Corrupted .docx file. Word 2007. Can't open the document. Tags mismatch. Help?

the office open xml file *.docx cannot opened because there problems contents.

details: name @ end tag of element must match element type in start tag.

location: part: /word/document.xml, line: 2, column: 3487212

hmm, guess should give background info , i've tried far, right?

the document in word 2007, windows 7. last night, in hurry, , got lot of things open. opening document few quick spontaneous revisions, laggy , late appointment, feeling panicky , frustrated. in hindsight, wasn't best option force shut pc down cause word stopped responding in middle of opening document. still, while i'm no sherlock, knew stopping while it's in middle of saving document bebad, didn't think stopping while opening the document (and not modifying document @ all, @ least thought before), have drastic consequences! document's quite large, few hundred words, , 500 or pages. it's big project doing @ work, months really, , because it's business confidential in nature, can't share freely, or would've uploaded copy, sorry.

anyway, woke morning , opened it, , error came up. way, document saved in 2tb external hard few disk errors in past, if helps, if i'm pretty sure not problem hard. error came up... , yeah. first made copy, i've been trying on, in case end making things worse. have no previous versions of it, relatively old backup. less 80% recovery set me weeks wage cut. news able open document in wordpad, managing recover first 287 pages (131,543 words), no errors or data loss, , saved in separate file. apparently, according information obtained later, msword tends not open @ when encounters error, wordpad tends stop reading rest of code once encounters error. so, naturally, assumed (so correct me if i'm wrong), behind few sentences might lose due error, rest salvageable. looked problem on internet. read a microsoft article on troubleshooting/recovering corrupted documents (open & repair, draft mode, creating link, recover text file converter, etc). no dice. first saw similar question on answers.microsoft, , tried use tony jollan's rebuilder, macros enabled , all. sadly, no luck.

i managed make first breakthrough when found out .docx .zip file, , renamed such, document.xml extracted , manually fixed using xml editor (not knew how that, desperate , willing learn). so, made copy, changed extensions, , tried extract document.xml. believe main body text, right? thing necessary me, since i've done far entirely spartan, no fancy fonts, formatting, header/footer/notes, media objects, formulas, tables, bullet points, numbered lists, etc. pure sans-serif text, japanese kanji thrown in. 500 pages of pure text.

i hit snag, when winrar encountered error on extracting document.xml, stating "crc failed in word\document.xml. file corrupt". tried fix using several zip repair programs , stuff. nothing worked. @ least not far. managed extract incomplete version of document.xml using winrar's 'keep broken files' option when extracting. extracted document.xml came 3.31 mb while original in archive 7.53 mb. viewed in windows xml editor opened text in internet explorer, jumble of text no line breaks or paragraphs. still, extracted few pages less open-using-wordpad method tried earlier. trying fix archive again...

so decided give manual route meantime , focus on readymade solutions. came across yet another microsoft article, but 1 @ least more relevant last. had auto fixme thing. ran it, didn't work. apparently, found out later, "this fix work 1 specific tag error there equations , graphics in same paragraph , office 2010 sp1 has not been applied."

tried several (read: dozens) corrupt word recovery software, freeware pro trials, varying degrees of effect, although unsuccessful in goal. failed read it, saying corrupted them handle, best managed recover three-pages-worth less data compared wordpad method. yeah, similar problem, open wordpad first , recover can. doesn't mean i'm giving though.

so here am, tearing hair out in frustration. whew, feel told guys life story. guess worst case scenario, report boss, or company, i/we'll hire team of professionals deal it. that's not ideal scenario. it's gonna out of salary either way (the company has firm policy of 'you reap sow'), along wage cut making such amateurish mistake continuous reminders every 2 sentences, i'd rather avoid that.

i'm looking see whether there's way recover previous version of overwritten document somehow using third-party software or something. (i didn't have windows backup enabled, no previous version on windows). far, no autosaved documents on msword autorecover, though have enabled set every 3 mins (or maybe i'm not seeing since i'm trying manually?). or temporary files wiped on shutdown? don't have 'always save backup copy' option enabled on word either.

so yeah, auto fix, or lengthy answer detailing should (from very basics), or link site such info, be much appreciated. :d

please. @ least making effort :)

when word document file corrupted, can try several methods recover it:

1. first of all, can try recovery function integrated microsoft word, follows:

1) on file menu, click open.
2) in in list, click drive, folder, or internet location contains file want open.
3) in folder list, locate , open folder contains file.
4) select file want recover.
5) click arrow next open button, , click open , repair.

may find more information at:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/recover-the-text-from-a-damaged-document-hp005189610.aspx (for word 2003)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893672/en-us (for word 2007/2010/2013)

2. if have multiple corrupt word documents, can use vba macro provided in article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893672/en-us files opened in "open , repair" option automatically.

3. there free tools third-parties can open , read microsoft word documents, example,

3.1 openoffice @ http://www.openoffice.org. famous open source project designed support office file formats, including word documents. software can run under windows.

3.2 libreoffice @ http://www.libreoffice.org. free office suite.

3.3 abiword @ http://www.abisource.com. cross-platform tool works under unix , windows.

3.4 google drive @ https://drive.google.com/ support load word document files.
 
when word fails open document, these tools may able open successfully. if case, after document opened, can save new document error-free.

4. docx files, group of files compressed in zip file format. therefore, sometimes, if corruption caused zip file, can use zip repair tools such winrar @ http://www.rarlab.com repair file, follows:

4.1 assuming corrupt document a.docx, need rename a.zip
4.2 start winrar, go "tools > repair archive" repair a.zip , generated fixed file a_fixed.zip.
4.3 rename a_fixed.zip a_fixed.doc
4.4 using word open a_fixed.doc.
 
there may still warnings when opening fixed file in word, let ignore , word try open , repair fixed file. if file can opened successfully, can save contents error-free file.

5. if above methods not work, may try third-party tools such datanumen word repair at

http://www.datanumen.com/word-repair/

have used repair word documents successfully. provides free demo version can try see if data want can recovered or not.

luck!

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