How to Open Corrupt Excel File

Corruption in Microsoft Excel is often very annoying especially at enterprise level. To combat this condition Microsoft Excel provides automatic Excel recovery tool for a corrupted file. This utility attempts to reopen and simultaneously repair the file. All the changes made while file repairing process, are identified by the MS Excel. In case, it could not process repair, Excel retry to open the file. But, rather making an attempt to repair, Excel extracts cell values and formulas, leaving only the data behind. However, there could be a chance when Excel would not automatically go into recovery mode. In such case, users may have to recover file data manually.

Repairing an Excel file manually

1. On the File menu, click Open.

2. In the Open dialog box, select the file you want to open, and click the arrow next to the Open button.

3. Click Open and Repair, and then choose which method you want to use to recover your workbook.

One method that you can choose from inbuilt Excel recovery tool to recover data from the corrupt Excel is saving the file in SYLK format. This option of saving the file in SYLK format is typically used to remove printer corruption. You can easily open the corrupted Microsoft Excel file and “filter” it if you save it in SYLK format, close the file, and then reopen it as underneath steps:

1. On the File menu, click Save As.

2. In the Save as type list, click SYLK (Symbolic Link), and then click Save.

Note: When you use the SYLK file format, only the active sheet in the workbook is saved. When the message tells you the selected file type does not support workbooks Click OK. Click Yes when the message tells you the file may contain features that aren’t compatible with the SYLK format.

3. On the File menu, click Close.

4. On the File menu, click Open.

5. Select the .slk file you saved, and click Open.

Note: In order to see the .slk file, you may need to click All Files in the Files of type list.

6. On the File menu, click Save As.

7. In the Save as type box, click Microsoft Excel Workbook, and then click Save.

 Note: Since this format saves only the active worksheet, you must open the corrupted file repeatedly and save each worksheet separately.

This Recovery method is feasible only in certain adverse conditions. It might not be an ideal solution for other complex condition.