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Michael CarrilloFlag for United States of America

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Need to recover content of OneNote file with Sync error

I am using Windows 7 and OneNote 2010.
I have two OneNote files that I cannot open.  Unfortunately, I do not have access to the original source to sync or rebuild my OneNote files.

The files are procedures that I developed over three years. So I would really like to recover anything I can.

The initial message I get is:

This file is from a different version of OneNote. Your version cannot load this file. There may be a converter available on the Office.com Web site that will enable it to do so.

When I try to open or select it from within OneNote, I get:

OneNote does not recognize this file and it cannot be opened.
It may not be a OneNote file or it may be corrupted.

I have tried converting it to OneNote 2007 or OneNote 2010 by going to the properties. But have been unsuccessful.

When I go to the 'Notebook Sync Status' I can see the following errors:

This file does not appear to be a valid OneNote section file. It may be a file of another type that has been renamed to have a .one extension. (Error code: 0xE00000C8)

And of course, I cannot sync.

Any help would be appreciated.
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regmigrant
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regmigrant,

I had already tried /forcerepair with no effect.

I was hopeful that the onenoterepair.html would work. But even that tools could not recover anything.

Your second option, I am trying to figure out.  I am not sure how I can access backup folder. Are you suggesting I do a backup and then try to recover?  If you are suggesting that I look for backups of the file before the corruption. That is not an option as I emailed myself the file and do not have access to the original file or location.
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So, If I can install a OneNote 2007 and Open it in OneNote2007, you think I might possibly get further than using OneNote 2010 to convert to 2007 or 2010?
there's a distinct possibility that the files is corrupt and the conversion process is barfing as a result. Even if it won't directly open on the earlier version the force repair has a better chance of working if its dealing with a format that it recognises rather than trying to repair a corrupted version that it doesn't.

At least you will know ....
Ultimately the file was corrupt and not retrievable.   Fortunately, I was able to get a copy from someone else.
However, this was a learning experience and I learned that there are a number of things I can do to protect my important data.

Thank You regmigrant!
You're welcome and I'm glad you found a working copy.