Recovering an Excel workbook

[kilroyscarnival]

Yesterday we got hit with a virus at work. Our IT provider took care of everything and most of our files are just fine.

However, one item that won't open is a shared Excel workbook with our shared input on our reports and tasks for this week. It would be a pain to have to have everyone recreate it unless there's no other possibility.

The message I'm getting is "Excel cannot open the file 'name.xlsx' because the file format or the file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.

It's most likely a loss, but i tried various ways of retrieving the contents. I tried copying to my desktop and renaming the file extension to .xls, .csv, and .txt. No text came through.

I tried using a formula to refer to cells on the other worksheet, and that didn't work.

I'm still hoping our IT can restore at least from a backup sometime after noon on Monday, but I'm waiting to hear. Are there any tips you can think of? I may start printing off an early draft of it for a while.

 

[Minty]

If the virus encrypted your files I think you'll be at a loss.

Have you tried simply opening it in a plain text editor like notepad or notepad ++ ?

 

[Gasman]

Have you tried right click and Previous Versions

Opening one of my xlsx files in Notepad or Notepad++ shows as below

 

[kilroyscarnival]

Have you tried simply opening it in a plain text editor like notepad or notepad ++ ?

Yes, and it comes up blank. The IT company seems to have restored the vast majority of our files, which is why this one seems so puzzling. Maybe we just haven't gotten around to opening enough other things yet.

I guess we'll just have to rebuild it. A pain because everyone already did their bit on Monday. I can see myself printing drafts of it along the way for a few weeks. Thank you for suggesting!

 

[kilroyscarnival]

Have you tried right click and Previous Versions

Opening one of my xlsx files in Notepad or Notepad++ shows as below

View attachment 81260

Yes, my file is totally blank. And previous versions doesn't work. I was just clutching at straws, I guess. Thank you!