All word documents won't open

[Menaice]

I have a clients computer in the shop, the issue is none of his word documents will open. He has microsoft office 2007. I backed up the computer, and scanned the system and found some infections. The system now scans completely clean. But anytime you try to open up a word document doc, or docx it pops up file conversion. A few will pop up saying the file is corrupted. It makes me think that the infection possibly caused this. I have deleted the normal.dotm template file, also installed the microsoft office compatibility pack. Ran the office diagnostics and it found nothing wrong.

Anyone had something like this happen to them before?

Also i emailed myself 2 random word documents from his computer to myself to see if i could open them on my computer, and they do the same thing. Prompt for file conversion

 

[Menaice]

If i create a new word document on his computer and save it, it will open up just fine.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We just had a laptop come in yesterday. Had an infection with some ransomware and it encrypted all of her Doc files.

Our tech was spinning his wheels on it....he called me over, I noticed it was Windows 7...went to previous versions, extracted her My Documents folder from 3 weeks ago...all them docs were good.

So go check previous versions dated just before she got whacked.

 

[Menaice]

The operating system is windows xp

 

[cypress]

The operating system is windows xp

Ouch! I would say try Shadow Explorer and see if that would work out for you but it does not support XP.

Although I myself have been having issues with Shadow Explorer loading up properly. I have tried on several computers with No Luck.

Did you perform a system restore?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Files are encrypted. Unless he has backups you are screwed.

 

[Xander]

If i create a new word document on his computer and save it, it will open up just fine.

There's your answer right there. If YOUR docs will open and his won't, it's not Word that has the problem.

 

[Menaice]

Yea i sent a single file off to sysinfo tools, they said there normal recovery program will not work. The infection had encrypted all of the documents, word and excel. It would require their expert recovery service in order to recover the files. It is what it is, he had no back ups of his files.

 

[dbdawn]

Yea i sent a single file off to sysinfo tools, they said there normal recovery program will not work. The infection had encrypted all of the documents, word and excel. It would require their expert recovery service in order to recover the files. It is what it is, he had no back ups of his files.

My guess is you had the CryptoLock infection on that PC.

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49944

 

[TriadPCSolutions]

For the heck of it, you might want to check, we don't know which virus he had,

cryptolocker had several predicesors, that used weaker encryption that could be cracked.

try out http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/494759/decrypt-protect-ransomware/page-3#entry3054229 just for the heck of it.

as stated, if it is indeed crypto lock, you are out of luck. the encryption crypto uses, would take the NSA ages to get one file. But without actual knowledge of what the initial infection was, we can hold on to a sliver of hope that it isn't quite crypto.

The bad news is crypto did spread much worse than it's predicesors, because it was far more effective, but what the heck maybe you got lucky?

 

[drjones]

Although this doesn't sound like the issue in this particular case since there are viruses involved, I had two clients whose Office became corrupted by a microsoft update.

A repair of Office fixed the problem. It's worth a shot.