Corrupt excel .XLS file (OLE header corruption?)

Asked by HerbertLorenz

I have several old excel files that got corrupted when a server had a power surge. They were being used on a Mac 10.6 client and I have tried to fix with disk utility, many excel file repair packages on mac and pc and online, tried also opening in alternate software like open office and JMP to no avail. Is there any hope for this data?

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JacobBrown
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#1

Why not use your backups? You did make backups, right?

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#2

Why should several files get corrupted by a power surge?

This most probably is another fake question that was created just for the purpose of promoting some dubious 'repair whatever Windows files' software that does not have any connection with Ubuntu.

You can expect that in a few hours, maybe days, someone else will post a nice formulated advertising message that there is the best program in the world for sale, and that it for sure would solve the problem.

All this is just plain misuse of the Ubuntu question area in Launchpad.

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Best JacobBrown (jacobbrown) said :
#3

When an Excel file is corrupted, then you can try several methods to recover it:
1. First of all, you can try to repair the file manually in Excel, as follows:
(1) On the File menu, click Open.
(2) In the Open dialog box, select the file you want to open, and click the arrow next to the Open button.
(3) Click Open and Repair, and then choose which method you want to use to recover your workbook.
You may find more information about this at:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/repairing-a-corrupted-workbook-HA010097017.aspx?CTT=1 (for Excel 2007)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/repairing-a-corrupted-workbook-HA010342840.aspx?CTT=1 (for Excel 2010)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/repair-a-corrupted-workbook-HA102749554.aspx?CTT=1 (for Excel 2013)
2. If method 1 fails, there are still several methods to recover your Excel file manually with Excel, including writing a small VBA macro, as below
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/repair-a-corrupted-workbook-HA102749554.aspx?CTT=1#_Toc337637262
3.For xlsx files, they are actually a group of files compressed in Zip file format. Therefore, sometimes, if the corruption is only caused by the Zip file, then you can use Zip repair tools to repair the file, as follows:
4.1 Assuming the corrupt Excel file is a.xlsx, then you need to rename it to a.zip
4.2 Start WinRAR, go to "Tools > Repair Archive" to repair a.zip and generated a fixed file a_fixed.zip.
4.3 Rename a_fixed.zip back to a_fixed.xlsx
4.4 Using Excel to open a_fixed.xlsx.
5. If all above methods do not work, then you may try third-party tools such as XLS Repair Kit at http://www.xls.repair/ It provides a free download version so that you can try to see if the data you want can be recovered or not. Good luck!

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HerbertLorenz (herbertlorenz) said :
#4

Yes, the backup has not been done recently.

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HerbertLorenz (herbertlorenz) said :
#8

Thanks JacobBrown, that solved my question.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#9

As predicted. The answer has - just as the question - nothing related to Ubuntu, but provides a link to a product-to-buy.

Plain misuse of the Ubuntu area on Launchpad for marketing of questionable products.

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Matthewrobbin (matthewrobbin) said :
#10

To repair corrupted Excel Files, try Open and Repair function of MS Excel first. It is built-in repair function that helps me fix my corrupt .xlsx files and open them. As it is a built-in feature, it has a drawback. It might not work in severe corruption issues. In such situation, we can try a third-party http://www.mannatsoftware.com/stellar-phoenix-excel-repair.html Tool which to recover data from corrupt XLSX files that helps helps you repair corrupt .xlsx files and recovers your maximum possible data from them.