How Do I Restore Excel File ?

Excel (XLS/XLSX) file corruption is a common issue that may arise due to problems, such as abrupt system shutdown, system crash, malware or virus intrusion, unsupported add-in, etc. However, MS Excel comes with a recovery feature that allows users to recover or restore Excel files lost or corrupted when the MS Excel quits unexpectedly or computer crashes due to hardware or software-related issues.

But sometimes, the restored version of the Excel file may not contain all the data or changes you made recently. In such cases, you are left with the option to repair the damaged or corrupt Excel file with the help of an Excel repair software, such as Stellar Repair for Excel .

Solutions to Restore Excel File

Below we have discussed various solutions to repair, recover, and restore unsaved, lost, corrupt, or inaccessible Excel files with the help of MS Excel options and Excel repair software.

NOTE: Some of these methods work only if you had enabled or configured certain required settings or options before corruption or losing the Excel file.

1. Restore Lost or Unsaved Excel File via ‘Recover Unsaved Workbooks’ Option

The Recover Unsaved Workbooks option allows you to restore the Excel file that you forgot to save before closing MS Excel or it stopped working. The steps are as follows:

• Navigate to ‘_File > Open._’
• Scroll to the bottom and click on ‘Recover Unsaved Workbooks.’ This opens a File Explorer browser window.

• Now look for the Excel file that you lost and then double-click on it to open and restore the Excel file.
• Once the file is open, click on File > Save As and save it to your desired location.

However, this option works only if you had enabled and set up the ‘Save AutoRecover information every X minutes_’ option and enabled the ‘_Keep the last AutoRecovered version if I close without saving’ option.  

Also, this may not restore the most recent copy of your Excel file, but it will surely save your time that went into creating and editing the workbook.

2. Repair and Restore Corrupt or Inaccessible Excel File

If the Excel file you are trying to open or access is corrupt, MS Excel will display an error message. When MS Excel detects corruption, it starts ‘File Recovery Mode’ to repair the Excel workbook.

However, if it doesn’t start automatically, you can manually repair minor corruption error and restore the Excel file by following these steps:

• Navigate to File > Open and then navigate to the corrupt or damaged Excel file location.
• Select the file and then click on the arrow beside the ‘Open’ button to choose the ‘Open and Repair…’ option.

• Now click ‘Repair’ if you want to recover maximum data from a corrupt or inaccessible Excel workbook and restore it to a new Excel file.

If the ‘Repair’ option fails, use the Extract Data option that extracts values, data, and formulas from the Excel workbook.

3. Revert Excel File to Last Saved Version

When an Excel file gets corrupt or damaged while working, you may revert the Excel file to the last saved version. This allows you to restore the Excel file version that isn’t corrupt or damaged. The steps are as follows,

• Click File > Open.
• Double-click the name of the workbook that you have opened in Excel.
• Click Yes to reopen the workbook.

The workbook opens without any changes you’ve made that might have caused the workbook to become corrupted.

4. Use Excel Repair Software to Restore Excel File

If the corrupt or damaged Excel file isn’t repaired by using MS Excel options or you lost data after restoring the unsaved version or after reverting to the last version, you can rely on an Excel repair software, such as Stellar Repair for Excel.

The software repairs Excel files with 100% integrity and restores the Excel data, such as table, Pivot tables, charts, etc., while preserving the workbook properties and formatting. The software is safe as it doesn’t alter or make changes to the original Excel file and saves the repaired data to a new Excel workbook at your desired location.

It supports Excel files (XLS and XLSX), created in MS Excel 2019, 2016, or older versions. It resolves Excel corruption errors, such as Unable to open Excel file, in a few clicks.

To repair a corrupt or inaccessible Excel workbook by using Stellar Repair for Excel software, follow these 3 simple steps,

• Select the corrupt or damaged Excel workbook file (XLS/XLSX).

• Repair and then preview the Excel workbook.

• Save the workbook at default or your desired location.

Once saved, you can open and start editing or working on the Excel sheet. Make sure to enable AutoRecovery and AutoSave options to avoid data loss due to corruption.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed methods and solutions to restore Excel file when it gets damaged or corrupt due to various issues. Although Excel can help you recover or restore Excel file after corruption, it can resolve only minor corruption errors. Thus, it may fail if the Excel file corruption is severe. In such cases, an Excel repair software, such as Stellar Repair for Excel, comes in handy. It resolves Excel corruption, repairs tables, charts, chart sheets, Pivot table, etc., and restores them to a new Excel sheet with 100% consistency.

