Restore or Delete Corrupted Files

I have some corrupted Word and Excel files that I can neither open nor delete. How are they getting corrupted, and what can I do about them?

Betty C. Jung, Guilford, Connecticut

The primary cause of a corrupted file is a system or application crash. If Windows or some other program blows a gasket while you have a file open, the file may not reopen properly later (fortunately, it's more likely to be unaffected).

If you're getting a lot of corrupted files, and you're not suffering a lot of crashes, the problem could be due to a virus--yet another reason to keep your antivirus protection up to date. Or the corruption could result from a flaw in your hard drive's file system or in the drive itself, which is a more serious problem. Using a disk utility to scan the drive will uncover these glitches and fix the file system.

To scan your drive in Windows 2000 and XP, open My Computer, right-click the drive, and select Properties, Tools, Check Now. Check both options and click Start.

In Windows 98 and Me, select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, ScanDisk. Choose the drive, click Thorough, and check Automatically fix errors. Click Start to begin the scan.

The best way to recover a corrupted data file is from a recent backup. If you don't have a recent backup, the program that crashed may have created one for you automatically. For instance, by default, Word backs up every .doc file as a .wbk file in the same folder. Just load this file into Word and save it as a .doc file.

In the absence of any backup, you'll have to use a data-recovery program to retrieve the file. Ontrack markets a series of recovery programs called EasyRecovery, and Recoveronix offers a similar line called OfficeRecovery (see FIGURE 2). In either case, you can download a demo program that will tell you whether your file is salvageable. If it is, you'll still have to buy the actual program--which will probably cost $150 or more--to recover the data. And if that doesn't get you into the backup habit, I don't know what will.

When you encounter a corrupted file that you can't even delete, there are two possibilities. First, the file may no longer exist, but a ghost of it may remain in the file system. Second, Windows may think that a program is still using it. Scan the drive as described above to solve the first problem, and reboot to fix the second.

Memory Card Sneakernet

Do you need a quick and easy way to move files from one computer to another? If you own a digital camera, a PDA, or any other device that uses memory cards, Ed Fink of Brentwood, California, recommends that you use these little squares of flash RAM on moving day. You can buy a CompactFlash or SmartMedia reader for as little as $10; SD, Memory Stick, and MultiMediaCard readers aren't much more expensive. All of these readers plug into a USB port, so you can easily connect them to just about any PC. And once you've moved the files, you have a convenient gadget for data backup and other file-storage purposes.

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