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After I saved an Excel document, I remembered that I needed to change something in it, so I go back to open it and it said

Excel cannot open the file, because the file format or the file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.

I know when I saved before, around 2hours ago, it worked just fine. The document size is at 0KB now. How do I recover this document? Its crucial for my business!

I'm using Office 2007.

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  • Did you quit Excel after you saved the document? It might also be worth mentioning which Excel version you're using. You can edit your post to add more details.
    – slhck
    Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 18:24
  • Yes I did quit, but it is something I normally do.
    – Bassam
    Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 18:27
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    Not looking good I'm afraid. A 0KB file means there's nothing in it. Nothing at all. Do you have any backups? :( If Excel still has the file open, then it may give you weird 0KB readings, but if you've quit it, then it should release the file. It sounds like something interrupted the last save you may (e.g. a powercut)... Which is odd considering how XLS files tend to be so small and so can be written in a faction of a second.
    – Django Reinhardt
    Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 18:29
  • My computer backs up files once everyday after I leave work, but the one that I was working on all day long is the one I need now. Isnt there any kind of file that excel backs up to in case of something like this happening?
    – Bassam
    Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 18:31
  • Yes, but if Excel knew about a backup it'd normally ask you if you want to restore it. I don't know where Excel stores its backup files, again I think this depends on the version (which you didn't mention yet).
    – slhck
    Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 18:37

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As your file is now 0KB the best you can do is run a program such as Recuva and hope that it can find your file for you.

It may be that because the file is actually there but simply truncated that you may be unable to recover the file, the only luck you may have is if excel created a temporary file which gets copied over your file as you'll have something to recover in that case.

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