‘Open and Repair’ Doesn’t Work in MS Excel

Summary: In this Blog, we will go through Microsoft office most important product i.e Microsoft excel, let’s get into all possible Manual and an alternate method to deal with MS Excel open and Repair doesn’t work issue, read on to know more.

Whether you are a student or an entrepreneur, the features of Microsoft Excel do not delude anyone. Setting goals, creating budgets, analyzing data, calculating salaries, is there anything that Excel can’t do? All of us have used it and trusted it to calculate and provide a solution to our most difficult problems. However, like every other software application, this otherwise reliable application can sometimes fall prey to unexpected errors which can even threaten to make our critical data inaccessible.

A good idea to avoid loss of data when a Microsoft Excel file becomes corrupt is to take some proactive measures, such as saving a backup copy of your files and creating an automatic recovery file at periodic intervals. If you are faced with a corrupted Excel file, you know you can still use the ‘Open and Repair’ function provided by Microsoft to fix and open corrupt Excel file. However, what should a user do when ‘Open and Repair’ is not working? This is a query shared by millions of Excel users worldwide. Sometimes, the ‘Open and Repair’ functionality of Excel stops working due to unknown reasons. In such cases, if users face Excel file corruption, they get stuck with no idea how to fix the Excel file.

Manual method “Reference”

In this guide, we’re providing you with the solutions to this very problem. If Excel ‘Open and Repair’ is not working, read on to find out the procedures that you can perform to open corrupted files.

‘Open and Repair’ doesn’t work: Try an alternative solution i.e. Stellar Repair for Excel to recover everything from corrupt Excel files.

How to Fix Excel file that Won’t Open

If your workbook is opening in Excel, there are two options to recover its data. It would be best if you try to perform one, and if you are unsuccessful, move on to the next.

Revert the workbook to the version that was saved before the corruption

• Launch Excel and click File -> Open

• Select the file that is corrupted and open it
• Click ‘Yes’ to save the copy of the workbook that was saved before corruption

Important Note: If you use this method, you will lose all changes made to the file after it was corrupted.

Save the workbook in the SYLK file format

• Launch Excel and click File -> Save As.
• In the Save as Type field, select SYLK (Symbolic Link) from the drop-down menu, and click Save.

• To save only the active sheet in the workbook, click OK. The system will display a message that the sheet has features that are not compatible with the SYLK file format.
• Click Yes.
• In Excel click File -> Open.
• Select the file that you saved in SYLK file format and open it.
• In Excel click File -> Save As.
• In the Save as Type field, select Excel Workbook from the drop-down menu.
• In the File Name field, type a new name for your workbook and click Save.

The SYLK file format will filter out the corrupted elements from your workbook, thereby restoring your data.

Important Note: Using this method you only be able to salvage the active sheet in the workbook.

How to Open/Fix an Excel file that cannot be opened

In this case too, there are two options to recover the data. Try to perform one, and if you are unsuccessful, move on to the next.

Set the calculation option to Manual

• Launch Excel and click File -> New.

• From the Available Templates window, select Blank workbook.

• Click File -> Options.
• Under Formulas, in the Calculation options section, click Manual.

• Click OK.
• In Excel click File -> Open.
• Select the corrupted file and open it.

The system opens the corrupted file. Since the workbook won’t be calculated, it might open.

Link the workbook to external references

• Launch Excel and click File -> Open.
• Copy the name of the corrupted file and click Cancel.
• In Excel click File -> New.
• From the Available Templates window, select Blank workbook.
• In the new workbook, on cell A1, type the following:

=File Name!A1

In the above command, the filename is the name of the corrupted file.

• On the Update Values dialog box, select the corrupted file and click OK.
• On the Select Sheet dialog box, select the sheet and click OK.
• Select cell A1. Select the same range of rows and columns as occupied by the data in the corrupted sheet, including cell A1.
• Under the Home tab, in the Clipboard section, click Paste.
• While the range of rows and columns are still selected, click Copy.
• Click the Paste
• Under Paste Values, click Values.

Note: This method lets you recover only the data but not the values and formulas from the workbook.

Alternative Solution

In addition to the above-mentioned techniques, you can also use macros to extract data from a corrupted workbook. However, macros are generally risky, and executing them needs prior technical knowledge.

Thus, if the above methods do not yield the desired results, a quick and easy way for reconstructing Excel files is to use Excel Recovery Software . Stellar Repair for MS SQL software is the best choice for rebuilding damaged Excel files and restoring everything to a new Excel file. The product lets you recover table, chart, chart-sheet, cell comment, image, formula, sort and filter data from damaged workbooks and also allows you to fix multiple files at one go.

