There are several reasons that can cause Microsoft Excel workbooks to turn corrupt, such as virus attack, bad sectors on a drive on which Excel file is saved, system shutdown without properly closing the Excel application, etc.
Corruption in an Excel workbook can result in data loss or render the workbook inaccessible. Fortunately, Excel automatically starts recovery upon opening a corrupted Excel file. But, if it fails, you can manually repair the file or extract data from the corrupt file.
How to Fix Microsoft Excel 2010 & 2007 Files Corruption?
Microsoft Excel comes with an inbuilt repair utility, called ‘Open and Repair’, that helps fix and recover corrupted Excel files.
Note: If you can open the Excel 2010 file but cannot view its content, skip to Save Excel 2010 file in HTML Format method to extract its data.
Steps to Repair MS Excel 2010 Files Manually
The detailed steps to open and repair Excel 2010 are as follows:
- Open Microsoft Excel 2010 and click File from the main menu.
- Next, click Open.
- Browse the corrupt Excel 2010 file on your computer and select it in the Open dialog.
- Click the arrow next to the Open button and choose Open and Repair.
- Click Repair when prompted to recover data to the maximum.
- If Excel fails to repair, click Extract Data to extract values and formulas in the corrupt file.
- Excel prompts to 'Convert to Values' or 'Recover Formulas'.
- Click Yes if it prompts the following error:
"The document file name caused a serious error the last time it was opened. Would you like to continue opening it?
- When Excel opens the last saved file, save it.
Once you’re able to access the last saved 2010 Excel file, try extracting the file contents.
Save Excel 2010 File in HTML Format
If you can open the Excel file, choose the HTML format to save it in filtered form. After that, close the Excel file as you have your data in the HTML file. The steps to save an Excel file in HTML format are as follows:
- Open Microsoft Excel 2010, click Save As, and then choose Web Page in the ‘Save as’ type drop-down list.
- Select the "Enable Entire Workbook” option, and then click the Save button.
- Close the Excel file and reopen your Microsoft Excel application. Browse the HTML file that you have saved.
- Click File from the main menu, and select Save As in the list.
- Type-in a different name, choose Microsoft Excel Workbook in the ‘Save as’ type drop-down menu, and then click the Save button.
With this, you would be able to access the data in the corrupt Excel file.
If the inbuilt tool fails to repair Excel 2010 file, a few methods can help you recover data from corrupted or lost workbook manually.
Steps to Repair Excel 2007 Files Manually
Follow these steps to repair a corrupted 2007 Excel file by using the inbuilt Microsoft Excel repair tool:
- Open Microsoft Excel 2007, click the Office button, and then select Open.
- In the Open dialog box that pops-up, browse and select the corrupt Excel 2007 file. Click the arrow next to the Open button and choose Open and Repair.
- Click Repair when prompted to recover as much data as you can from Excel 2007 file.
- If a repair fails, follow steps 1 till 3, and then click Extract Data to extract values and formulas from the corrupt file.
- In the window that appears, click Convert to Values or Recover Formulas to extract workbook data.
Note: The built-in Microsoft Excel 2007 repair tool may fail to resolve Excel corruption issue. Also, choosing to extract data from the workbook involves data loss risk. Using a professional Excel repair tool, however, can resolve all types of Excel file corruption errors and restore all its data.
Methods to Recover Data from Corrupt Excel 2010 & 2007 Files
If the ‘Open and Repair’ feature fails in getting your Excel 2010, 2007 file repaired, you can try retrieving the file contents by following some manual methods. However, the methods may vary depending on whether you can open a workbook or not.
Method 1 – Move Corrupt Excel File to another System
Move the corrupt Excel file to any other computer and try opening it in MS Excel 2010/2007. Doing so, may help you resolves disk or network-related errors leading to Excel file corruption.
Method 2 – Revert Unsaved Excel File to its Last Saved Version
If an Excel file turns corrupt while working on it but before saving any changes, try reverting it to its last saved version. To do so, perform the following:
- Open your Excel application, click the Office button, and then click Open from the menu.
- Browse the corrupt Excel file, click Yes when prompted to revert to its last saved version.
What if Nothing Works?
If you fail to recover a corrupt Excel 2007/2010 file, perform Excel file recovery with Stellar Excel repair software. The software is specially designed to help users fix their corrupted XLS/XLSX files quickly and easily without any technical assistance. It also helps restore all the file data to its original form.
Points to Remember
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If you know the corrupt Excel 2007 or 2010 file location, click Browse to choose the file. Otherwise, click Search. Follow the below steps to recover data from corrupt Excel 2007/2010 file by using Stellar Excel repair tool:
- Click the Repair button to scan the file.
- Once the scanning process is complete, the software shows a preview of recoverable Excel file items.
- To save the repaired file, click the Save File option on File menu.
- In ‘Save File’ dialog box, choose to recover Excel 2007 & 2010 data to either the Default or New location. Click OK.
The repaired Excel file gets saved at the specified location.
Preventive Measures to Avoid Losing Excel File Data
The above-discussed methods might help salvage your data. But, it is recommended that you must take some preventive measures to avoid losing the data. One such important measure is backing up a copy of your workbook automatically. Doing so, will help you get back data in case the workbook is accidentally deleted or corrupted.
Steps to Create Backup Copy Automatically
You can automatically create an Excel backup copy by following these steps:
- Click Save As from the main menu of your Excel application.
- Browse to the location where the corrupt Excel 2010/2007 file is saved.
- In ‘Save As’ dialog box, click the arrow next to Tools button (given at the bottom left corner) and choose General Options.
- In ‘General Options’ box, check Always create backup checkbox, and then click OK.
With this, you instructed MS Excel to create a backup of every Excel file you create or open for work.
Conclusion
This article outlined the typical reasons resulting in a corrupt Excel 2010 or 2007 file, such as virus infection, bad sectors on drive, etc. It explained how to fix a corrupted Excel file by using the inbuilt MS ‘Open and Repair’ tool. The article also discussed methods to recover Excel files in MS Office 2010 & 2007 when the Microsoft Excel repair tool fails. Further, it explained how using a professional repair tool such as Stellar Repair for Excel can come in handy when the manual methods to repair and recover Excel 2007 and 2010 file fails. But, keep in mind, a workbook may get corrupt again. And so, make sure to automatically backup your workbook to avoid losing its data.
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