restoring *.doc files

[klax33]

i often backup critical files from my windows boxes to the linux server. recently i had to restore one of those files after the windows box i was working on decided to go crazy. the file transfered back looking ok, but it would not open in word. i did manage to get all of the text out of the corrupted *.doc file by dropping to msdos and changing the name from letter.doc to letter.txt and then opening it in notepad or wordpad. hope this helps someone else.

[X_console]

You can also run "strings file.doc" to recover the text. This works with files created with Word, but other doc formats might not work.

[zGoRNz]

you can rename the file with explorer if you tell to to show full file extensions

or you can [shift]+[right click]->open with->notepad


and if you restored the doc's via ftp make sure you have binary mode set, my dad (on a mac) sends a lot of files to pc people via email and said he always has to set binary cause of the crazy ms format (binary =~ using 8 bits (a bit is a 1 or a 0) for each byte, ascii is only 7, so data is lost if the file had non ascii data)

- gorn out -

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