Appleworks 6.2.9 File Recovery

[kedzfam]

I have a small AppleWorks database file that has become damaged for no apparent reason. When I try to open it, I get an error message "The file appears to be damaged and cannot be opened." Apple's website is not much help; the only advice is to recreate a blank database and try to insert it (tried and failed -- the file is not recognized when I try to do this).

I really need the data from this file -- I back it up occasionally but I will lose a LOT of work if I can't recover it somehow. Any ideas? I don't have another database program to use.

 

[Rhisiart]

Try this:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/appleworksfilerepairutility.html

This utility is designed to fix AppleWorks documents that have become damaged when the documents are saved from AppleWorks 6 running on a Mac OS X 10.2.x client to an AppleShare or compatible file server.

 

[kedzfam]

I have tried this utility already to no avail -- it seems to work on regular word processing files, but even the "Fixed-" file results in the same "this file is damaged and cannot be opened" message no matter how I try to open it. But thanks for trying. My database is only 76K -- nothing very complicated -- any idea why/how it is getting damaged in the first place?

 

[Rhisiart]

I know this a big financial commitment, but I would bite the bullet and go for Microsoft Office X. Remember that Microsoft have a crap OS, but an excellent Word/Presentation/Spread Sheet product.

 

[kedzfam]

I HAVE Microsoft Office X but there is no database program per se. My database needs are not that sophisticated that I need FileMaker Pro; AppleWorks had enough features. What I DON'T know is why or how my little database file got damaged. And there seems to be no recovery that works.

 

[Rhisiart]

I HAVE Microsoft Office X but there is no database program per se.

Yea, sorry that was dumb of me. Try this link instead:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=31189

No guarentee that it will help but may be worth exploring.

 

[Rhisiart]

Found this too:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24910

 

[pmsander]

I have the same exact problem and have tried all of the suggestions in this forum. Did you ever get the problem solved? If so how?

 

[kedzfam]

Not really. None of the suggestions let me reopen the file or recover the data from it. And I don't have $ to invest in another DB program at this time. SO...
My work-around solution was to recreate the database, and then every time I add new data, I save the file, but also do a Save as ASCII, so that if it gets damaged/unopenable again, at least I can just reimport the data instead of having to totally start from scratch.

 

[pmsander]

Thanks for the update, I was afraid of that.