Christo Design Title: Excel Recovery Download Link: excel_recovery2.zip Description: Microsoft recommends several methods for recovering Excel data from corrupt spreadsheets here (for Excel 2002 and 2003) and here (for Excel 2007 and 2010). Excel Recovery makes it easy to follow these recommendations for saving and reopening your file in the SYLK and HTML formats, opening the corrupt workbook with calculations to manual or in safe mode, opening in the Excel Viewer or WordPad, opening the file in open and repair or open and extract data modes, and using the external references method. The application adds two methods of its own for data extraction and one for Excel repair using included command line apps. Finally it has its own native previous file version recovery tool which works in any version of Vista and Windows 7. Still to be added in a future version is the macro chart data recovery method.  It leaves out macro chart data recovery method which I'm working on... This program differs from Corrupt office2txt, Corrupt Office Extractor and Corrupt XLSX2CSV in that it addition to the methods those program use Excel Recovery invokes methods that rely on Excel itself, the Excel Viewer or WordPad. Also Excel Recovery using Excel to do its recovery work, should allow a greater chance of recovering formatting.  It should be noted the Excel methods often don't work however this is the app to try to get all of my Excel tricks in one easy to use app... Size: 27.4 MB Zipped Requirements: Windows XP - Windows 7, NET 2.0, Office 2003-2010 Screenshot Title: Corrupt Office Extractor 3.2 Download Link: corrupt-office-extractor3.2.zip Description: This is a GUI powerhouse program for recovering text and images and repairing zip and XML structure of corrupt MS Office 2007 and 2010 format files (docx, xlsx, pptx). Some advanced XML knowledge may be needed to repair the XML files. The program uses no-frills unzipper to unzip corrupt Office Open, docx, xlsx and pptx files. Corrupt office2txt above uses both no-frills unzipper and CakeCMD so is more likely to extract text from corrupt file than this program, however, this one can repair the zip structure, extract images and even allow you to attempt to repair the XML structure if you know how to do this. If this and all the other relevant programs on this list don't work (there is a lot of scope overlap mind you) or you need format recovery, try WordFix or ExcelFix. Support requests can be sent to here. Size: 2.22 MB Zipped OS: Windows XP to Windows 7 Screenshot Title: Corrupt office2txt Download Link: coffice2txt.zip Description: Thank you to Make Use of for mentioning us in Cool Websites and Tools!... This program will extract the text even from damaged or corrupted Microsoft Office and Open Office files 2.X and 3.X files with the extensions .doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, odt, ods and odp as well as possibly the template and macro variants of these extensions such as dot, xlt and pps if they are changed to the correct corresponding extensions mentioned. It may succeed at doing so where MS Office Open Office itself fails to salvage text. It can also attempt to recover formatting in the form of a full Open Office file with a regular, odt, ods or odp extension. At this time unfortunately there is no facility for recovering anything but basic formatting for MS Office files through the previously mentioned text extractions. This program can be used as a viewer of text within healthy MS Office and Open Office files without having MS Office or Open Office installed. The text extraction is accomplished with the use of the command line application, SILVERCODERS DocToText. The program also uses command line tools from The Chicago Project and ReadText, rt.exe to extract data and text from MS Office version 97-2003 format files. The reconstructed version of the Open Office file is accomplished by unzipping the Open Office file with the somewhat zip corruption immune CakeCMD unzipper. Once unzipped, the manifest/manifest.xml file is replaced with a greatly simplified version as described here: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=57600 If this application doesn't work for Open Office files, there are other things worth trying as summarized here: http://s2services.com/open_office.htm. If it doesn't work for MS Word files, try here: http://s2services.com/word_repair.htm. If it doesn't work for Excel files look at other alternative steps here: http://s2services.com/excel.htm. If this and all the other relevant programs on this list don't work (there is a lot of scope overlap mind you) or you need format recovery, try WordFix or ExcelFix. Manual recovery requests ($22 if successful) or support requests can be sent to here. Size: 10.58 MB Zipped OS: Windows XP to Windows 7 (requires Microsoft .NET Version 2 Framework) Screenshots **NEW** Title: Vista Previous Version File Recoverer  Download Link:  vista_previous_versions_recvr_setup.exe Description: Starting with Vista, Windows allows the recovering of previous versions of files without a dedicated backup. These previous versions are stored whenever a Restore Point is made by the system or manually made by the user from the System Protection tab of the System App in the Control Panel. These previous versions can be recovered in Vista and Windows 7 by merely right clicking the target file and choosing "Restore previous versions." This feature is unavailable in Vista Home Basic and Home Premium, hence the need for this program. Vista Home Basic and Premium Previous Version File Recoverer works with the other versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, so if you find it easier to use then right clicking on files in Explorer then by all means do so. The application however rebuilds the index each time you invoke it which is time consuming. Windows however may do the same thing. It may even work