[sjarrell]

A trend started with some of the word .doc files that were saved on the hard
disk were unreadable and ask what decoding we needed in order to read the
files. We were never able to access those files. Later we noticed more
files that were also unreadable. Now we have files (newer) that appear with
all square o's.
Do we have some type of virus? We have run anti-virus software and have not
dectected any virus.
Any help would be appreciated. We are using Office 2003 and windows xp.

[Benjamino5]

Do you have Fast Saves enabled in Word? Open the MS Word Tools menu and
choose Options. Then click the "Save" tab. Then uncheck "Allow fast saves."
That is a notoriously unreliable feature that can lead to document corruption.

However, I suspect your problem may be due to a bad hard drive or other
hardware problem. Do you work a lot with other types of files? Are those also
getting corrupted?

Also, have you had any power outages--or had the computer's plug pulled
while the computer was on? Any sudden interruption in the computer's power
could cause open files to become corrupted.

It's impossible to pinpoint the problem without a lot of troubleshooting,
but I hope these tips are helpful (if you haven't already checked all this).

Good luck!

Ben

"sjarrell" wrote:

A trend started with some of the word .doc files that were saved on the hard
disk were unreadable and ask what decoding we needed in order to read the
files. We were never able to access those files. Later we noticed more
files that were also unreadable. Now we have files (newer) that appear with
all square o's.
Do we have some type of virus? We have run anti-virus software and have not
dectected any virus.
Any help would be appreciated. We are using Office 2003 and windows xp.

[sjarrell]

Fast saves was not enabled, but I did replace the motherboard and on a couple
of accassions we did have power failures. I do not believe word was open
during those power failures. Thanks for the suggestions.

"Benjamino5" wrote:

Do you have Fast Saves enabled in Word? Open the MS Word Tools menu and
choose Options. Then click the "Save" tab. Then uncheck "Allow fast saves."
That is a notoriously unreliable feature that can lead to document corruption.

However, I suspect your problem may be due to a bad hard drive or other
hardware problem. Do you work a lot with other types of files? Are those also
getting corrupted?

Also, have you had any power outages--or had the computer's plug pulled
while the computer was on? Any sudden interruption in the computer's power
could cause open files to become corrupted.

It's impossible to pinpoint the problem without a lot of troubleshooting,
but I hope these tips are helpful (if you haven't already checked all this).

Good luck!

Ben

"sjarrell" wrote:

A trend started with some of the word .doc files that were saved on the hard
disk were unreadable and ask what decoding we needed in order to read the
files. We were never able to access those files. Later we noticed more
files that were also unreadable. Now we have files (newer) that appear with
all square o's.
Do we have some type of virus? We have run anti-virus software and have not
dectected any virus.
Any help would be appreciated. We are using Office 2003 and windows xp.

[sjarrell]

I forgot to mention that I have not found any other files corrupt. Another
interesting feature is that the files are only corrupt in my documents
folder, other word doc.s in other folders do not seem to be affected.

"Benjamino5" wrote:

Do you have Fast Saves enabled in Word? Open the MS Word Tools menu and
choose Options. Then click the "Save" tab. Then uncheck "Allow fast saves."
That is a notoriously unreliable feature that can lead to document corruption.

However, I suspect your problem may be due to a bad hard drive or other
hardware problem. Do you work a lot with other types of files? Are those also
getting corrupted?

Also, have you had any power outages--or had the computer's plug pulled
while the computer was on? Any sudden interruption in the computer's power
could cause open files to become corrupted.

It's impossible to pinpoint the problem without a lot of troubleshooting,
but I hope these tips are helpful (if you haven't already checked all this).

Good luck!

Ben

"sjarrell" wrote:

A trend started with some of the word .doc files that were saved on the hard
disk were unreadable and ask what decoding we needed in order to read the
files. We were never able to access those files. Later we noticed more
files that were also unreadable. Now we have files (newer) that appear with
all square o's.
Do we have some type of virus? We have run anti-virus software and have not
dectected any virus.
Any help would be appreciated. We are using Office 2003 and windows xp.