Files corrupted / will not open

All of a sudden today one of our 2003 servers has a problem. When trying to
open documents (Word and Excel), it prompts to do a file conversion. Wants
to know what "Encoding" to use to make the document readable.

It appears all across this server, but does not appear to be a problem on
other servers I checked.

I have started a full backup (probably too late), and plan to run scandisk
after the backup completes.

Any ideas?

Ace
Wed May 07 16:08:00 PDT 2008

In news:eisFa0IsIHA.4716@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl,
Tom R <fsbktom@hotmail.com> typed:
> All of a sudden today one of our 2003 servers has a problem. When
> trying to open documents (Word and Excel), it prompts to do a file
> conversion. Wants to know what "Encoding" to use to make the
> document readable.
> It appears all across this server, but does not appear to be a
> problem on other servers I checked.
>
> I have started a full backup (probably too late), and plan to run
> scandisk after the backup completes.
>
> Any ideas?

1. Was anything changed on this server? Anything new installed?
2. Regional language change, installed Mac services, an update to an app?
Update to the server?
3. What apps are installed on the server (Exchange, SQL, etc)?
4. Are there any errors in the event logs? (If so, post the EventID# and
Source)
5. What version of Office?
6. What versions are the files?
7. Can Wordpad open any of the Word files?

The following is the only thing I can find on this issue. Implies a corrupt
drive.
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Microsoft-Word-1058/encoding-error-1.htm

--
Regards,
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT,
MVP Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
Microsoft Certified Trainer

For urgent issues, you may want to contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please
check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

Infinite Diversities in Infinite Combinations

Tom
Wed May 07 17:11:40 PDT 2008

See response imbedded:

"Ace Fekay [MVP]" <PleaseAskMe@SomeDomain.com> wrote in message
news:OpdwDdJsIHA.552@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> In news:eisFa0IsIHA.4716@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl,
> Tom R <fsbktom@hotmail.com> typed:
>> All of a sudden today one of our 2003 servers has a problem. When
>> trying to open documents (Word and Excel), it prompts to do a file
>> conversion. Wants to know what "Encoding" to use to make the
>> document readable.
>> It appears all across this server, but does not appear to be a
>> problem on other servers I checked.
>>
>> I have started a full backup (probably too late), and plan to run
>> scandisk after the backup completes.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>
> 1. Was anything changed on this server? Anything new installed?
nothing new installed
> 2. Regional language change, installed Mac services, an update to an app?
> Update to the server? no updates that I can think of. Just a normal day
> 3. What apps are installed on the server (Exchange, SQL, etc)?
no special apps. it's a file server
> 4. Are there any errors in the event logs? (If so, post the EventID# and
> Source) no events in the event log
> 5. What version of Office?
Office 2003
> 6. What versions are the files?
Don't see a version. Update date on the file is over 3 years ago. It's
been viewed often since then, but no changes to it.
> 7. Can Wordpad open any of the Word files?
Wordpad also see corruption.
>
> The following is the only thing I can find on this issue. Implies a
> corrupt drive.
> http://en.allexperts.com/q/Microsoft-Word-1058/encoding-error-1.htm
>
> --
> Regards,
> Ace
>
> This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
> confers no rights.
>
> Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCSE+I, MCT,
> MVP Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
> Microsoft Certified Trainer
>
> For urgent issues, you may want to contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please
> check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.
>
> Infinite Diversities in Infinite Combinations
>

Ace
Wed May 07 20:35:09 PDT 2008

In news:eLg16$JsIHA.4840@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl,
Tom R <fsbktom@hotmail.com> typed:
> See response imbedded:
> > 1. Was anything changed on this server? Anything new installed?
> nothing new installed
> > 2. Regional language change, installed Mac services, an update to
> > an app? Update to the server? no updates that I can think of. Just
> > a normal day 3. What apps are installed on the server (Exchange, SQL,
> > etc)?
> no special apps. it's a file server
> > 4. Are there any errors in the event logs? (If so, post the
> > EventID# and Source) no events in the event log
> > 5. What version of Office?
> Office 2003
> > 6. What versions are the files?
> Don't see a version. Update date on the file is over 3 years ago. It's
> been viewed often since then, but no changes to it.
> > 7. Can Wordpad open any of the Word files?
> Wordpad also see corruption.
> >
> > The following is the only thing I can find on this issue. Implies a
> > corrupt drive.
> > http://en.allexperts.com/q/Microsoft-Word-1058/encoding-error-1.htm


So I believe it comes back to a possible corrupt drive or controller. If so,
you can usually find telltale signs such as ATAPI errors in the System log.

What type and brand of server?

What type of drive and controller does it have? IDE? SCSI? RAID?

If the subsystem is a PERC or similar type of controller, you may not see
the errors in the logs and would have to rely on the hardware manufacturer's
utility, such as if it is a Dell server, they have their Dell Open Manager
to view status and perform other functions. They are downloadable for free
from the manuf. However this is specuations since I do not know your setup.

Is it just one or two files, or is it EVERYTHING in the shared folder(s)?

Is this just happening when accessing the file(s) through the share?

Can you open the files locally (from the console)?

If the file(s) are that old, I would imagine you have a good backup?

Ace

Alan
Thu May 08 22:24:33 PDT 2008

On May 8, 5:56=A0am, "Tom R" <fsbk...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> All of a sudden today one of our 2003 servers has a problem. =A0When tryin=
g to
> open documents (Word andExcel), it prompts to do a file conversion. =A0Wan=
ts
> to know what "Encoding" to use to make the document readable.
>
> It appears all across this server, but does not appear to be a problem on
> other servers I checked.
>
> I have started a full backup (probably too late), and plan to run scandisk=

> after the backup completes.
>
> Any ideas?

Hi,

If the files are really damaged, you may have to repair them. For the
excel files, if necessary, I think you can try a utility called
Advanced Excel Repair to repair them. It works rather well for my
corrupt Excel xls files. Its web address is http://www.datanumen.com/aer/
Hope this helps.

Alan