Unspecified Error, word/document.xml, Line:2, Column: 0

Anonymous
2012-05-27T15:48:53+00:00

Dear document savers,

It appears that due dates for assignments makes Word eat documents.

Like others I have a corrupted .docx document.  I have tried every trick in the book I can find and am now resorting to the next level of knowledgeable help.

The document crashed whilst working on a formula around the 3rd last page from memory (page 12 I believe).  After waiting etc. I closed and reopened the document and found then that it would go crazy when I got to the area I was last working in, and wouldn't scroll or display content properly.  When I tried again to close and open it wouldn't open it.  Nothing so far has worked.

It now gives the message:

"The file Assign 3 Answers.docx cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents."

"Details"

"Unspecified Error"

"Location: Part: /word/document.xml, line: 2, column: 0"

I have uploaded the file here

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8CyUQXlwkYeUXdmVl9acWZTUEU

I can open in Googledocs but without drawings or equations.  It opens in viewer.zoho.com but still cannot open a saved copy in Word 2010

I would greatly appreciate if anyone had any fixes for me.

Sincerely,

Rowan

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2012-05-27T18:16:27+00:00

... https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8CyUQXlwkYeUXdmVl9acWZTUEU ...

The Google Docs copy was a DOC rather than a DOCX, but I downloaded it and had a look. I snipped out the  BH  from the second formula following "for Triangle CBH" on page 19. That will need replacing and close proofreading that area is highly recommended.

                  

There is some strange pagination and I don't know exactly why that is nor even if the pagination is intentional.  The actual corruption looked like it was due to many reformatting changes, resulting in empty formatting tags.

I've uploaded a repaired copy of the DOCX to my SkyDrive here for you to download . Be sure to get service packs for Office 2007 or 2010 installed whenever possible before further editing is performed.

Office service packs

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  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-03-11T09:19:26+00:00

    Even with a genuine USB drive or memory card, you should NEVER edit a document that is located on such a drive or save a document directly to such a drive.  Corruption of the document is almost certain to occur if you do that!

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-03-11T09:08:52+00:00

    Here is the attempt at a comprehenisve corrupt Word document recovery and repair advice I made for a Quora answer here: https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-open-a-corrupt-Word-Docx-file-that-refuses-to-open. I would very much appreciate comments, additions and details I might add about all the tag order issue for tags not matching error and all the things that at least used to cause unspecified errors in Word 2013 and before. Word 2016 seems to be throwing unspecified errors at a much slower rate if at all.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-03-11T08:34:01+00:00

    Another relatively new problem that is causing a lot of corruption issues is fake USB memory and memory cards. Apparently Windows just takes pluggable memories word for it when they claim a certain capacity, say 128 GB for which you got a great deal on from a private seller on eBay. These memory devices in reality have much less memory, say 8GB and when that limit is reached they start overwriting the oldest files causing file corruption.

    Apparently as much as 1/3 of memory of some brands floating around the world is "fake." However there are several pieces of freeware for detecting false reports of capacity with fake memory. See these pieces of freeware reviewed: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/test-and-detect-fake-or-counterfeit-usb-flash-drives-bought-from-ebay-with-h2testw/. A nice explanation is here: http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/-fake-usb-flash-memory-drives (although the site design is not so attractive).

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-27T05:17:32+00:00

    Apparently this no longer works for Word 365 (version 16). Pretty printing the document.xml does not lead to an indication of which line the unspecified error is at.

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