Excel file opens with strange characters

[Wandiebuck]

How can I convert my excel spreadsheet from these strange characters into words and numbers?

 

[sheetspread]

Is it really an excel file or was the extension just changed?

 

[Wandiebuck]

The extension was xlsx and it's now xls but both forms just open up strange characters. Can I send you a screen shot?

 

[sheetspread]

Yes if you like. Was it always an excel file? Has the data been generated internally or imported?

 

[Wandiebuck]

It was originally created and saved on my pc in excel then put onto a flash drive and removed from pc. The flash drive got corrupted and wouldn't open the files so I used Recuva to get the info from the flash drive onto my pc. But now the recovered files open in this code character language. Is there any way to convert this into readable words and numbers?

 

[sheetspread]

There are some proposed solutions here:

https://superuser.com/questions/285141/how-to-repair-a-corrupted-excel-file

e.g. open office, google sheets, Excel's open and repair mode.........

I used to wonder if the garbage characters can be translated to anything useful, but it seems not.

 

[sandy666]

post a link to the shared file

 

[sheetspread]

In the meantime here's a screenshot I was sent: