File corrupt

My friend is writing a book and hes using open office. well, its corrupt and he cant do anything. is there anyway he can get it back?

and im not there to retrieve it myself, because hes in Washington state. and hes on xp.

anything i need to find out?

[crait]

Tell him to back the file up. Copy/Paste it somewhere else that he won't find easily so he won't accidentally delete it.
Tell him to upload the file to Google Documents, to use a converter, or try to open it in MS Word on another computer and saving it as a different file type.
Sometimes, files will only be corrupted in program-specific information like header stuff that may not even be looked at by many converters or other programs.

he cant. i asked him to send it to me, and it wont.

[crait]

It won't what? It won't send? Has he tried each of those suggestions?

ive been through those, and he cant use the file. it wont let him open it, send it, not even rename it.

[crait]

Copy/paste it at all? If possible, he can boot a LiveCD and use Linux to mess with it.

Copy/paste it at all? If possible, he can boot a LiveCD and use Linux to mess with it.

Now, I love that part for some reason...

linux related.


and were talking like, completely no clue how to do more than use the thing. he has no idea how to do anything close to booting an ubuntu live cd or anything. nice try

[crait]

Can he right-click and view the properties of the file?

i think. ill have to ask him.

[crait]

K, if he can, he possibly can edit some properties to allow him to manipulate and move it.

[ace]

I forgot what the XP option is but you could always right click it, go to advanced or something like that and revert to an older version.

@ace - compatibility?