Getting that notification on your computer screen that a file is corrupted can be the scariest thing an individual or staff member experiences, mostly if it happens to a vital document with a lot of private and essential information. Panic can set in, fear can flow through your veins, but it’s essential to remain calm and know that hope is not lost. There are some solutions out there that have the potential to get your work back in some way, shape, or form. Here is what to do when your file is corrupted to help you navigate this petrifying and high stakes situation.
What Is A Corrupted File?
A corrupted file is a file that is damaged and, therefore, does not perform correctly. This can happen to anyone of the types of files on your computer, ranging from program files, system files, and all types of documents. When this happens, it can sometimes mean that you’re unable to open the file and work on it, which can be annoying. There are many different reasons why a file can become corrupted, such as a sudden power outage or power surge, a complete system crash, a mismatching of versions, or even updating errors during the saving process.
Here’s what to do if this situation happens to you:
Try Opening The File On Another Device
You may start by attempting to recover a corrupted file is to try and access it through another piece of hardware on the same network. If it opens successfully, the actual document hasn’t got any issues. Instead, it is a corrupted systems file that needs to be addressed. This corruption will mean that all documents using that system will fail to open, so it’s definitely something you want to sort out sharpish.
Back-Up Your Data
An excellent way to help you deal with corrupted files is to back up your data regularly. This means that you can easily divert back to the backed-up copy to access the data and continue working on it if you encounter a corrupted file. Backing up your data is the most effective way to prepare and deal with file corruption, so it is something that businesses and individuals should be implementing. To help with this, you can get cloud backup solutions to effectively protect your data from file corruption and other issues.
Use the File Reader’s Repair Tool
Some file readers (which are basically the software used to open the files) like Word processors or spreadsheets have built-in repair tools that can effectively restoring lost and corrupted files. Troubleshooting corrupted files through this method is a good starting point and is definitely one of the first things you should do. Do be aware that this measure can sometimes restore the file to a moment before the corruption happened, meaning that some recent changes to the document may be lost. This can be super annoying but is a far better alternative than having the whole file or document lost or destroyed.
loading...
loading...