Cannot Read Restored Word Document

[Daffodil123]

Hello. I am having a problem. I reformatted by Hard Drive a while ago and backed everything up in 7 CD's, as it prompted me to. I used an external DVD drive to do this.

When this was done, I re-installed MS Office 97 from the old installation disc I had.

Now, I really need to restore one of the files that are on the backup discs. I have located the MS Word file I want (which was also typed in Word 97), and have restored it. However, I cannot read it...it is all gibberish.

I am not too knowledgeable about computers and do not know what to do. I tried some free decrypting software but it does not work...always gives me some error message.

I did not do anything to encrypt any file when I was creating my backup discs so I am not sure what happened.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot
Daffodil123

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome Daffodil now some system specs would be good please http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html at very least it would be good to know what model machine you have.

Now I am guessing the install of the Office program has got corrupted somehow and for starters I would be running these
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html < if necessary include the /f and /r in the command line as per Option2
as you are not really sure of computers just take your time and work through those slowly they do not take long and it will show up any problems with the operating system filing system and the way they are stored on the drive.

Another thing you can try is checking the time and date and region and language on your machine.

> Start > Control Panel > click on those two features and make sure they are set for your location.

 

[Ranger4]

As well as doing what ICIT2LOL has suggested you might like to have a look at this MS website & it suggests using Windows 7 in XP mode to run Office 97.

Can I run Office 97 in Windows 7 ? - Microsoft Community

If you decide to do use the XP mode you might find this MS website helpful. But you need to keep in mind that support & updates are no longer supported in XP mode.

Install and use Windows XP Mode in Windows 7