Wrapping it up

Though one of the above-mentioned techniques should recover Excel file if ‘_Open and Repair’ utility doesn’t work_, in case you’ve reached nowhere even after using them, contact Microsoft support for more help.

‘Unable to Save Excel Workbook’ Issue [Fix 2024]

Summary: You may unable to save your Excel Workbooks due to several reasons. Many users have reported this issue on the Tech Forums. This blog will discuss a few instances when users cannot save their Excel files. It lists the causes behind the issue and their possible solutions. It also mentions the Stellar Repair for Excel to fix the saving error if it is due to corruption in the Excel file.

It is easy to work with Microsoft Excel but sometimes, the application may create issues thereby hampering the smooth functioning of the workbook. One such issue is “unable to Save Excel Workbook”.

Let’s take a look at the issue of Unable to Save Excel Workbook

Instance 1:

In an organization, users connected to one of the servers (Windows 2008 R2) using Citrix – a Terminal Server configured with Windows 2008 R2 –and accessed their data through a File Server, also configured with Windows 2008R2. Since the connectivity to Shared Drive was established through a Terminal server, any conflict amongst the server configuration may create conflict in shared file.

This issue was discussed at length at one of the Tech Forums , where the users were unable to access their workbooks stored on the shared drive. The File menu did not work. As a result, the users were forced to save the workbook by creating quick access shortcuts or locally on the desktop. In many cases, the saving option was ruled out completely.

Instance 2:

A similar problem was reported, wherein the users received an error when saving an Excel workbook after inserting a chart in an existing workbook (previously saved) or copying values from an existing workbook. A system is configured with Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 10 configuration. The issue arises when the user is unable to save the changes after editing in a saved spreadsheet. The following message displays on the screen:

Figure: Unable to Save Excel WorkBook Issue

Further, if the user clicks ‘Continue’, the following error message is received:

“Excel encountered errors during save. However, Excel was able to minimally save your file to <**filename.xlsx**>”.

Note: This issue impacts build Version 1707 (Build 8326.2086) and later, and also only occurs with files that are stored locally, such as on the desktop. This problem does not occur if you manually enter values or insert a chart in a newly created workbook.

Plausible reasons for the ‘Unable to save Excel workbook’ Issue

1. The issue was detected in Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 32-bit, Service Pack 14.0.6029.1000.
2. Excel version on the user system may or may not match with Excel version on File server.
3. The issue of ‘Unable to Save Excel Workbook’ impacts only the Build Version 1707 (Build 8326.2086) and later.
4. In case of Issue 2, the problem surfaces when the user adds files, tables or charts in the locally saved excel files, such as on the desktop.

Methods to fix the ‘Unable to Save Excel Workbook’ Issue

There may be an issue with the Build version or the Registry Values settings may not be appropriate, which does not allow the Excel workbooks to save.

But, before starting to resolve the issue, verify the following:

1. The location where the file is to be saved may not have enough space to save the Excel file: Check the available space and save again. You may also use the option of ‘Save As’ to save the file at a new location.
2. Excel file may be a shared one where edits are not allowed by a specific user: There are restrictions attached to documents and other files shared over the network. Check for these restrictions.
3. Antivirus may interrupt in during file saving: Antivirus in the system may not allow saving of the files. Request the system administrator to uninstall the antivirus and reinstall after saving.
4. The file is not saved within 218 characters: If the file is not saved due to the naming issue, then check the character length and try again.
5. Differences in Windows versions of the local system and those on network drive may cause excel not saved issues. Check that all the systems have the same configuration and are updated to the recently available versions.
6. Excel spreadsheet is corrupt: If none of the above factors have not caused hindrance in saving the file, then there may be a probability of corruption in the Excel spreadsheet .

Once verified, look for a healthy and restorable backup. If backup is missing, resolve the issue of “Unable to open Excel File” with manual settings on local system or through a reliable Excel repair software.

Method 1: Modify Registry Entries

If multiple users are unable to access their workbooks stored on the shared drive and facing unable to save Excel file problem (see Instance 1 above), then follow the below steps:

1. Go to ‘Registry Entry’. To do this, type ‘regedit’ in the Start Search box, and press ENTER

Figure: Edit Registry

2. You are prompted for the administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue
3. Locate the following registry subkey, and right-click it: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC

