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i can not read the recovered word file


lesylv22

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Hello.

 

i erased some word documents from the bin, and recovered them with recuva.

 

but my problem is that when i try to open those recovered word files, there is no letters, but only strange characters like:

 

SCCA Дї H E L P S V C . E X E ?Ёx( Ш g ? ђ і|

 

so i dont know after how to convert it to allow me to read it...

 

thanks in advance for your help

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Recuva will restore whatever is in the clusters which were allocated to the deleted file, so if these clusters have been overwritten then you will be restoring rubbish. Have another look at the deleted file, if it still exists, and see if it has been overwritten. Recuva does not alter any restored data.

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Recuva will restore whatever is in the clusters which were allocated to the deleted file, so if these clusters have been overwritten then you will be restoring rubbish. Have another look at the deleted file, if it still exists, and see if it has been overwritten. Recuva does not alter any restored data.

 

thank you very much, even if now, i understand i will not be able to restore those documents in a readable format...

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  • 1 month later...

I have the same problem even after Deep Scan. Despite Recuva stating "Comment: No overwritten clusters detected," when opening any recovered .doc files with MS Word 2007, this error is displayed:

Microsoft Office Word needs a converter to display this file correctly. This feature is not currently installed. Would you like to install it now?

 

Similarly, opening recovered .xls files returns:

The file you are trying to open, <filename>, is in a different format than specified by the file extension. Verify that the file is not corrupted and is from a trusted source before opening the file. Do you want to open the file now?

 

I've not found a single recovered file that I can open. If there are "no overwritten clusters" and Recuva does not alter the recovered data, how is it that the files are corrupted?

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What I forgot to mention in regards to the OP is that files sent to the recycler and then deleted will be renamed to something like Dcim.doc (I don't use the recycler so I can't be more specific). So these files are the ones to recover. I don't know what files Les recovered. I have just recovered a .doc file and it opens fine with Word 2002: I don't have an .xls file to recover, but I'm sure I've recovered them previously, as a test, and they were open/readable with no problem. I don't know if the files you are trying to open are some sort of temp edit copies, in some compressed/coded form. I really don't know what the Office suite does, at that level.

 

I think that most of these threads show that Recuva is no substitute for the occasional backup.

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What I forgot to mention in regards to the OP is that files sent to the recycler and then deleted will be renamed to something like Dcim.doc (I don't use the recycler so I can't be more specific). So these files are the ones to recover.

 

Augeas comments appear to refer to Windows XP. After some Googling, I've discovered that Windows Vista saves Recycle Bin files using a different format and convention:

 

C:\$Recycle.Bin\<user sid>\$Rnnnnn.ext (for actual file data)

C:\$Recycle.Bin\<user sid>\$Innnnn.ext (for index "metadata" info about the deleted file)

 

So it appears that on Windows XP, you should restore DCnn.ext files as Augeas suggests, while on Windows Vista you should restore $Rnnnnn.ext files.

 

See also

http://conservativebooktalk.com/wp-content...recycle-bin.doc

http://www.forensicfocus.com/downloads/for...recycle-bin.pdf

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Thanks Rac, yes, I was referring to XP (the OP gives no clue to the O/S). Actually (because of this thread) I dumped a doc file to the recycler then deleted it, and it was found under its own name with Recuva. I recovered it and could open it fine. In XP, that is. So I am going to stop rambling on about this.

 

Do you think that Vista scrambles the contents of the files it holds/deletes from the recycler? Do you know what the Word converter is?

 

Good links, by the way.

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Both Les and Rac said that they recovered files and couldnt open them. This was before the posts about the recycler renaming deleted files. So what filenames were recovered? It doesnt seem that either DC or $R files were recovered, so what was?

 

You know I cant enter an apostrophe, the stupid screen goes straight to find mode. Stupid stupid computers.

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