You have accidentally deleted a Microsoft Office file and you do not know what to do. Do not panic! Here are some options you can employ to recover data from a deleted office file.
First off, undelete your file. Once you have done that, let’s say you have difficulties opening it using the standard programs (i.e. Excel or Word). Or you have fixed the problems, but are not able to open up a PowerPoint presentation that you need. How do you get the data you need back in to that file?
The reason why Office data recovery can be particularly tricky is because of the complexity of the files. They are not logical, that is for sure. If you try storing a Microsoft Word document with a single word in it, you will find that it takes up 20 k of space. That is because a bunch of bytes are used up in order to save the formatting, the types of view, and a history of document modifications. Try opening such a document in Notepad – that will give you an idea of just how difficult it can be to piece a single document together.
It is not impossible to recover deleted Office files, but if you are in a hurry, then you might need to spend money to get it done quicker. If your system crashes, of course, then your Office applications will automatically attempt to recover your files. But there is a limit as to how much the system can recover on its own. That is why various programs have been developed to aid clients in doing this. For example, on the high end side there is the OfficeRecovery suite. Another alternative, which is a bit less expensive, is the ExcelFix.
If you are unable to afford this kind of program, then try trimming the nonsense out of your recovered files with the use of a hex editor. We recommend using the XVI32. It is able to handle large, as well as small files. Using this program, retrieve whatever you can from the file that has been corrupted. Then save the file under a different format. This can filter out a lot of the junk and help you preserve a lot of your original data. Trim the remaining junk with a hex editor, such as the XVI32.