Word cannot start the converter

[steveh]

Morning all

We have a remote support Company who advised that because my profile was so large I needed to move my word, Excel, PowerPoints etc. from my C:, as I have just had a good deal on some Freecom 1tb externals I though the best thing to do was to move all of the documents to their so I copied (Ctrl X) & pasted all fo the files onto the drive.

I know have a problem that if I open any Excel document I get a page full of rubbish, in PowerPoint a message saying it can't open a file of this type and in Word I get 'Word cannot start the converter msword632.wpc'.

Because of this message I thought perhaps I had lost the Office 2007 converter (although 99%+ of all my MS files would be 97-2003) so I deleted that and then reinstalled it but to no avail. I then Googled Word cannot start the converter msword632.wpc and got sever results including this one that seemed to suggest that one of their security updates causes the problem http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973904#fixit4me" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I ran the automatic fix but agin it did not cure it.

The support people spent 6 hours on my PC remotely on Friday and when I left they said they would email me if they couldn't fix it, I have come in this morning and it is the same.

As a bit of a long shot I have tried renaming the files in case it was not recognising .ppt or .doc etc. but nothing, a detect and repair has also not helped.

Even if I email the files to PC's with 2003 and 2007 on them I get the same error.

I have experimented and opened other files on shared server drives and on 3 memory sticks that I carry and all files on those open OK

I am at an absolute loss what to do next. Has anybody experienced anything similar and can offer some help?

[StuartR]

This sounds like there is something wrong with the external drive. What happens if you run chkdsk on that drive?

[HansV]

If you only moved your documents to an external hard disk, it is very unlikely that there is a problem with the Office 2007 converter, with a security update or any other aspect of Microsoft Office. All the more so since documents on shared drives and on memory sticks still open without problems.

My guess is that there is a problem with the external hard disk. Perhaps the deal was too good and you got a dud?

[steveh]

This sounds like there is something wrong with the external drive. What happens if you run chkdsk on that drive?

Hi Stuart

The drive seems to be OK when you run chkdsk

[HansV]

Try copying a single document (or workbook or presentation) to the external hard disk and see if you can open it.

[steveh]

If you only moved your documents to an external hard disk, it is very unlikely that there is a problem with the Office 2007 converter, with a security update or any other aspect of Microsoft Office. All the more so since documents on shared drives and on memory sticks still open without problems.

My guess is that there is a problem with the external hard disk. Perhaps the deal was too good and you got a dud?

Hi Hans

I fear you may be right because I can open other files on other drives as mentioned, having bought them firect from 'Freecom' who are an Amazon cerified seller I thought it would be OK, but as my mother used to always say 'You know what thought did!"

[StuartR]

Also try creating a simple .TXT file, copying it to the external drive and see what happens when you try to open it.

[steveh]

Hi Stuart and Hans

Thanks for the suggestions.

- I have copied something back from the F: to the C: but still see the same error
- I have made a .txt file and then copied it to the F; no problem
- I have created a .doc and then saved as to the F: it opens no problem
- I have created a .doc and saved it to my documents on C:, then Ctrl X and copied to F: and it opens with no problem

[HansV]

That makes me think something has gone wrong during the copying of your documents to the external hard disk.
You mentioned that you used Ctrl+X (cut). Does this mean that you don't have the original files any more, or did you make a backup?

[steveh]

That makes me think something has gone wrong during the copying of your documents to the external hard disk.
You mentioned that you used Ctrl+X (cut). Does this mean that you don't have the original files any more, or did you make a backup?

Hi Hans

I did Ctrl-X because support said my files were backed up to a server folder but looking at it some are and some are not (very few are in fact). I don't know if it will do any good but I will try and run 'Recuva' and see what files it turns up.

Checking the F: again though not all files are corrupted, some very new ones, amd some very old ones are fine, most strange