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Microsoft Excel Data Recovery

File corruption can occur with any type of file, at any time, and Microsoft Office files may be prone to frequent corruption, for no other reason than that MS Office is in daily use by millions of people all over the world. Files may become corrupted for any number of reasons: improper shutdown of the computer (intentional or unintentional), program crashes and software malfunction, to name a few.

There are a host of software products that will repair corrupt Microsoft Office files, including Outlook, Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Word files. Many of them may have limitations, such as not being able to repair password-protected files, or being unable to restore pictures, charts or other embedded objects. Others may offer complete restoration, for a price.

Recent versions of Microsoft Excel provide automatic recovery for corrupted files by attempting to reopen and simultaneously repair the file. Excel identifies what it changed while repairing the file. If the repair fails, Excel again tries to open the file but instead of attempting a repair, Excel extracts cell values and formulas leaving only the data. Under some circumstances, however, Excel won't automatically attempt to recover the file, in which case it may be necessary to recover the file data manually with the 'Open and Repair' option on the 'File, Open' menu.

There are also additional methods that can be used to recover data manually from a file that has been corrupted, before requiring third-party software or the services of a specialist. Microsoft has comprehensively documented these procedures for all Office products and versions at http://support.microsoft.com.

Prevention is more efficient than cure though, and one of the easiest ways to prevent data loss in Excel is to save backup copies of files by selecting 'Always create backup copy' in the 'File, Save As, Tools' dialogue box.