Anyone know how to recover a corrupted Word file?

[Abelhawk]

I've kept a dream journal on my computer for more than six years, and this past month when I reset my computer I accidentally copied over my journal and "skipped" rather than replacing the old backup. This left me with a file without the past year's worth of dreams on it.

I managed to recover the file through a data recovery program, last updated 10/31/16 (probably the last and most up-to-date version I saved), but unfortunately it's corrupted. I've tried a few of the methods online for recovering corrupted files, but the best I can come up with is a garbled mess like this:

ÎihKžœ Ï5Å¸èM»ªö› ¼,Xd ¢‘b<:‹lè•xÇJwëh©Î}žÙ Lã^ý« …&Cã„ëOM‚ØNñë÷I–Ù zq¿ni†ê¼x\²çïõAû¾#åeD! åL ×Å uböË…˜ ‹*2«\Ï6}mŽ 2=΀§ýo-sù P‚ÓƒÑÐÕ®ÑlköUœ")—{xIΙj˜dïË)¿£-q;cŸ>ÕŠ++³±èUáò ŸTI(b¦2©b…bìaÙ oÂ6‘ÛKa«4 Û{ î½:üO’ ó¹ý
ª¬mkFb3W‰-å˜òo»°yý S,Ay >)@*²qžè•_Áòi3üÆ"0¼›\&‹’ª\ I!Zž'

Is there a way for this mess to be translated or decoded somehow? Or is this just the shredded remains of the document's data being overwritten by a different program and my document is doomed and I should give up?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Doomed so give up. This is why one needs to keep backups.

If shadow copies are enabled there might be other versions of it which are not corrupt.

 

[Abelhawk]

I did back this file up. It was the act of trying to back it up before a system reset that caused this corruption. It wasn't an issue with the computer that corrupted the file, it was me writing over it, so there aren't any shadow copies.

What I need is to just put such a project on Google Docs. Wish I would've thought of that a year ago.

 

[Roland]

I know word has a previous versions built in shit. but try hook up in the Unsaved Docs.