promises but I'll happily give it a go.

 

[Ralft]

I get no error messages at all. The Excel 2002 user did not get any either
except for the informational window about VB that I quoted verbatim 2002.
There are 25 subdirectories in my C:\Documents and
Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp directory as well as 1,555
objects. Should I delete all? Is there any danger with this?

 

[Ken Wright]

File recovered and on it's way to you. I noticed that it was in 95 format, so
just in case I've sent you two back, one in 95 format and one in 97 format
(Excel 2003 still uses 97 format).

OpenOffice to the rescue again

Let me know if you have any problems with it.

I found 13 sheets mostly starting either 03 or 04, eg

03loss
statsort
namsort
emlsrt
callsrt
03namsrt
03statsort etc

 

[Dave Peterson]

Ken fixed your xl problem, but I delete all my files in my temp folder whenever
I want.

I figure that Temp means temp!

If you save your work there (bad habit), then move anything you want to keep
first.

 

[Norman Hinds]

Try http://www.fdrlab.com/repair.html
They can recover corrupted Excel files with all contained information
including comments, VBA, charts, links etc.
No one software can do this completely.

Good Luck