Works 4.5 corrupt file recovery?

[AvgOrdinaryGuy]

Most of my Works files are stored on an external USB drive. Yesterday, while working with other files, my XP systems explorer stopped responding and I had to reboot. Well, today I discovered that a least two of my Works file are corrupt. Most (maybe all) the other files I've tried to open are OK, but these two will not. The lost files are spreadsheets with some of my business data in them. When I try to open the files, Works asks "open as?", and if I choose spreadsheet it opens but my data is not there.

Is there any hope of recovering the data in these files? System restore didn't do it, because the external drive was not included in system restore. Any suggestions are welcome, except of course reminding me of the need for a better backup system. That much I am all too well aware of already.

Edited October 25, 2009 by AvgOrdinaryGuy

[DigeratiPrime]

Try opening the files with notepad or a hex editor to see if there is some structure to those files or if they are indeed corrupt.

Try recovering the files from the removable volume using software like Recuva (freeware)

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

[AvgOrdinaryGuy]

Tried opening the file with notepad and I don't really know what I'm looking for. But, I saw reference to some of the data I would expect to see in the file, but there was also reference to some other file names that are not a part of the spreadsheet. Like some pictures that I was moving around from one folder to another yesterday, a little while before the system hung. Those photos are still intact in the folders that I put them in, but there names were mixed in with info from my spreadsheets.

As for structure...again I don't know what I'm looking for, but...the vast majority of characters don't mean anything to me. Most of the file looks something like this:

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÷O\TsG£B2žk¸ã“‘š›i®Ô¡$¾eÉ0Ÿ.<ð	àTwË&àí»ŒWôûh.#‘M¤²¶~GUˆ|™$ŽUÚÃ9\Ñm.Uõ±è´áIŠp©
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Tried Recuva also, and it said the file is "Unrecoverable - This file is overwritten with system volume information".

Looks like I'm going to be rebuilding a spreadsheet from the ground up. Unless someone has other suggestions.

[DigeratiPrime]

You could try again with the Deep Scan option in Recuva or some other file recovery software.

I notice you say your 'system hung' too which would indicate you might have a hardware problem - perhaps a failing hard drive.

Obviously backups are a good idea, you might also consider upgrading to Vista or 7 which has the Previous Versions feature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Copy