Figure: CSC Location

4. Point the cursor to New, and click Key

Figure: Create new key

5. Type ‘File Parameters’ in the available box

Figure: File parameters

6. Right-click Parameters, point the cursor to New, and click DWORD (32-bit) Value

Figure: File parameter (DWORD – 32 bit) value

7. Type ‘FormatDatabase’, and press ‘ENTER’. Right-click ‘FormatDatabase’, and click ‘Modify’

Figure: Modify format database

8. In the Value data box, type ‘1’, and click ‘OK’

Figure: Value data

9. Exit ‘Registry Editor’
10. Restart the system and verify if the files can be saved now

Method 2: Try Google Uploads

If the user is unable to save the changes after editing in a locally saved spreadsheet (see Instance 2 above), then follow these steps:

1. Upload the unsaved Excel file to Google Docs. Ensure that the file gets converted to Google Sheets format.
2. Check if all the formulae are active and working.
3. Make changes to the Google Sheet and verify that all the changes are working fine.
4. Use the Google Sheets export feature to download the file in Excel format.

Method 3: Resolve manually with Open and Repair

If the Excel file is found to have corruption, try out the Excel Open and Repair utility:

1. Open a blank Excel File. Go to File and Click Open.
2. Go to Computers and click Browse.
3. Access the Location and Folder and click the arrow icon beside Open followed by Open and Repair.

Figure: Illustrates Steps to use ‘Open and Repair’ method

The Open and Repair utility is not competitive enough and may not fix corruption in severely corrupted files. Hence, if you are unable to save Excel workbook after applying the manual methods, then you can search for a useful software-based repair utility.

Method 4: Excel File Repair Software

Specifically meant to resolve Excel file corruption. Stellar Repair for Excel helps you to repair every single object including charts, tables, their formatting, shared formulae and rules and more.

1. Install and Open the software and select the corrupt Excel File. You can also click the Find option if the file location is not known.
2. Click Scan and allow the software to scan and repair the corrupt Excel file.
3. Once repaired, the software displays the fixed file components to verify its content.
4. Click Save to save the file data in a blank new file as ‘Recovered_abc.xls’, where abc.xls is the name of the original file.

See the working of the software which has been declared as a tool that provides 100% integrity and precision.

The Excel repair software takes care to save the repaired data in a new file to minimize the chances of further corruption.

Conclusion

‘Unable to save Excel file’ is a generic problem that may appear due to various reasons. In this blog post, we presented some of the actual instances reported by users on community forums.

Windows updates, the Build versions, the Service Packs of the local systems and those on the network drive must be either similar or in sync with each other. Any deviation may cause issues in accessing or saving the Microsoft files, as reported in Instance 1 is caused where user is unable to save Microsoft Excel file on the Network Drive. In case, the user is unable to save the file on network drive then the problem lies with the Registry value.

Another case is when the users receive an error while saving an Excel workbook after they insert a chart in an existing workbook or copying values from an existing workbook. This issue is known to affect build Version 1707 (Build 8326.2086) and later, and only occurs with locally stored files.

When a user is unable to save a specific Excel file, then the problem can be resolved using the manual methods or the software based utility. The mode of repair depends upon the level of corruption in Excel file.

Hence, it is suggested to analyze the nature of the problem and decide an appropriate resolution method.

Resolve Compile Error in Hidden Module in Excel: Causes & Solutions

The hidden module in Excel refers to a container with VBA codes, custom queries, and complex macros. The compile error in a hidden (protected) module in the Excel worksheet usually occurs when doing different activities on a macro-enabled sheet, such as merging .xls files. The error can result in macros execution failure. You need to quickly resolve this compile error to restore full functionality of the VBA code. Below, we’ll be discussing the solutions to fix this Excel error. But before that, let’s see why this error occurs.

You may encounter the Compile error in hidden module due to one of the following reasons:

• The code in the workbook is not compatible with the Excel application.
• Manual queries created in a previous version are no longer compatible with your current version of Excel.
• Missing references.
• Invalid .exe files (control information cache files) are automatically created with ActiveX control insertion in Excel file.
• Protected module is corrupted.
• The workbook with hidden module is damaged or corrupted.
• Incompatible add-ins.
• Incompatible Excel file version.
• The module is protected or password-protected.
• Missing or corrupted mscomctl.ocx file.

Excel can throw the compile error while compiling the code that exists in the protected module. So, first check the error and identify the hidden module that is creating the issue. You can unprotect the module. Also, ensure that you have permission to access the VBA code in the module. If the error still exists, follow the below troubleshooting methods.

Method 1: Re-register ActiveX Control Files or mscomctl.ocx Files

You can get the compile error in the Excel file, containing the VBA code related to ActiveX controls or OCX files. The ActiveX control files and OCX files (mscomctl.ocx files) are the components of Microsoft’s standard controls library. The compile error in the hidden module can occur if these files are missing. In this case, you can use the Regsvr32 tool to re-register the OCX files. The Regsvr32  is a command-line utility to register and unregister OLE controls in the Windows registry.

