Not able to open an excel file

[Maria55]

I was able to open and read this file before installing Windows 8.
The background to this is that after installing Windows 8 and reinstalling Windows University 2010 my word documents and excel files where all opening up as word pad documents. I figured out the solution to the above on my own and I am now able to properly read the excel and word documents that I tested. But I am not able to read a very important excel file. It is very important that I restore somehow this file.

When I open the excel file a dialogue box open up saying "Excel found unreadable content in "Account.xlsx". Do you want to recover the content of this workbook? When I choose Yes the following dialogue box opens up saying "Excel cannot open the file "Account.xlsx" because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the extension matches the format of the file".

The file extension is set to xlsx however how do I test to see if it is corrupt. Is there anything I can do to restore this excel workbook?

Thank you all,
Maria

[6StringJazzer]

Welcome to the Forum!

One option would be to attach your file here and let us take a look at it, if it doesn't contain sensitive information. Another option, just as a shot in the dark, is to make a copy of it and rename the copy with an "xls" extension and see if it opens that way.

To post a file:

1. Under the text box where you type your reply click the Go Advanced button.
2. In the next screen look above the reply box and click the "paper clip" icon. You will get a pop-up screen.
3. In the pop-up, click Add then Select to select a file from your local drive
4. Click the Upload button to upload the file
5. Click Done to attach it.

It will be displayed as an attachment underneath your post text. Alternatively as the last step you can click the Insert Inline button and a hyperlink to the file will be inserted directly into your post text in the spot where your cursor is set at the moment you click the button.