How to recover corrupt MS Word file?

I get this error when I try to open MS Word file. Word Error Got this message when I tried the recovery option. Recovery results this I Googled the error and found couple of recovery software --> Kernal for Word File Repair and Repair My Word. But both didn't work! Found this in Microsoft community. But when I opened the Word file in Notepad++, there were only 145 columns in Line 2! Word file opened in Notepad++ Would love some help to recover my assignment (which is due in two days! )

microsoft-word
data-recovery
file-recovery
file-corruption

159k 77 77 gold badges 365 365 silver badges 409 409 bronze badges asked Feb 8, 2017 at 4:17 229 2 2 gold badges 5 5 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges Your only option at this point is to restore one of your backup copies. Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 4:23 Unfortunately I didn't keep a backup! Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 4:24 Sadly, if you have no backup copies, you have no recovery options Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 4:26

:-( What could have caused this? I didn't do anything unusual! Worked on the document yesterday, saved it, plugged the pen drive today to finish the work and here I am wondering what the hell happened! This really suck.

Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 4:48

Open Office XML files are actually zip archives, and the error you're seeing when you try to recover is for a file in the zip archive. You can try renaming the document as a zip archive, opening the particular file ( /word/document.xml ), but I'm not optimistic that you'll be able to repair the file. Probably create a backup of it first . . .

Commented Feb 8, 2017 at 4:49

5 Answers 5

Search for a backup copy of an unsaved Word 2007 document

Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options.
In the Navigation Pane, click Save.
In the AutoRecover file location box, note the path, and then click Cancel.
Close Word.
Open the folder that you noted in step 3.
Look for files whose names end in .asd (AutoRecover files).

Word 2013 Autorecover functionality

Open a Word document.
Click File to go to Backstage View.
Go to Manage Versions and click on it.
Click Recover unsaved documents. A dialog box pops up which presents you with list of unsaved documents that can be recovered.
Select the document you want to recover.
Click Open. The unsaved document opens and you are presented with an option to save the document
Click Save As to save the document.

Recover Word document in Google Docs

Upload the corrupted Word document to Google Drive.
Right-click on the document and select Open with ->Google Docs. Google Docs will convert the document to its own document format for editing in Google Docs.
From the open document in Google Docs select File ->Download as ->Microsoft Word (.docx). Google Docs will convert the document to .docx format.
Open the .docx document that you downloaded from Google Drive in Word.

Google Docs does a good job of converting documents to .docx format. The two file conversions in Google Docs may remove whatever there is in your original Word document that was causing the problem. This method also works for recovering corrupted .odt format documents.