Method 2: Delete .exd Files

 The .exd files are temporary files created by Excel when inserting ActiveX controls objects. These temporary files can lead to a compile error if they are corrupted. So, if this issue has occurred, particularly in the Excel file containing ActiveX controls, then deleting .exd files might fix the issue. To delete the .exd file, follow the below steps:

• First, open the Run window by pressing the Windows+R keys.

• In the Run window, type %appdata%.

• In the Roaming window, click on the Microsoft option.

• Under Microsoft, you will see a list of folders. Search and click on Forms.
• Right-click on a file with .exd extension and select Delete.
• Once you delete the .exd files, restart your Excel application.

Method 3: Rollback the Office Updates

MS Office updates or upgrades may also cause the compile error in hidden module in Excel. If the error has occurred after downloading the recent Microsoft Office updates, try reverting to the previous version or uninstalling the recent updates to fix the issue.

Method 4: Unselect Missing References

The compile error in hidden module determine path in Excel can also occur if your file contains a reference to object library/type library, which is labelled as Missing. You can locate, check, and uncheck the references marked as ‘Missing’ to fix the issue. Here are the steps:

• Open your Excel and press Alt + F11 keys.
• The Visual Basic Editor is displayed.

• Go to the Tools option and then click References.

• In the References-VBAProject window, under Available References, search and unselect the references starting as “Missing”.

• Click OK.

Method 5: Check the Code in Module

The compile error in hidden module can occur if there are issues in the code within the module. The problems include incorrect or missing syntaxes, missing parameters/references, or the code contains incompatible functions or a wrong name of the object. You can check and fix these issues in the code by opening the VBA editor.

Method 6: Check and Remove Add-ins

In Excel, the compile error in macro-enabled files can also occur due to incompatible add-ins. You can check and disable the add-ins in Excel using the below steps:

• First, open the Run window and type excel /safe and then click OK. The Excel application will open in safe mode.
• Now try to open the affected Excel file. If it opens without the error, then check and remove the latest installed Excel add-ins.
• Navigate to the File option and then select Options.
• In the Excel Options window, click Add-ins.

• Under Add-ins, search and select the latest add-ins, and then click on Go.
• In the Add-ins window, uncheck the add-ins and then click OK.

• Restart Excel and then check if the error is fixed or not.

Method 7: Repair the Corrupt Excel File

Corruption in the Excel file can affect the macros in the hidden module, which may result in the compile error. In such a case, you can try repairing the Excel file using Microsoft’s inbuilt utility -Open and Repair. To use this tool, follow these steps:

• Open your Excel application.
• Click the File tab and then click Open.
• Click Browse to select the affected workbook.
• The Open dialog box will appear. Click on the corrupted file.
• Click the arrow next to the Open button and then Open and Repair.
• You will see a dialog box with three buttons - Repair, Extract Data, and Cancel.

• Click on the Repair button to recover as much of the data as possible.
• After repair, a message is displayed. Click Close.

What if None of the Above Solutions Works?

If the above methods fail to get rid of the “compile error in hidden module” in Excel, then use an Excel repair tool such as Stellar Repair for Excel. This tool is specifically designed to repair the corrupted Excel file. It can recover all the components from corrupted Excel file (macros, queries, formulas, etc.) without changing their original formatting. The tool is compatible with all Excel versions and can be downloaded on a Windows system. You can download the free trial version of Stellar Repair for Excel to scan the corrupted Excel file and preview the data.

Closure

You can get the “compile error in hidden module” when Excel detects any issue while compiling the code in a protected module. It can occur when there is an issue with the macro-enabled Excel workbook or Excel add-ins. You can follow the above-mentioned methods to fix the issue. If the error occurs due to corruption in the database file, then you can try Stellar Repair for Excel . It can repair severely corrupted Excel files. It also helps recover all the Excel workbook’s components, including macros and queries. The tool has a simple and user-friendly interface.

Recover Corrupted Excel File 2007, 2010 | Easy Methods

There are several reasons that can cause Microsoft Excel workbooks to turn corrupt, such as virus attack, bad sectors on a drive on which Excel file is saved, system shutdown without properly closing the Excel application, etc.

Corruption in an Excel workbook can result in data loss or render the workbook inaccessible. Fortunately, Excel automatically starts recovery upon opening a corrupted Excel file. But, if it fails, you can manually repair the file or extract data from the corrupt file.

Quick Solution: Performing 2007, 2010 Excel repair or recovery process manually can be time-consuming. Also, manual workarounds to recover corrupt Excel workbook does not guarantee recovering the complete workbook data. Use Stellar Repair for Excel software to repair single or multiple Excel (XLS/XLSX) files in 3 simple steps. The software also helps recover the Excel file, keeping the data intact.

How to Fix Microsoft Excel 2010 & 2007 Files Corruption?

Microsoft Excel comes with an inbuilt repair utility, called ‘Open and Repair’, that helps fix and recover corrupted Excel files.

Steps to Repair MS Excel 2010 Files Manually

The detailed steps to open and repair Excel 2010 are as follows:

• Open Microsoft Excel 2010 and click File from the main menu.

• Next, click Open.

• Browse the corrupt Excel 2010 file on your computer and select it in the Open dialog.

• Click the arrow next to the Open button and choose Open and Repair.

• Click Repair when prompted to recover data to the maximum.
• If Excel fails to repair, click Extract Data to extract values and formulas in the corrupt file.
• Excel prompts to ‘Convert to Values’ or ‘Recover Formulas’.
• Click Yes if it prompts the following error:

“The document file name caused a serious error the last time it was opened. Would you like to continue opening it?

• When Excel opens the last saved file, save it.

Once you’re able to access the last saved 2010 Excel file, try extracting the file contents.

Save Excel 2010 File in HTML Format

If you can open the Excel file, choose the HTML format to save it in filtered form. After that, close the Excel file as you have your data in the HTML file. The steps to save an Excel file in HTML format are as follows:

• Open Microsoft Excel 2010, click Save As, and then choose Web Page in the ‘Save as’ type drop-down list.
• Select the “Enable Entire Workbook” option, and then click the Save button.
• Close the Excel file and reopen your Microsoft Excel application. Browse the HTML file that you have saved.
• Click File from the main menu, and select Save As in the list.
• Type-in a different name, choose Microsoft Excel Workbook in the ‘Save as’ type drop-down menu, and then click the Save button.

With this, you would be able to access the data in the corrupt Excel file.

If the inbuilt tool fails to repair Excel 2010 file, a few methods can help you recover data from corrupted or lost workbook manually.

Steps to Repair Excel 2007 Files Manually

Follow these steps to repair a corrupted 2007 Excel file by using the inbuilt Microsoft Excel repair tool:

• Open Microsoft Excel 2007, click the Office button, and then select Open.

• In the Open dialog box that pops-up, browse and select the corrupt Excel 2007 file. Click the arrow next to the Open button and choose Open and Repair.

• Click Repair when prompted to recover as much data as you can from Excel 2007 file.

• If a repair fails, follow steps 1 till 3, and then click Extract Data to extract values and formulas from the corrupt file.
• In the window that appears, click Convert to Values or Recover Formulas to extract workbook data.

Note: The built-in Microsoft Excel 2007 repair tool may fail to resolve Excel corruption issue. Also, choosing to extract data from the workbook involves data loss risk. Using a professional Excel repair tool, however, can resolve all types of Excel file corruption errors and restore all its data.

Methods to Recover Data from Corrupt Excel 2010 & 2007 Files

If the ‘Open and Repair’ feature fails in getting your Excel 2010, 2007 file repaired, you can try retrieving the file contents by following some manual methods. However, the methods may vary depending on whether you can open a workbook or not.

Method 1 – Move Corrupt Excel File to another System

Move the corrupt Excel file to any other computer and try opening it in MS Excel 2010/2007. Doing so, may help you resolves disk or network-related errors leading to Excel file corruption.

Method 2 – Revert Unsaved Excel File to its Last Saved Version

If an Excel file turns corrupt while working on it but before saving any changes, try reverting it to its last saved version. To do so, perform the following:

• Open your Excel application, click the Office button, and then click Open from the menu.
• Browse the corrupt Excel file, click Yes when prompted to revert to its last saved version.

What if Nothing Works?

If you fail to recover a corrupt Excel 2007/2010 file, perform Excel file recovery with Stellar Excel repair software. The software is specially designed to help users fix their corrupted XLS/XLSX files quickly and easily without any technical assistance. It also helps restore all the file data to its original form.

Points to Remember

• Close all the MS Excel instances before using the software
• If the sheet you are repairing contains engineering formulas, please include ‘Analysis TooPak’ manually from Tools > Add-Ins

If you know the corrupt Excel 2007 or 2010 file location, click Browse to choose the file. Otherwise, click Search. Follow the below steps to recover data from corrupt Excel 2007/2010 file by using Stellar Excel repair tool:

• Click the Repair button to scan the file.

• Once the scanning process is complete, the software shows a preview of recoverable Excel file items.

