Unable to open files recovered from crash

[OldFatBikerBloke]

Newbie and technophobe so please play nice.

Laptop crashed, it's veeeeeery old - Computer guy fitted new SSD and spent ages recovering data from the many layers (I didn't know existed) of the old hard drive. So I have my documents on the desktop and reinstalled OpenOffice4 = hurrah, have a brandy!!!

Here's the but.... When I open these documents they are just all special characters, all the legible text is lost...

A little box appears and says "ASCII Filter Options" Properties are "Character set - Western Europe (Windows 1252/WinLatin 1) - Default Fonts = Times New Roman - Language = English (UK) - Paragraph Break = CR & CF. I click OK, the file opens but as above....

Is there a way to get my work back? Many thanks in anticipation!!! Saving hard to buy something to back up data in the future....

Edit: Changed subject, was Gobbledygook  Make your post understandable by others  -- MrProgrammer, forum moderator

[LastUnicorn]

Sounds like your files are toast. You're not entirely clear on the error messages you get but if you want to waste your life trying to revive the files them see this: [Tutorial] The Dreaded Pound Signs: file reduced to ####

You are wise to be focused on the future now. As part of that you might want to consider switching from OpenOffice to LibreOffice. There are several good reasons to do so, some of which are mentioned here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information

For your future use concerning backups you might want to give the TimeStamp Backup extension for OpenOffice and LibreOffice a try. You can get basic details here: TimeStamp Backup However, it is best to download from here: TimeStamp Backup (latest version). The version there is the most recent one.

Above said you should also be backing up your important files to at least one drive that is only connected to your computer at the time that you want to make backups. I have backups of my important files on two external USB hard-drives and also on a backup SSD. Useful free software for making file backups is FreeFileSync — there are many other such programs that can be found on the internet. Using FreeFileSync I backup my files at the end of the night in a matter of minutes — this, of course, can never guarantee that I might not run into catastrophe but it does reduce the chances somewhat.

Good luck.

[RoryOF]

Just to verify: are you certain that it is OpenOffice that is trying to open the files? If an ,oft (etc) file is being opened using a plain text editor or a pdf editor, it is usual that one sees "gobbledygook", as the internal storage of OpenOffice files is compressed, and such plain text and PDF applications don't know how to handle this.

Start OpenOffice from the program button and using /File /Open and its navigation buttons, make your way to a folder wherein are OpenOffice files. Select one, and see if it opens. Do not try to open merely by double-clicking a file in the file manager, as that might use an improper file association. If the above longer method works we can advise how to change the file associations to solve the problem.

[OldFatBikerBloke]

Thank you for your replies! Give me a vintage carburetor to rebuild & I'm in heaven, here, well it ain't paradise....

I downloaded OpenOffice4 to the new SSD, stuff I've written since (perhaps unsurprisingly) opens fine but I hoped the recovered docs would too - I tried what you suggested RoryOF but the same 'ASCII Filter Options' window pops up (not really an error message) with same result, just lines of special characters, no readable text.

I guess I've learned a hard (but entirely avoidable) lesson... So much hard work lost but, hey ho, I'll start again backing up frequently LastUnicorn, I promise!!

[RoryOF]

If you still have access to the original hard drive, another transfer attempt might be successful.

[OldFatBikerBloke]

I do still have the old Hard Drive - I'm guessing a recovery attempt is way beyond my capabilities however...

Again guessing but I suppose the data has become corrupted during the initial recovery otherwise why can't OpenOffice 'open' the doc's

[LastUnicorn]

To attempt recovery yourself give Recuva a try. It's easy to use. You would only need the free version.

As to the original drive if it was an old style mechanical Hard-Disk Drive (HDD) then you might have some success in recovering files. If the drive was a Solid-State Drive (SSD) then prospects of recovery are zero.

Assuming an HDD then it could be the case that when your computer crashed the HDD was physically damaged on the way and now the mechanism of the drive isn't working properly any more. If that is the case then good recovery is slim to say the least. Much the same could be said of a damaged SSD during a crash.

Presumably the tech guy that you got to initially deal with the issue knew all this and what he has done is the best that can be done in circumstances anyway.

[RoryOF]

First thing to do is to verify that your OpenOffice installation is working correctly. Can you start a blank file in OpenOffice, type DT, press F3 key to generate dummy text, then Save As and give the file a name. Exit OpenOffice, then try to reload the file. Is all well?

If so, the OpenOffice installation is good. Otherwise, you need to fault find the OpenOffice installation; we will advise on that if necessary.

[OldFatBikerBloke]

LastUnicorn - Pretty sure he said something about other stuff could be recovered - He spent an age on it (retrieving data) so probably wanted to get on with other jobs - Have downloaded Recuva but guess I now need an adapter - Had a quick look on eBay, will source the correct one.

RoryOF - I have OpenOffice 4.1.14 installed - I tried what you suggested but F3 just raised the volume LOL!! - Strangely my '@' is now achieved by hitting shift " - if I hit shift @ I get ".... Motorbikes are easier...

[RoryOF]

Open a blank Writer document. Click in it, then DT followed by F3, and you should get the dummy text. Then do the Save and reopen.

You have changed your default keyboard selection in your operating system. You should verify that you have the correct keyboard set in Windows (probably USA Windows extended, but as I don't use Windows, I'm not certain).

[ZiangzeCho]

Try a different text editor. Some text editors, such as Notepad++ and Sublime Text, can handle a wider range of character sets than OpenOffice. Open the document in one of these editors and see if the text is displayed correctly.
There are a number of file recovery tools that can help you recover data from damaged or corrupted files. These tools may be able to restore the original character encoding of your documents.
If you're unable to recover the data yourself, you may need to contact a data recovery specialist. They have specialized tools and expertise that can help you recover data that is even more damaged than what I've described.