Due to various reasons like incompatible upgradation, application malfunction, network issues, and improper coding your Microsoft Excel spreadsheets can get corrupted or damaged. To repair a corrupted spreadsheet, MS Excel performs automatic recovery and tries to repair the file. However, if MS Excel does not enter recovery mode, and the file remains corrupt, then you will need to repair manually by using ‘Open and Repair’ utility. But, if manually repair also fails to repair the spreadsheet, then you will need to restore the spreadsheet from an updated backup. However, in the absence of, or in case of deficient, or corrupted backup, you are not left with any other option, but to use a commercial Excel Repair application to repair the spreadsheet.
To thoroughly elaborate the above situation, consider a realistic situation wherein you encounter the below error message while trying to open MS Excel 2000 spreadsheet:
“File Error: Data May Have Been Lost”
The above error message does not allow the spreadsheet to open and makes all its saved records inaccessible.
Cause:
The above error message appears when your Excel spreadsheet is logically corrupted.
Resolution:
To get past the above Excel spreadsheet corruption error message, repair the file using the below mentioned steps:
- Click ‘Open’ under the ‘File’ menu.
- Choose the corrupt Excel file and click ‘Open’ button.
- Lastly, click on ‘Open and Repair’ option to repair the spreadsheet.
In case the spreadsheet remains corrupted even after following the above steps, and you have not maintained any backup, then you will need to repair the spreadsheet using an effective third-party Excel File Repair application. The repair tool is easily understandable and is absolutely non-destructive. It allows the user to save the repaired file at user-specified location.
Stellar Phoenix Excel Repair repairs and restores MS Excel 2000, XP(2002), 2003 and 2007 files, regardless of their cause of corruption. The tool ensures recovery of all Excel file objects, like charts, images, text, formulas, and more. Compatible with almost all Windows operating systems (7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000), the Excel Repair tool does not require any technical skill to perform repair.