“Word crash” is not an align feature to MS Word users who work on it on a regular basis. This happens once in a blue moon but when it does, it wreaks real time damage to the data stored in the word document opening which has prompted a viable system freeze/crash.
Factors that instigate a probable system crash are multiple but the extent of damage that they cause are similar in character and intensity. Most of the causes seem pretty simple and basic but the extent of damage they cause can hardly be ascertained.
Surveys indicate that the most common factor that results in system freeze is corruption of the MS Word document template file (normal. dot) i.e. the blank page document that appears when we start MS Word.
In most cases we resort to Microsoft Office Application Recovery but if doing so has proved futile, try some of the trouble shooting mechanisms that are being provided below for your reference:-
• Make a few copies of the file by opening the Windows Explorer window to the folder that contains the document. This will save against any further damage that might be caused by attempting to open the document.
• Restart Word again. There are chances that Word would try to solve the problem and open it. Then save the document under another name so that the entire document can be written afresh. Save the document in the rich text file. After you are through with this, close the document and copy the new document as well as the rich-text document to a backup medium. This would serve as a buffer in case things go wrong.
• If Word is not creating backup copies, search in the Windows Explorer window for a temporary file of the document. You can identify the latest and temporary file of your document by its date and file size. If the document opens, make sure to save it under a different name.
• If you cannot locate a backup copy or a temporary file, resort to WordPad for opening the document. This reduces the chances of data loss as WordPad can read formatting in Word up to a limited extent and thus stands a relatively better chance of avoiding the errors in the document’s formatting table. In this case, you might lose the formatting but the text of the document along with the basic font formatting remains intact.
• If your WordPad attempt has failed to open the document and you are ready to stake even the font formatting for the sake of recovering the text go for Word’s “Recover text from any file” converter. In this case, the extra and unwanted information and odd characters from the document will have to be removed manually and reformatting of the headers, footers, footnotes, and endnotes will have to be done which will appear as normal text paragraphs in the document.
• If Word’s “Recover text from any file” converter fails to open the file, try to open it with Notepad. This would alter all the formatting in the document and you will be required to modify all the text in paragraph format. If corruption is present in the recovered text, try removing it manually and save the file under a new name from the Notepad after which you can try to open it in Word.
• If you have other word processors installed on your computer, you can try your hands at that too. It might help.
If all the above mentioned procedures fail, then you are in for trouble and might need to avail the services of a reliable data recovery company with solid experience in the related field to set things right. Stellar Information Systems Ltd, a pioneer data recovery company specializing in word recovery can solve your problem if you are at a risk of losing voluminous amounts of data in the process. Stellar has devised an innovative software Stellar Phoenix Word Recovery which effectively repairs and recovers lost/missing data from corrupt and damaged Word documents that might have suffered reverses due to severe instances of word crash.
The technologically sound and advanced algorithms extract as much recoverable data as possible from the defective Word documents and provides optimum word repair and restoration without deleting or modifying the original data or the original format of the document.
The software supports all modern file versions, including Word 2003, XP (2002) and 2000 and can efficiently retrieve data from RTF (rich text format). It is compatible with Windows NT / 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista and the user-friendly interface can lessen the onslaught of the ordeal to a considerable extent.
The demo version of the software would enable you to gauge the performance and recovering capacity of the software besides providing you with a log report that would help you in viewing the number of recoverable files and their status.