MS Office Diagnostic Tools

[Iman74]

I am seaking diagnostic tool(s) that will diagnose MS Office files: DOC, XLS, PPT, etc...

In my 9 years of my career I am consulting at a place that actually troubleshoots user's files. Usually when I narrow it down to the file it is their problem, but not here. So instead of doing hours and hours of trial and error, I am seeking a diagnostic tool that will do quite a bit for me if not all, or at least give me areas to start at. In this particular case it will be XLS files that have tons of rows, with macros, and tons of data.

[pam123]

It sounds as if you actually want a data recovery program that can restore damaged files.
Am I right here or missing the mark entirely?

[Iman74]

It depends on how you look at it. The files themselves I am talking about: DOC, XLS, PPT, PPS, and so on. Now the problems can vary from won't open at all, when open there are macros and what not within the file causing problems and stuff. On the part where it opens but causes issues on the PC would require a good amount of trial and error on my part to narrow down. Is there a tool that can help me out on that?

[Iman74]

I never stopped looking, and it seems these are the two best options:

Repairing corrupted files in Excel
http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/as...346561033.aspx

http://www.cimaware.com/

[pam123]

OK.
I would have suggested this : http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/

[techpro]

Try office recovery:

http://www.officerecovery.com/office/index.htm

[Iman74]

Originally Posted by pam123 OK. I would have suggested this : http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/

Isn't that more geared to data in general on a corrupt HDD not corrupted Office files?

[mairving]

The Office file and recovery option which will also do Word docs works pretty well as long as they have recent versions of Office. I would first try to find out what is causing the file corruption. It shouldn't be all that common. You see the corruption more in Older versions of Office (97-2000) than in the newer versions. You might also investigate which users are having the most problems and change the file recovery from the default 10 minutes to around 2-5 minutes.

[pam123]

Originally Posted by Iman74 Isn't that more geared to data in general on a corrupt HDD not corrupted Office files?

It works very well for getting back corrupt Office files, and others for that matter.
You can also try it out for free.
Have you tried mairvings' suggestion ?

[Iman74]

Originally Posted by mairving The Office file and recovery option which will also do Word docs works pretty well as long as they have recent versions of Office. I would first try to find out what is causing the file corruption. It shouldn't be all that common. You see the corruption more in Older versions of Office (97-2000) than in the newer versions. You might also investigate which users are having the most problems and change the file recovery from the default 10 minutes to around 2-5 minutes.

That's the thing. I don't know if it's even corrupted. This is where the communication with my question keeps getting lost. The problem at hand is inconsistent, and happens to multiple users. The files are usually the same, but does not happen all the time. We have fixed these problems before with trial and error, but that can take at least a day and a half of trial and error for the amount of data in the file itself is tremendous. If it was something where it can't open or/and gives an error I have more to work with. But the problem inconsistantly causes poor PC performance, lock-ups, and other things of a similar fashion.

Either way, thanks for all the tips I got.

[glc]

Are these files located on a server or on the local hard drives - or both? If it's just the server, I'd start sniffing the network for issues, you may have a damaged cable or a flaky switch or something.