How to recover A corrupted Excel 2003 file

[simora]

We have a folder filled with Excel 2003 files, but now somehow the filetype is changed to a wbcvraa file type. Dont know how that happened.

I cannot find a way for excel to open or repair these files. Google searches have not returned any useful information. Any help or suggestions appreciated.

[PAB]

We have a folder filled with Excel 2003 files, but now somehow the filetype is changed to a wbcvraa file type. Dont know how that happened.

Do you mean the .xls part of the filename at the end?
If so, have you tried substituting the wbcvraa file type with .xls

I hope this helps!

[simora]

Hi PAB: (http://www.vbaexpress.com/forum/member.php?42629-PAB)

They were all .xls files. Now in the Properties, it shows File Type: WBCVRAA File
The file name still has the .XLS at the end of some of the files. Others have the .xls.wbcvraa at the end. Any ideas on how to fix this mess ?

[PAB]

Have you tried right clicking on a file and going into properties, and on the general tab click change and select Excel?

[PAB]

One other idea :115:.

Click the drop down menu at the top left corner of the screen while you are in an Excel SpreadSheet.
Click Open.
Highlight one of the files you want to open.
Click the little down arrow next to open in the bottom right hand corner.
Click open and repair.

I hope this helps!

[simora]

Thanks guys but I already tried all of those but none of that works. I was just able to open the file to see it. Just a bunch of corrupted data for ALL of the files. Need a way to repair them somehow.

[Paul_Hossler]

Post a simple one as an example and let people experiment with it ????

[snnisy1986]

Hi，simora，

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.

2. If method 1 fails, there are still several methods to recover your Excel file manually with Excel, including writing a small VBA macro

3. Third, there are also free tools from third-parties that can open and read Microsoft Excel files, for example,

3.1 OpenOffice . This is a very famous open source project that is designed to support Office file formats, including Excel files. The software can run under Windows.

3.2 KingSoft Spreadsheets. This is a free Windows tool that can open Excel files.

Sometimes when Excel fails to open your file, these tools may be able to open it successfully. If that is the case, then after the Excel file is opened, you can just save it as a new file which will be error-free.

4. 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 such as WinRAR 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.


There may still be some warnings when opening the fixed file in Excel, just let ignore it and Excel will try to open and repair the fixed file. If the file can be opened successfully, then you can just save the contents into another error-free file.

5. If all above methods do not work, then you may try third-party tools such as DataNumen Excel Repair

It provides a free demo version so that you can try to see if the data you want can be recovered or not.

Good luck!

[simora]

Hi Guys. I found some hard copy ( PAPER ) with much of the data that I needed, however, when time permits, I will post one of the files so that others can have a go at it.

Appreciate all of the suggestions, some of which I had already tried to no avail.

Again. THANKS !

[PAB]

Hi simora,

Thanks for keeping us updated.

If you do manage to find a way to retrieve the X-Files, then please post the method, so others in the future will benefit from your unfortunate dilema.

As Paul_Hossler suggested, please post a sample WorkBook so we can have a go at it.

Thanks in advance.

[Aflatoon]

The behaviour you describe is typical of a cryptolocker type virus, in which case your chances of recovering any data are extremely small.

[Paul_Hossler]

The behaviour you describe is typical of a cryptolocker type virus, in which case your chances of recovering any data are extremely small.

I thought of that, but usually ransomware puts an instruction sheet in the folder and on the desktop so it's kind of hard to miss

Also Bleeping Computer http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ did not have 'wbcvraa' listed as a ransomed extension

Doesn't mean that you're not correct though

[jolivanes]

If it is cryptolocker, read this.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28661463

[simora]

Hi Guys:
It occurred to me that not only were the files corrupted, but somehow, I could not even copy & paste the code that I could see.
In any case, the data included a lot of personal data including Security numbers, names & addresses. Not sure posting that would be the best idea. Thanks for all the ideas & suggestions. Having some support hard copy did save the day. Again THANKS.

[PAB]

Hi simora,


Thanks for all the ideas & suggestions. Having some support hard copy did save the day. Again THANKS.

You're welcome, sorry nothing that was suggested or you tried didn't work.
Thankfully you had a backup hard copy from which you could retrieve the data.

All the best.