with certain version of XP when on business networks where previous version recovery is available through a 2003 or later Microsoft Server installation, although I'm unsure if this is true or not. A similar program to this one is Shadow Explorer: http://www.shadowexplorer.com/. You might find that program more comprehensive because it exposes all previous versions of files in an Explorer-like interface, although as discussed later this program does so also. In contrast to Shadow Explorer, the present program only returns previous versions within its GUI window that are different whereas Shadow Explorer requires you to choose a restore point in date and time and look to see if a previous version is actually different from the file you are working with. Using Shadow Explorer may be more time consuming then using Vista Home Basic and Premium Previous Version File Recoverer. Size: 929 KB OS: Windows XP to Windows 7 (requires Microsoft .NET Version 2 Framework) Screenshots Older Data Recovery Programs Title: Corrupt DOCX2TXT Download Link: dd2txt-1.03b.zip Description: this GUI program will extract text from damaged/corrupted Word files formatted in the new docx format where Word itself fails. Docx files are actually zipped collections of XML files. XML as a format is unforgiving of data corruption. The main text in docx files is found in document.xml file in the collection. Damaged docx2txt uses CakeCMD , an unzipper that will unzip partially corrupt document.xml files. Also the Perl routine used to extract the text from the document.xml file doesn't care about well-formedness of the XML, a stumbling block of Word 2007 and 2010. Support requests can be sent to here. If Damaged docx2txt fails, or you need more formatting recovered, try WordFIX... Size: 3.1 MB Zipped OS: Windows XP to Windows 7 (requires Microsoft .NET Version 2 Framework) Screenshot Title: Corrupt XLSX2CSV Download Link: corrupt-xlsx2csv-1.02.zip  Description: Corrupt xlsx2csv is a new freeware GUI program for salvaging the data from corrupt Excel 2007 files. Xlsx Excel 2007 files are really zipped collections of XML files. The main raw data is contained in the sharedStrings and numbered worksheet XML files. XML is a very unforgiving medium when it comes to data corruption, thus if the sharedStrings and or worksheet XML files become corrupt, Excel has difficulty recovering the unformatted data. Corrupt xlsx2csv uses a command line unzipping program that will unzip partially corrupt worksheet[#].xml and sharedStrings.xml files. Also the Perl data extraction routines don't use XML techniques that care about well formed XML, a stumbling block for other Excel 2007 recovery programs. If corruptxlsx2csv doesn't work, or you need format recovery try ExcelFIX... Size: 3.58 MB Zipped OS: Windows XP - Windows 7 (requires Microsoft .NET Version 2 Framework) Screenshot Title: CMD Corrupt OfficeOpen2txt Download Link: coffec_cmd.zip Description: Perfect for online scripts and services needing text or data extraction from both corrupt or healthy docx, xlsx or pptx files. Coded by Ccy, author of HaHa Zip and using Delphi Zip, CMD Corrupt OfficeOpen2Txt will often recover text from corrupt "Office Open" format files where the respective Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 programs cannot salvage the text or data. Office Open format files are zipped collections of XML files. There are two kinds of corruption of these types of files, zip structure corruption and XML corruption. This program deals with both. The unzipping module used in Office 2007 and 2010, is more finicky than InfoZip module used by CMD Corrupt OfficeOpen2Txt. Thus the collection of files making up the docx, xlsx or pptx file can be extracted as raw material for data/text extraction in the programs 2nd stage. MS Office doesn't even get this far sometimes. In regards to XML corruption, the format is by design a very unforgiving medium for file damage. From the errors returned from attempts at salvaging the text from Office 2007 and 2010 it appears Microsoft is using a fairly standard interpreter of XML even when encountering corruption. CMD Corrupt OfficeOpen2Txt on the other hand does not get hung up by so call XML issues of "well formatting". It simply removes the tags from the data and text as far as possible, ignoring badly formed tag issues. Size: 797 KB Zipped OS: Windows XP - Windows 7 Screenshot Title: Corrupt PPTX2TXT Download Link: corrupt_pptx2txt.zip  Description: Corrupt_pptx2txt is based on Pptx to Text converter by sopan_shewale. His sourceforge project is here. This projects differs from Sopan's project because it uses two unzippers that are relatively more impervious to zip corruption than PowerPoint. PPTX files seem to have zip corruption as their biggest cause of corruption. The two different versions of the converter using the two different unzippers sometimes succeeds in extracting text from corrupt pptx files where PowerPoint 2007 and 2010 fail. Furthermore the programs use regular expressions to extract the text from XML files rather than judging from the error messages, the strict xml libraries that PowerPoint appears to be using. So sometimes when PowerPoint signals an unreadable XML error, these programs still extract useful text. Size: 6.5 MB Zipped OS: Windows XP - Windows 7 Screenshot Title: Corrupt Open Office Recovery Download Link: openofficerecovery.zip Description: This program uses the same methods as Corrupt office2txt for recovering Open Office text and formatting. Size: 14.98 MB Zipped OS: Windows XP - Windows 7 Screenshot Title: Data Recovery Freeware Google Group Description: this Google Group contains 500+ link to freeware for recovering data lost to file corruption, deletion, failing disk or lost passwords. It contains many more links than my data recovery freeware site, however, it goes into less detail. Screenshot Genealogy Software and Resources