• To save the repaired file, click the Save File option on File menu.

• In ‘Save File’ dialog box, choose to recover Excel 2007 & 2010 data to either the Default or New location. Click OK.

The repaired Excel file gets saved at the specified location.

Preventive Measures to Avoid Losing Excel File Data

The above-discussed methods might help salvage your data. But, it is recommended that you must take some preventive measures to avoid losing the data. One such important measure is backing up a copy of your workbook automatically. Doing so, will help you get back data in case the workbook is accidentally deleted or corrupted.

Steps to Create Backup Copy Automatically

You can automatically create an Excel backup copy by following these steps:

• Click Save As from the main menu of your Excel application.
• Browse to the location where the corrupt Excel 2010/2007 file is saved.

• In ‘Save As’ dialog box, click the arrow next to Tools button (given at the bottom left corner) and choose General Options.

• In ‘General Options’ box, check Always create backup checkbox, and then click OK.

With this, you instructed MS Excel to create a backup of every Excel file you create or open for work.

Conclusion

This article outlined the typical reasons resulting in a corrupt Excel 2010 or 2007 file, such as virus infection, bad sectors on drive, etc. It explained how to fix a corrupted Excel file by using the inbuilt MS ‘Open and Repair’ tool. The article also discussed methods to recover Excel files in MS Office 2010 & 2007 when the Microsoft Excel repair tool fails. Further, it explained how using a professional repair tool such as Stellar Repair for Excel can come in handy when the manual methods to repair and recover Excel 2007 and 2010 file fails. But, keep in mind, a workbook may get corrupt again. And so, make sure to automatically backup your workbook to avoid losing its data.

How to Repair Excel Document on a Flash Drive

Summary: Microsoft Excel files are stored on flash drives if they need to be transferred between systems or if they need to be backed up. But sometimes unforeseen issues can corrupt the Excel sheets stored on flash drives. When that happens, it can be an arduous task to repair Excel documents on a flash drive. Through this post let us try to understand the reasons why Excel sheets stored on flash drives can get corrupted and how users can resolve them easily.

In this digital age, we all work with computers, files, and documents. Flash drives or USBs are common ways of storing data in an external place. Be it for a meeting or for a party playlist, these devices come handy when one wants to transfer data or access the files stored elsewhere.

You may need to access your data from another location. That’s when a USB flash drive might come in handy. And, that’s exactly why Excel sheets too end up on flash drives; either that or for backup purposes. However, there are many instances where an Excel file stored in a USB gets corrupted when one tries to access the file. The error message you get while trying to open the Excel file would be a great clue for figuring out the exact reason behind corruption.

This blog will provide insights into what are the reasons for the corruption of a USB and how the users can repair Excel on flash drive that has been corrupted.

Reasons for USB inaccessibility

Sometimes flash drives or USBs can become unresponsive due to numerous reasons. There are two types of corruption – logical and physical. Physical corruptions occur due to broken stems and connectors, broken circuits, NAND gate, not recognised, RAW, need to format, not accessible, and dead drives (no power supply).

One of the main reasons behind such an error could be that the USB drive has been infected by some virus. This can affect any file – not only the ones which are there in the USB drive but also the ones which are there in the PC/Laptop where you connect the USB drive. It is recommended that you scan the USB drive with reliable antivirus software to detect viruses.

There can be various other reasons that may make your USB corrupt or unresponsive. But there are very slim chances that you will be able to recover a flash drive that has physical damage. However, you can try to run the check disk on the USB drive to fix the drive. We will be discussing this as you read on.

Recovery Methods for Corrupted Flash Drives

There are 3 tried and tested recovery methods. Try them and see which one works out for you.

1. Restoring Excel Files from Windows backup

To bring back your old Excel files, fixing up the corrupt file is your best option. Importantly note that this method would work only if your system’s Windows backup option has been enabled.

Step-by-step process for restoring your older Excel files:

• Connect your USB drive
• Go to “My Computer”->USB Drive->Check if the file exists
• Right click on the excel file and click on the restore previous versions

• You will now see a list of older versions which were created
• Select one the backups and click on “restore”

2. Using Command Line to Recover Excel Files

In case you are looking to repair Excel on flash drive, you can also resolve it by using the command line. Just follow the below steps to see if you can recover the excel files.

