Need to recover data in Excel

So I'm trying to help a co-worker who never made any back ups of a 4 month running spreadsheet. Of course yesterday when she tried to open it, you guessed it, "Unable to read file. Damage to the file was so extensive that repairs were not possible." I tried opening the file in Office 07 as it was created in 03, and did manage to get some data. But that was only maybe about 10%. Any other thoughts as to recover the data? I know there are some software out there to purchase, and if that's what needs to be done then so be it. If so, then which one is trustworthy?

Thanks..

 

What OS is your co-worker using?

All I can think of right now is that if the OS has a Shadow Copy type of service enabled then the user could grab an older copy of the file.

 

She's running XP. Thanks for the reply!

 

Maybe try this if you haven't already: Microsoft Excel provides automatic recovery for a corrupted file by attempting to reopen and simultaneously repair the file.
Mostly the area under "If you can't open the file in Excel".


Also, check to see if you have Volume Shadow Copy service running on that machine.
Right click on My Computer>Manage>Service and Applications>Services. Scroll down to Volume Shadow Copy and see if that is running (normally it isn't).

 

Yeah i tried opening and repairing with office 07. It recovered a little bit of the data, but maybe only about 10%. I tried several of the methods Help suggested. I did manage a little more data saving it to a different format. syk or something like that. So do you think at this point I should tell her to either re-enter all the data or will one of the pay apps actually do what it says it's supposed to? I've never used any recovery programs like that before.

 

Make a backup copy of the broken file, and then I'd probably try one of the Excel recovery programs on the copy. Usually those programs have demos so you can see how well they may work before you purchase.

 

Sounds like a plan. Thanks for the help!