Excel spreadsheet unable to be opened?

[Coach]

I have an Excel spreadsheet that I saved on a Mac and is now unable to be opened? I get an "unable to read file" error and I'm trying to now open it on an IBM PC and it says it does not recognize the file. Anyone seen this and been able to get the file open?

[jxyama]

first question: are you sure it's an Excel file?

second question: how did you move the file from Mac to the PC?

[Coach]

Yes, it is an Excel file and I FTP'd it in binary format to my server and then back down to an IBM PC.

[Gee]

Does the file end ".xls"? You can save it on your Mac without the .xls, but the PC won't recognise it...

To open on the PC, rename the file with the .xls extension first.

[cubist]

There are eleventeen different versions of Excel, all with differences in file format. (Microsoft's legacy to computing :mad: )

But if you can't open the file in the version that created it, likely the file is corrupt. Since the file is binary gibberish rather than something editable like XML or DIF, you are probably hosed.

In the future, (a) make backups, and (b) export data to CSV from time to time.

[Coach]

Originally posted by Gee
Does the file end ".xls"? You can save it on your Mac without the .xls, but the PC won't recognise it...

To open on the PC, rename the file with the .xls extension first.
It does end in .xls now.

[Gee]

Does it not open on the Mac or on the PC?

If this is the case, as Coach said, it's probably corrupt....

[Coach]

It will not open on either platform.

[Crikey]

I've had some luck in circumstances like this with opening the file in OpenOffice.org's spreadsheet module, making some trivial change, and saving it again as an Excel format file. If your file is truly corrupted, this might not work, but if the damage is minor or stems from Microsoft's inter-version compatibility issues, OO.o seems to be more robust than Excel about handling errors.

I've found OO.o to be good at repairing Word files, as well.

You could try other nominally-Office-sompatible programs for this as well; I think AppleWorks can open or import Excel files, and I know tha ThinkFree Office can.

Good luck.


Crikey

[Gee]

Or you could try importing into a database such as filemaker....

[Coach]

I have the file on an IBM PC now, what do you think is best? I do not have filemaker here.

[Gee]

How about Access? See if you can import the file into Access, and then re-export it as an Excel file again...

[Coach]

I get:

"Please check that the file exists and is in the proper format"

[Gee]

Hmmm. Not sure I can think of anything else. You're the guy who's just sent back a G5, right? Is/was this problem a contributing factor? When did your file become corrupt?

[Dave Hall]

Try tips from this page http://www.fdrlab.com/tips.html


Dave Hall
FDRLab Data Recovery Centre Consultant
http://www.fdrlab.com/