• Connect your USB Flash drive
• Open “Run” (press Windows+R) and then open “cmd”

• Type “attrib -h -r -s /s /d (USB Drive Letter):\*.*” where the (USB Drive Letter) is the drive letter you can find using “My Computer”
• Once this has been completed, Windows will start repairing your files
• After the process gets over, try accessing the excel file to see if the data has been recovered

3. Running a “Check Disk” on flash drives

Follow the below steps while the USB flash drive has been plugged into your computer:

• Open “Run” and then open “cmd”
• Type in “chkdsk /X /f (USB Drive Letter)” where the “(USB Drive Letter)” is the letter of the corrupted USB Drive. You can get this letter easily from the “My Computer”.

It will now check your disk to and correct any corrupted records.

What if none of these methods works?

In case none of the above methods works to repair Excel document on a flash drive, then you would need a professional Excel repair software such as Stellar Repair for Excel to restore your files. Such software not only help repair corrupted Excel files on flash drives but also help in recovering the data stored within them in their original format.

Stellar Repair for Excel resolves corruption problems in Excel files and recovers all formulas, charts, cell formatting, and more from them. It can repair multiple Excel files in one go. Equipped with a fully interactive GUI, working with this product is extremely easy.

To sum it up

Although flash drives are quite popularly used, they are not the most reliable of storage devices. These drives can fail anytime without warning. Thus, always back up your data on other more robust devices instead of flash drives. We hope that with the above tried and tested methods you will easily be able to repair Excel document on flash drive if need be. For any queries that you have, feel free to leave a comment below!

Ways to Fix the “Failed to Parse the Corrupted Excel File” Error

Summary: While parsing an Excel file, you may experience the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” error. It usually occurs if the Excel file is corrupt. This blog covers some easy fixes to fix this Excel error. It also mentions an advanced Excel repair tool that can help fix the issue by repairing the corrupted file.

You may encounter the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” error when parsing (extracting or converting) the data in an Excel file. This error usually occurs if the Excel file is corrupted – either completely or partially (some of its objects, like formulas, macros, and values are corrupt). However, there are various other reasons that may lead to this Excel error. Let’s know the possible causes behind the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” error and how to fix it.

Causes of the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” Error

This error could occur due to any of the following causes:

• Damaged or corrupted macros
• Excel document is closed suddenly
• Issues with Excel application installation
• Virus or malware attack
• Hardware failure
• Bad sectors on the hard drive

Ways to Fix the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” Error

Here are some possible ways to fix this error and recover the Excel file.

Method 1: Try to Save the File in a Different Format

Sometimes, the error can occur if the file format is not compatible with your Excel version. You can try saving the file to a different format. To do this, follow the below steps:

• Open the Excel file.
• Click on the File option and then select Save As.
• Click on Browse option and then click Save as Type.

• Select the desired Excel file format and click Save.

Method 2: Revert to the Previously Saved Version of the Excel File

You can try reverting to the previously saved version of the Excel file. Here’s how:

• Open your Excel application.
• Navigate to File > Info > Manage Workbook.

• Click Recover unsaved workbooks.

• Click on the Restore option you see at the top of the file.

Method 3: Set the Calculation Option to Manual

When the calculation mode is set to automatic, Excel automatically recalculates all the formulas in the file even if you make a minor change. It can take time to load the file and stop you from parsing data in your Excel file. You can change the calculation option to manual so that Excel only recalculates when you explicitly tell the application to do it. Here are the steps:

• Open your Excel application.
• Navigate to File and then click Options.
• In Excel Options, select Formulas.
• Under Workbook Calculation, select Manual and click OK.

Method 4: Use Open and Repair Utility

You can try repairing the corrupted Excel file with Excel’s inbuilt tool – Open and Repair . To use the tool, follow the steps cited below:

• In Excel, go to the File tab and then click Open.
• Click Browse to select the corrupted file.
• The Open dialog box will appear. Click on the corrupted file.
• Click on the arrow next to the Open button and then click Open and Repair.
• You will see a dialog box with three buttons Repair, Extract Data, and Cancel.

• Click on the Repair button to recover as much of your work as possible.
• After repair, a message will appear (as shown in the below figure).

• Click Close.

What If None of the Above Methods Works?

The above methods may fail to work if the Excel file is severely damaged. In such a case, we recommend using an efficient Excel repair tool , such as Stellar Repair for Excel. It can quickly repair corrupted Excel (.XLS/.XLSX) files. It can recover all the objects from the file, including charts, tables, formulas, etc. You can download the free trial version of the tool to preview the recoverable data.

Conclusion

Above, we have discussed some tried and tested methods to fix the “Failed to parse the corrupted Excel file” error. If the Excel file is severely damaged or corrupted, you can try repairing it using a third-party Excel repair software, like Stellar Repair for Excel . It can repair multiple Excel files without affecting the original formatting. The tool is compatible with all Excel versions.