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Recovered Files on Back Up Drive Are All Squares and Weird Y's

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I was previously running Windows XP and had Office 2007 installed (I think). My hard drive crashed and they were able to recover some of the files but nothing has a name. If I open up a Word or Excel file, I just see a bunch of squares and weird 'Y's.

After the crash, I am now running Window's 10 and have Office 2016. Could someone please advise me how to make these files readable? Thank you.

Thursday, February 4, 2016 4:08 AM

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Hi yeslamthatstupid,

Could you please take a check of the file extensions?

Open folder options and uncheck the hide file extensions on the view tab.

And if available, share us the screenshot.

For the files can't open correctly, there might be the compatibility issue between the file formats, see:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Open-a-Word-2016-or-2013-document-in-an-earlier-version-of-Word-45c4dd2f-bf7b-4a0d-9ff2-7b2ff6b733f0

Further, you may also consider to ask in the office forum, see if they could offer any further assistance:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/home?category=officeitpro

Regards
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.
- Proposed as answer by Kate LiMicrosoft employee Monday, February 22, 2016 3:33 AM
- Marked as answer by Kate LiMicrosoft employee Tuesday, February 23, 2016 5:53 AM
Friday, February 5, 2016 5:42 AM