Recover Virus Infected Excel Files

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Virus attacks are a primary cause of numerous problems and errors encountered by users. They can impact virtually anything on your system, employing various methods to infiltrate your data and system. Promptly recovering virus-infected data, with the assistance of an expert, becomes imperative when such incidents occur. In this guide, we’ll explore the steps to recover a virus-infected Excel workbook. In case these methods prove ineffective, you can also consider utilizing a reliable automated tool for data recovery. Without further ado, let’s delve into these approaches.

Recover Excel file with the following methods

Identifying the cause of an error is often the first step in finding a solution. In this case, we have a clear instance of a virus-infected Excel file. Let’s explore various methods to remedy a virus-infected file:

• Repair with Open and Repair
  To repair a virus-infected file, your initial step should involve using Excel’s ‘Open and Repair’ feature. This feature is designed to address minor damages, corruption, and even virus infections. Therefore, it’s advisable to begin with this option to attempt file repair.
• For this, open MS Excel and click on the File button.
• In the menu, locate and click on the Open option.
• In the new options list, click on the Browse button and select the infected file.
• Once the file is selected, trace to the Open drop-down list and select Open and Repair, as shown in the screenshot.
• As you select the Open and Repair option, you need to give a final confirmation by clicking on the Repair button.
• As you click on the Repair button, the repair process will start; wait for it to get over and check if it solved the problem.
• If this method doesn’t solve your problem, move to the next method.
• Save Excel File in HTML Format

“If you find that you cannot open or access the Excel file in MS Excel, an alternative approach is to attempt opening it in HTML format. This can be particularly useful when there is an urgent need to access the content within the Excel file. Let’s walk through the steps to achieve this.

• To open an Excel file in HTML format, first, you need to open the infected Excel file.
• Once the Excel file is open, click on the File option and select Save As option from the menu.
• Now click Browse and select a location for the file to be saved and from the “Save as type” drop-down menu, select Web Page (*html;*.html), and check Entire Workbook option to save the entire workbook. Click on the Save button to save it in HTML format.

Note: When you attempt to save the file, the application will prompt you with a suggestion that saving the file in this format may lead to some alterations in the file.

• Now, in MS Excel, click on the File option and select Open, now find the file and make a right-click.
• Select Open with Microsoft Office Excel to open the file.
• Once the file is open in Excel, click Save as, and in the “Save as type” drop-down menu, select Excel format.
• Click on Save.
• Following this process may provide you with positive results; if not, then try the next methods. Try Open Office
  Open Office can be a valuable resource for opening inaccessible Excel files. This open-source Office suite can open infected files as well.
• Save in Symbolic Link format
  An alternative method to open an infected Excel file is by using the Symbolic Link Format (SYLK). This process is similar to opening the file in HTML format. First, save the file in SYLK format, then open and save that SYLK file again in Excel format.
• Move the file to another location
  Moving files to another location sometimes can solve the problem. So, move the file to some other system, and it may work.

As with other Microsoft Office products, Excel offers a feature called “AutoRecover” which automatically saves a recovered version of a file to a temporary location after a certain period of time. Therefore, AutoRecover may be able to restore a partial or complete Excel document. Here are the steps to follow.

• Access the Excel file. Go to the File menu and tap on Options.
• Click on Save and copy the AutoRecover file location.
• Open File Explorer and paste the file location. Hit Enter.
• You can choose the file you want to recover from all the auto-saved Excel files displayed.

With the Excel file corrupted, you can look to recover your file with any antivirus with a simple scan. Apart from using the antivirus, you can even use the inbuilt security application i.e. Windows Defender. Right click on the file and click on Scan with Microsoft Defender. After fixing the file, your Excel file will be recovered.

In case your above manual approaches fall short, the next way should be to repair your full Office program. With full repair, your issues will be fixed with new updates and bug fixes. Follow these steps here.

• Go to the Control Panel and click on Features.
• Search for MS Office Suite and click on Change.
• Choose the Quick Repair option and click on Repair.
• After the repair process is done, restart your system and open your file.

You can easily restore your Excel workbook if the file has been deleted or corrupted if it has been automatically backed up. Here is the guidance for enabling Excel’s AutoBackup feature.

• Open the Excel file and go to the File menu.
• Tap on Save As. Click on Browse.
• From the Save As dialog box, tap on the arrow beside the Tools option and choose General Options.
• Check mark the Always create backup option and hit OK

When you save an Excel workbook with the automatic backup feature enabled, the workbook will create an Excel backup file with the .xlk extension. The backup file will be saved to the same location as your original file.

1. Cure the virus-infected Excel file with automated software
   The automated Excel recovery tool by Kernel is a comprehensive solution for various Excel-related issues. This tool can effortlessly open corrupt XLS and XLSX files. It offers two recovery modes, enabling users to add either a single file or multiple files, depending on their needs. The recovery process is seamless and swift; let’s take a closer look:
   • Install the software correctly and run it. Once the tool is open, select a recovery mode from Single or Multiple recovery modes of the tool. Now, click the Browse button to select the infected XLS/XLSX file from your system, USB, Flash Drive, etc.
   • After selecting the infected file, click on the Repair button to proceed further.
   • Let the repair process finish or click on Stop if you want to go back and make changes.
   • At this stage, you can have the preview of the repaired Excel file. Have a look and click on Save once satisfied.
   • Click on the Select Path to save the file at the desired location. Once selected, click on the Save button.
   • The tool will start saving the file at the designated place. If you need to go back, click on Stop.
   • Once the tool is done with saving, it will display the location of the saved files.

After following all the steps successfully, one can achieve a healthy Excel file. As the tool repairs the infected file, you will see that your file is repaired with all its data like charts, tables, formulas, etc.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have explored a range of methods for recovering a virus-infected Excel Workbook. Towards the conclusion, we introduced Kernel for Excel Repair as a dependable solution for achieving complete recovery of infected files. This tool offers reliability and efficiency in the recovery process. To delve deeper into the world of dealing with corrupt Excel files and recovering lost data, feel free to read our blog titled ‘The File is Corrupted and Cannot be Opened in Excel‘ for more insights.