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. Anonymous
    2014-02-12T15:20:12+00:00

    This type of catastrophic corruption has to do with the read/write buffer of a removable drive not being flushed before the drive is removed. It amounts to a corrupt ZIP structure which must be repaired before the contents can be extracted and manually repaired through text editing of the XML tags.

    Of all the ZIP repair tools available that I have tried, I've found that AZR (Advanced Zip Repair Copyright © 2001 - 2012 by DataNumen, Inc.) works best on these type of corruptions and will get content back up to the point of the corruption. It's pay-for-play software.but it's good at what it does and I couldn't repair these corruptions without it The remainder of the XML file is filled with programming NULLs and useless for all intents and purposes. I've had requests to 'squeeze out just a little more' but the answer is 'that's impossible'. The content is either hopelessly scrambled or unequivocally non-existent.

    Since the XML was effectively truncated at the point of corruption, the only thing left to do is close all of the XML tags that remain open and retry the DOCX.

    The other types of corruption are the Unspecified Error, word/document.xml, Line:2, Column: 0 variety and these have largely been dealt with with the various Office service packs and Microsoft Knowledge Base articles. There are still a few postings a week from people seeking help but nowhere near the amount that there used to be.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-12T14:54:22+00:00

    Top man! I am sure this will help him a bit.

    Is it possible to post a tutorial on how you repair these files?

    I attempted to open this by changing the name to "test.docx.zip" and then extracting this however I was stuck again as it said unable to extract as no files found.

    I am aware that you have to remove or fill in empty xml tags but I was unable to even open this in a xml editor, can you tell me what tools etc you use?

    Thanks!!

    Harshal

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-02-12T14:17:20+00:00

    Harsh lesson learned. I managed to recover roughly ¹⁄₃ of the content. Your friend will likely find that content stops where he/she was last editing it.

    Project draft training - (Jeeped).docx

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-02-12T13:22:25+00:00

    Hi Jeeped,

    Can you repair a file for one of my friends please? It is his dissertation and does not have a back up.

    When opening the file it says there is a error on line 2, column 69105.

    Files were on a usb stick which was corrupted, I managed to recover the files from the USB stick but now the file is corrupted.

    I have uploaded the document to drop box, hope you can access it.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/f0rbiqc2rvos76h/Project%20draft%20training.docx

    Please reply as soon as you can.

    Really appreciated,

    Thanks.

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