Having a good program to restore Excel files on hand is essential if you are going to rely on the program for your business, as the files become corrupted at inconvenient times. The corruption rate is not consistent or frequent enough to blame on the program structure and require you switch to another option such as SQL or Oracle, but it is a reality of using the program. The question that comes up in support and help programs is why do these files become corrupt and how can you change your practices to keep it from happening?
No One Reason
There is no one reason why a file becomes corrupt in Excel. The same file with the same colors, CSE, pictures, links, and size will remain in perfect condition, while its neighbor will suddenly trigger an error message that it is unreadable. Yesterday, the file was fine. Today, it is locked away from use. When you run an Excel repair program, the file is restored and you can use it again.
If there is no one reason that a file in Excel becomes corrupt, then what are the data recovery programs scanning for that allows them to fix it? The first thing to understand is how a data repair program works. They do not search for what is wrong, but they look to restore the correct assignment and hierarchy within a file. It is recognition of incompleteness that an Excel repair program, or other data recovery program, performs, rather than recognition of corruption. Why the file structure became incomplete is not important. Incomplete, in this instance, refers to the expected syntax and order rather than the amount of coding attached to a file.
Many people follow a sort of magical formula of keeping Excel file sizes small and avoiding CSE formulas but this does nothing to prevent corruption. It is something that happens no matter what rules you follow. It is more important that you have the correct Excel recovery program for your version and platform on hand to simply correct the issue and continue on. It is also important that you have a solid backup routine to help you recover Excel files quickly.
Creating a Backup Routine
Don’t rely only on the backup settings in Excel to keep your files safe. You should have an external method, outside of the program environment, to provide additional security as well. It is suspected that one of the main reasons an Excel file will go bad has nothing to do with Excel, but with problems existing within one of the sectors of the storage drive. If you are using the same network system to access the Internet, you have to be even stricter about backup protocols as malware can come through networked computers to affect your file structure.
Alan Chen is President and Chairman of DataNumen, Inc., the global leader in data recovery technologies. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, we’re poised to promptly help any business help with data corruption and loss. For information on our Excel recovery software, or any of our other data repair programs, visit DataNumen.