How to Fix Corrupt Excel Files on Windows 11/10 and Recover Lost Data?

Being a Windows user, you might have used Microsoft Excel at some point in their life. Microsoft Excel is a user-friendly tool that may be used for data entry, data management, accounting, financial analysis, charting and graphing financial modeling, and other tasks. This all-in-one program can handle almost any task you may have. It has been used to arrange data for many years. Spreadsheets can be easily produced using Excel’s built-in templates. It saves you time and energy by letting you conduct essential calculations, insert charts and graphs, share your worksheet, and do other things.

When everything is going well, we don’t worry about anything; that’s human nature, and it will remain such. When anything goes wrong or does not work as expected, we have a problem.

This risewindows article will assist you in recovering data from a damaged Excel Spreadsheet. Whatever it is, we will focus on restoring access to the data. The built-in capability in Microsoft Excel allows you to recover corrupt files. To restore them, you don’t need a third-party freeware product; simply open the Excel file in recovery mode. Let’s look at how to complete these chores on a Windows 11/10 computer.

There are at least two methods for recovering data from a faulty Excel file.

Method 1: Fix Corrupt Excel Files in Windows 10 and Recover Data

Step 1: Make a new Microsoft Excel Workbook by right-clicking on empty space on the Desktop and selecting New, then Microsoft Excel Worksheet. To open the freshly created Excel Workbook, double-click on it.

Step 2: After opening a blank Excel file, select the File tab.

Step 3: On the Backstage View, click on Open.

Step 4: Go to the Browse option.

Step 5: In the resulting pop-up window, locate and select the corrupt Excel file, then click on the Tools drop-down box. Select the Open and Repair option from the drop-down menu that shows up.

Step 6: Following the completion of the above steps, a new dialogue box will display. There are three options here: Repair, Extract Data, and Cancel. Select the first option, Repair.

Step 7: After a few moments, depending on the size of the Excel file, you will get a message that says “Excel was able to open the file by repairing or eliminating the illegible text.” Select the Close option. Your faulty Excel file has now been repaired and opened with the data.

Method 2: Fix Corrupt Excel Files in Windows 11/10 and Recover Data

Step 1: Make a new Microsoft Excel Workbook by right-clicking on empty space on the Desktop and selecting New, then Microsoft Excel Worksheet. To open the freshly created Excel Workbook, double-click on it.

Step 2: After opening a blank Excel file, select the File tab.

Step 3: Click on Open in the Backstage View.

Step 4: Click on the Browse option.

Step 5: In the resulting pop-up window, locate and select the corrupt Excel file, then pick the Tools drop-down box. Select the Open and Repair option from the drop-down menu that displays.

Step 6: After completing the preceding step, a new dialogue box will display. There are three options here: Repair, Extract Data, and Cancel. Then, select the second option, Extract Data.

Step 7: A new dialogue box will show after selecting the Extract Data option. There are two alternatives here: Convert to Values and Recover Formulas. Convert to Values is the first option.

Step 8: A new window will emerge, confirming that Excel was successful in opening the file by fixing or eliminating the illegible text.

Step 9: Select the Close option. You can now save the Excel file with the retrieved data.

That is it.

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