Title: Excel2GED Download Link: Excel2GEDv1.0-family.zip Description: This Excel file features the ability to convert Excel data into the genealogy standard, GEDCOM format including the ability to specify family relationships. GEDCOM generation is initiated with a push of a VBA coded macro button. Note there may be issues with multiple partners. If you find this to be the case, for now, enter only one partner and fix the problem in your genealogy software. For a man with multiple wives having children with each, enter the first wife as attached to the husband and the second as being initially single until you get into your genealogy program then attach them to the husband. You can also have multiple instances of the same man or woman and merge them later on with the program where you import the gedcom. My apologies for the inconvenience. There is another Excel file based program which may be superior in this regard (and others as it is a more substantial item), which is also free. It's called cvbFT. Size: 80 KB Zipped OS: Windows 2000 - Windows 7, OSX Screenshot Title: Gedcom2wiki Download Link: gedcom2wiki.zip Description: This PHP web service allows the conversion of gedcom family trees to wiki family tree template code. A bug in the program makes the chart semi-3D with lines of relatedness passing underneath other lines instead of a flat 2D chart like the Wikipedia template represents. However maybe this is a feature, not a bug. Here is a local working installation. Size: 9.2 KB Zipped OS: Any web server with PHP installed Screenshots: Title: Catalogue-of-Life-Converter 1.0 Download Link: Catalogue-of-Life-Converter-1.0.zip  Description: This Microsoft Access database converts the Catalogue of Life into a gedcom format. This extends the use of the gedcom format for use in Biological Systematics or species categorization. This move is inspired by my belief that at least some if not most speciation is produced by hybridization, not the accumulation of mutations no matter how radically changing in body format one mutation can be. I believe that especially during the epochs of mass extinctions (for instance now), environmental niches can become compressed and overlap where they previously had not. This brings species into contact that would not normally be so. Also the fact of reduced numbers, populations individuals will sometimes choose mates outside their species. Most of these matings are unsuccessful, but occasionally because of radiation exposure or colchicine like biochemical induced, chromosome numbers or other nuclear changes the offspring become fertile. This means that the birth of a species takes a mother and a father species with their children being different from either parent as they are a mixture. A clear example to me is Sea Squirts, the parent of all vertebrates. They make cellulose (and chlorophyll?) and appear to be a cross between say another filter feeder like a sponge, and a plant which has mobile sperm, perhaps like a fern. Size: 2897.51KB Zipped OS: Windows 2000 - Windows 7, OSX Screenshots Title: Famous Family Trees Google Group  Description: this is the Google group version contains links, files and reviews of famous family trees including for instance the Bible family, Greek Gods, Royalty, Presidents etc. File will be in GEDCOM (GED), PDF or other formats. ScreenShot Misc. Title: Shift-F3 Case Changer Download Link: shift-f3-case-changer-0.52.zip  Description: This AutoHotKey script derived application will run in the System Tray. Holding down the shift key and tapping on the F3 one will cycle your selected text through invert, lower, upper, title and sentence cases. This program copies the similar feature in MS Word that uses the same key combination. The feature in Word omits the invert and sentence case but these can be accessed from customizing the Quick Access Toolbar. The script is mostly by None with the sentence case function by Laszlo both from the AutoHotKey forum. The script idea was suggested and after minor synthesis and adjustment compiled by me socrtwo (Paul D Pruitt). Size: 205 KB Zipped OS: Windows XP - Windows 7 Screenshot Title: No-Frills Command Line Unzipper Download Link: no-frills-unzipper.zip Description: Great for fast simple coding of scripts, No-Frills Command Line Unzipper is based on the Delphi-Zip library. No-Frills Command Line Unzipper offers the advantage of not requiring command switches. Commands are interpreted according to argument order. The first argument is the zip file, the second is the unarchive folder and the third and more are files to be unarchived. If the second argument is extension-less, it is interpreted as a folder. Also note if no extension-less argument is provided in the second position the unzip folder is the current one. Several files to be unzipped can be placed in the 3rd, 4th, 5th etc. arguments with a space as a separator (or 2nd, 3rd etc. if no folder name is indicated). No-frills has some additional advantages over for example zlib based unzippers. It unzips Microsoft Office 2007 files without an added a zip extension. It excels at unzipping corrupted zip and Microsoft Office 2007 files without the specification of additional options. Size: 777.86 KB zipped OS: Windows XP - Windows 7 Screenshot: Title: SoftSearch DownloadLink: softsearchfull.zip  Description: SoftSearch is a search engine tool which allows you to do bulk Web searches. It allows you to upload a text file of up to 100 search terms or phrases separated by carriage returns. It then returns 2-20 results for each term in html or text. It creates an Access database to do this. You need Access installed or maybe an Access runtime. Also requires comdlg32.ocx, not included with the distribution. Size: 104 KB zipped OS: Windows 2000 - Windows XP, Vista? 7? Screenshot: None available Data Recovery Freeware Disk Drill is a simple yet powerful Mac data recovery software