How to Recover a Corrupt Excel File

Repair MethodHTML MethodCopy Data MethodXML Method (Excel 2003)Other Possibilities

There are many ways to work around Excel file corruptions. To recover a corrupt Excel file, try one of the methods below.

EditMethod 1 of 5: Repair Method

1. 
   1
   Open a blank Excel workbook.
2. 
   2
   Go to Open.
3. 
   3
   Find the desired file and choose Open and Repair. This option is in the drop-down list associated with the Open button.
   • If Excel cannot open the file, choose Extract Data.
4. 
   4
   Confirm by clicking Yes. If Excel warns you that the file caused a serious error the last time it was opened, agree to continue opening it.

EditMethod 2 of 5: HTML Method

1. 
   1
   If you can, open the file.
2. 
   2
   Go to Save As. If necessary, choose Other Formats from the quick list of options.
3. 
   3
   Select Web Page from the possible file formats.
4. 
   4
   Make sure Entire Workbook is selected and hit Save.
   • Note that certain elements of the formatting may be lost. Click Yes to confirm orHelp for more information.
5. 
   5
   Locate the saved file.
6. 
   6
   Right-click the file and choose Open With > Microsoft Office Excel.
7. 
   7
   Go to Save As and choose an Excel format from the drop-down list. For example, Microsoft Excel 97-2003 produces the classic .xls format, whereas Excel Workbook produces the newer .xlsx format.
8. 
   8
   Change the title to prevent confusing it with / saving over the (corrupted) original.
9. 
   9
   Hit Save.

EditMethod 3 of 5: Copy Data Method

1. 
   1
   If you can, open the file.
2. 
   2
   Right-click a sheet tab and choose Select All Sheets.
3. 
   3
   Right-click a sheet tab and choose Move or Copy.
4. 
   4
   Choose New Book and check the Create a Copy box.
5. 
   5
   Hit OK.

EditMethod 4 of 5: XML Method (Excel 2003)

1. 
   1
   If you can, open the file.
2. 
   2
   Go to Save As.
3. 
   3
   Select XML Spreadsheet from the list of possible formats and hit Save.
4. 
   4
   Close the file and reopen in Excel.
5. 
   5
   Go to Save As.
6. 
   6
   Select an excel format (ex. Microsoft Excel 97-2003 or Excel Workbook) from the drop-down list.
7. 
   7
   Change the title to prevent saving over the (corrupted) original.
8. 
   8
   Hit Save.

EditMethod 5 of 5: Other Possibilities

1. 
   1
   Close Excel, re-open it, and try to open the file again.
2. 
   2
   If this doesn't work, restart the computer, open up Excel and try to open the file again.
3. 
   3
   If this doesn't work, delete the contents of your c:\windows\temp directory then reboot. Try again.
4. 
   4
   If this doesn't work, open the file using OpenOffice. This is free, Microsoft-compatible software that may be able to work around the corruption.
5. 
   5
   If this doesn't work, open Excel in Safe Mode. This will disable VBA and Add-ins.
   • Restart the computer in Safe Mode.
   • Click on Start then Run then enter the actual path to the executable file. Depending on your version of Windows, this may be C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\excel.exe, C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office11\excel.exe, or something similar. (For Excel 2002, Office XP, click cancel if the MS Office Installer starts; Excel in safe mode will still start)].
   • Try to open the file.
6. 
   6
   If this doesn't work, be sure to scan the file for viruses. Make sure your macro heuristics scanning option is turned on. Ask your IT administrator how to do this.
7. 
   7
   If you don't find a virus, copy the file and rename the copy with a .doc extension. (This option may not be available on newer systems.) Try to open it as Word document.
8. 
   8
   If this doesn't work, try to determine if the file is unrecoverable on the disk.Open the file in Explorer and try to copy it to another location.
   • If you can copy the file to another location, skip to step 9. If not, the actual sectors on the disk may be corrupted.
   • If the data is valuable enough to you, seek professional services as a damaged hard disk file recovery is not for the faint at heart.
9. 
   9
   If this doesn't work, try to open the file in a more recent version of Excel. As the version numbers increase, their ability to recover corrupt files increases. If this doesn't work or such a version of Excel is not available, see if some other spreadsheet application is and try to open the file in that program.
10. 
    10
    If this doesn't work, copy the file and rename the copy with a .txt extension. (This option may not be available on newer systems.) Try opening the file, and if Windows says it can't open it Notepad but will open it in WordPad, agree. Be sure to turn on word wrapping in either program; in Notepad it's under the Format menu, and in WordPad it's under the View menu (choose Options, choose the Text Tab, and choose Wrap to Window). Next, look for where the data stops, which should be followed by a bunch of spacer characters. These actually tell Excel where cells, columns, and rows are. When you find your last bit of data, delete the rest of the file. After this, rename it back to an .xls extension, try opening the file in the oldest version of a spreadsheet you can find. You may be able to recover your data in some semblance of a spreadsheet.

Edit

• If you know someone with a Mac, save the file to a thumb drive. View the contents of the thumb drive with Finder. You will be able to see the file extension .xlsx. Change the file extension to .xls. Open the file. Perform a Save As and save the file with the .xlsx extension.
• You would be well advised to take a look at Microsoft's articles on the subject first even if you find them confusing. If you have Excel 2002 and 2003, use this guide; for newer versions, use this guide.