All data lost -- help!

Biff Byford · Newbie Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 4

I'm absolutely sick about this. For more than a year, I've used OO to manage my wife's business in two Excel spreadsheets.

A couple days ago, I opened one of the spreadsheets and discovered that ALL data is gone. Labeled tabs I created at the bottom are in tact, but ALL data and formatting has been removed -- looks exactly like a brand new spreadsheet. I opened the other to discover the same thing.

Unfortunately, my latest usable backup is four months old. I spent all day today rebuilding one of the sheets from a backup, saving all the while. When I was done, I closed the app. Later, I needed to make an entry, and when I opened the sheet, what do you suppose I saw? Yep, it's ALL GONE AGAIN.

The only other details I can think of are:
1) the two corrupted files are different sizes, and bigger than newly created files, which leads me to believe the data is still there, but not accessible.

2) Trying to open one file in Excel results in a 'file cannot be read' error, and opening the other makes Excel flash once, but then the file is not displayed.

3) The files are stored locally on my computer, but the folder in which they are stored is shared. Moving the files out of the shared folder, either on my computer or another, doesn't help. The only other thing I can think of is that I recently changed my home gateway from a Linksys to a 2Wire.

This issue is pretty much exactly like this bug report: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=31478 . However, there's no resolution listed.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

Michael A. Kearsley · OOo Advocate Joined: 04 Jul 2004 Posts: 390 Location: UK

In the bug report it did have the following comment at the bottom:

Biff Byford · Newbie Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 4

Sorry I didn't clarify -- I did try the save as StarCalc/save as OOO trick, and it didn't help -- same result.

Michael A. Kearsley · OOo Advocate Joined: 04 Jul 2004 Posts: 390 Location: UK

Have you checked the formatting or tried selecting the cells - if the text colour and cell background have somehow ended up with the same colour it could be that is displaying but isn't visible in which case changing the text colour would show it?

When you say opening in Excel do you mean Microsoft Excel or OOo\SO Calc and when you say that they are Excel spreadsheets they definitely are still Excel and you hadn't saved them as Calc sxc files or did you mean that they had been in the Calc sxc format all along - for anyone reading this thread it will probably also help if you say what Operating System(s) it is being used on. My reply had been assuming that you had been using MS Windows 2000 with OOo 1.1.1?

Biff Byford · Newbie Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 4

These are spreadsheets I created in Calc in SXC format, and then saved in Excel format so they could be read from another machine which only has Excel. I'm also on Win XP, using version 1.1.1.

I'm certian it's not a color change thing -- all my cel widths, cel merges, etc. have also disappeared. However, it's strange because the worksheet tabs are still what I named them -- everything else looks like a new spreadsheet.

Version 1.1.2 just finished downloading -- I'm gonna give upgrading a whirl & will let you know what happens.

Thanks ...

avantman42 · Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 1:32 am Post subject:

If you think the data is still there, I'd try saving in OOo format. If you can then open the file and see the data, make a backup copy before you do anything else. Then try saving in Excel format again.

If you can't see the data when you open the OOo format file, try using a zip program to unzip the file, then zip up content.xml into a new zip file with the .sxc extension. Open that in Calc. Hopefully, you will get your data back, and you can save in Excel format again.

Russ

Biff Byford · Newbie Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 4

Upgrading to 1.1.2 didn't help. However, I mailed the files to my office computer, where Excel grunted and groaned and threw up scary messages (The file is so corrupted that Excel can only attempt to open it), but eventually opened with all the data intact (but dumped into a blank, unformatted spreadsheet).

Took me about five hours to rebuild my spreadsheets into a brand new Excel file, but I think I'm now back to zero. Whew!

I love OpenOffice, and have enjoyed using it for about a year and a half, but this debacle has really shaken my faith. That $60 OEM version of Office is looking pretty good right about now, and I'm certainly going to tune my backup habits -- I just can't afford to lose this much data (or time) again.

I sincerely appreciate everyone's attempts to help.

Thanks,

Scott