PC help needed. Saving to and retrieving from memory stick

[PedalCat]

Please help.
Having saved documents to a memory stick, when I try to retrieve them, they appear as a long line of this character: ÿ, ie ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ and so on. How can I get the original content?

 

[Octet]

Please help.
Having saved documents to a memory stick, when I try to retrieve them, they appear as a long line of this character: ÿ, ie ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ and so on. How can I get the original content?

Sounds like they are corrupted, what sort of documents are they?

 

[PedalCat]

Sounds like they are corrupted, what sort of documents are they?

Simple word docs etc

 

[annedonnelly]

Are you using Word to open them? You get that sort of gibberish if (for example) you open a Word document in Notepad.

 

[L14M]

Yeah sounds like a word doc opened in notepad as word is encrypted hence the gibberish. But it could be the memory stick being corrupted. Do you get anything from windows when you first connect the usb?

 

[PedalCat]

Are you using Word to open them? You get that sort of gibberish if (for example) you open a Word document in Notepad.

Double-clicking on individual docs in the USB device file, therefore I was expecting them to open in whichever appropriate programme. I'm off to bed now, but will likely ask for more help tmro. Thank you.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I'd try opening it from within Word to see whether it's simply being launched in the wrong programme.

 

[BrynCP]

It does sound like they're opening in wordpad or notepad, or you're trying to open a newer type of word document in an older version of word.

If you don't have Microsoft Word you can use a free alternative such as LibreOffice or get the read only Microsoft Word viewer: http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=4 (you will be prompted for a subsequent download if you try open a .docx).

 

[classic33]

Sounds as though your using two different vesions of word on the same document.
Assuming this is the case, the next time you go to save them with the newer version, select the way you want it saved in the Save As box at the bottom. Usually under the file name.
DON'T try this working on the older version.

 

[Nihal]

Try opening them with Adobe reader,characters such as "ÿÿÿÿ" are common if you try opening .pdf files with Word.

 

[swee'pea99]

First thing I'd do is 'copy' the whole lot and put the originals in a folder while you experiment with the copies.

Next, as others have suggested, open using different programmes. Right-click on a file and look for 'open with', then browse to word, adobe reader, whatever.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Also, it would help us to give advice if you could look in the files and tell us what kind of suffix is added on at the end of the file name.

 

[classic33]

Also, it would help us to give advice if you could look in the files and tell us what kind of suffix is added on at the end of the file name.

Right click, Properties, should show what format its saved in as well as what to use to open it.

 

[Octet]

If all else fails, try unzipping them with something like 7Zip, inside you should find a number of files and/or folders such as XML files and the various assets used. If you are able to recover as much of this as possible, you should be able to reconstruct the file.

 

[PedalCat]

Thanks for all the help. I've just now tried one document as an example. It's a Notepad doc. I tried to open it in Notepad, Word, and Firefox. All three gave the gibberish. Looking at its 'properties' confirms that it's a Notepad doc. I'm a bit stumped.
Just to make this clear; when I plug in the USB stick, I then take the option of viewing the file (or folder or whatever) with the appropriate Windows option. A new window opens up, full of little shortcuts to the individual docs, be they Word (or Notepad) or music or pictures, all complete with names. I've also tried a music file and nothing at all happened after i told it to play/open.
Is it usually easy and straightforward to save bookmarks, pictures, music and Word/Notepad documents to a memory stick and then retrieve them later? I would have thought that the computer would automatically sort out any differences caused by newer versions of programmes. I need to save stuff coz my PC is 8years old (and wasn't exactly high spec then) and getting slower and might die one day soon.