excel recovery .xls

Hi

Hope this link would help:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/the_microsoft_excel_support_team_blog/archive/2013/09/07/quot-cannot-open-the-file-because-the-file-format-or-extension-is-invalid-quot-opening-office-files.aspx

try to open with Microsoft Web Office, Microsoft Office for Mac, or a different version of your Office.

If you can Open it, save as to a new file.

Hope this help!

Nothing working so far.  Tested the datanumen recovery, tried the open/repair, tried it on excel 2003/2007 and open office.

You didn't specify the type of virus, but there is a class of Malware called Ransomware, in which the malware encrypts data files on your computer and then offers to sell you the key to decrypt them for $300 or so. This malware has affected a couple of million computers recently.

Most people find and remove the malware infection, then restore some or all of their files from backups. Paying the ransom is not recommended because Microsoft is taking down the servers that store the decryption keys as fast as they can find them.

Microsoft describes the problem and offers a tool to remove the malware at "Updated 9/11 - "Excel cannot open the file [filename] because the file format or file extension is not valid." opening Office files"

Panda Security offers a tool to decrypt the file at http://www.pandasecurityusa.com/support/cards/1675/  This web page predates the most recent reports of infection, so I would be very much interested if it is able to effect a recovery. Please report back. Note that you will likely need a good copy of the file (perhaps preserved in email as an attachment) as well as its corrupted equivalent to reverse engineer the encryption key.

I don't think it is ransomware because it never asked for a ransom, but I know it had a virus.  Maybe I can look and see what the virus was called.

I agree with byundt. Does the contents of the file/s look encrypted? When you open the file in Wordpad or NotePad, is the contents showing up garbled?

IV