Cannot open Word file

[DavidSvec]

I cannot open my word file(Office 2003) from my thumb drive. When I open the document it says -Word was unable to read this document. It may be corrupt. Try one or more of the following : *Open and Repair the file - *Open the file with the Text Recovery converter.........
Tried installing Office 2003 sp3, tried to open in word 2007 but still the same problem. Is there any solution to solve this problem? Thanks.

 

[Fardringle]

It's possible that the file is corrupt. It's not uncommon for that to happen on USB thumb drives (especially cheap/old drives). Try copying the file from the thumb drive to your desktop and see if it will open from there. Or try opening it on a different computer if there is one available.

 

[C1]

Open the file with Notepad. If it turns out to be all weird symbols/gibberish, then I dont believe the information is recoverable.

Look for programs/applications which try to repair corrupted "WORD/.DOC" files.

 

[Mike64]

Open the file with Notepad. If it turns out to be all weird symbols/gibberish, then I dont believe the information is recoverable.

Look for programs/applications which try to repair corrupted "WORD/.DOC" files.

Don't Word (and other program-specific word processing) document files always look like "gibberish" when you open them as plain text files? That's always been my experience and just to double-check, I tried a definitely-Word-readable docx file a few minutes ago, with Notepad++ even, rather than just MS's totally plain vanilla notepad utility, and the usual miscellaneous oddball ASCII symbols were all I saw...

 

[SydneyWade]

I would try to open the file on another computer if that is possible, which you may have already done from reading your question.
I have a feeling the file is corrupted or damaged in some way.

 

[SydneyWade]

May be this article will give you more information.
http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/microsoft-word-error-message/
Good Luck.

 

[DavidSvec]

Thank you guys for your feedback and help. Sorry, that long time did not respond. This is because the issue was solved and I forgot to tell.) Thank you!

 

[sonitravel09]

I found it easier to just change the file extension on the Word document i was trying to open. Right click on the document icon, choose "save as" and then select the file extension appropriate to your version of word. Word documents written in Word 97-2003 use ".doc" file extensions. Word 2010 and newer use a ".docx" file extensions.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

There is also a difference in the Word 97 method of file save structure and the 2003, I believe. One uses XML and the other does not.

 

[corkyg]

Thank you guys for your feedback and help. Sorry, that long time did not respond. This is because the issue was solved and I forgot to tell.) Thank you!

It would be useful to know what the solution was. ???

 

[cartridgeonline]

First you have to know what is the root of that file. If it is created in such format that support in word format then rename your file using ".docx" extension. If it still shown that massage then use a converting software to convert the file in word document and remember the extension should be ".docx".