A FIX For Corrupted Office Files

This will not be a “normal” post for me. Typically, I’m all about C# and .NET stuff. This post will be a bit different, although somewhat related … at least it starts with a developer-type problem with corrupted database files. Specifically, I’m talking about Access database files. I personally do not use Access (I’m a SQL Server gal), but a friend of mine told me about a problem he had with a corrupted Access database file and how he ultimately managed to get it fixed.

He had tried the recommended Access “Compact and Repair”, which can be run from the Access menu (see this link for a summary of how to run this, depending on your version of Access: Compact and Repair Database by Access Version ). Unfortunately, that didn’t fix his problem.

He ended up using this tool,Cimaware's AccessFIX , and it saved the day! He had only good things to say about it. It's not a free utility, but apparently you can try it before you buy it to see if it will work for you (with the trial/demo version you can't save the recovered file). If it appears that it's going to work OK for you, then you can buy the full version.

So, I looked into it further and discovered that Cimaware has other FIX software besides AccessFIX. You can buy it piecemeal, individual FIXes for the other Office files that you may have corruption issues with:

ExcelFIX 
OutlookFIX 
WordFIX

Or, you can get all the tools together in one package: OfficeFIX. Quite handy if you will possibly need more than one of the FIX utilities because the cost of OfficeFix is less than the cost of two of the FIX utilities!

Oh, there’s one more that’s not related to corrupted Office files, but could also come in handy if you’re a digital photographer (which I dabble in myself). It’s called DeleteFIX Photo. I haven’t ever had problems deleting files from my camera, but apparently it can happen. You know you deleted the files, but they still show up in your camera. Might be worth trying this utility if it happens to you.