# wordpad file "blank'd out" help!!!!



## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

i have a 3680 acer laptop with vista installed. awhile ago wordpad files which i had wrote important things in would just come up blank. id have paragraph after paragraph on it but then id click it ojne day and i would just be blank but the scroll down bar would indicate something was there and id still have some kilobytes. a friend of mine who works on comps was able to restore some of my files once. the only reason i diddnt back up my recent one was because i had cleaned my cpu of viruses and it had not happened in awhile. had anyone seen this before and can anyone help me?


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## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

it also has 12.7 kb im sorry if this is the wrong section for this.


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## reventon (Oct 16, 2009)

Welcome to TSF!

Have you tried highlighting the document (Ctrl +A) just incase the colour of the words is the same as the colour of the background.

If that doesn't work, then what file type are the documents?

Regards,
Reventon


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

Can you zip up the file and attach to post so we can take a look if content not proprietary?


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## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

im sooo happy someone responded. its a typical wordpad text file. win32pad in the past had helped to restore some other files. i can not upload it until i get the lappy online but that will be tomorrow but quite soon. its an rtf file, its size is 13,072, its "size on disk" is 4.00kb/4,096byes also of note the icon at the top of the wordpad program when opening the blanked files the icon is the simple notepad at the top above file. when the file is unblanked its another icon one with a little blue picture amnnd many paragraphs. i believe thats the word pad icon. can anyone tell me what is going on?


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## reventon (Oct 16, 2009)

Hi,

As jcgriff2 mentioned, the easiest way is simply to upload one of the files (as long as you don't mind it being read). It is most likely a file formatting problem.
Don't know quite what you mean about the icons, can you upload screenshots of them if possible (use Alt+PrtScn to just take a screenshot of the active window).

Regards,
Reventon


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## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

reventon said:


> Hi,
> 
> As jcgriff2 mentioned, the easiest way is simply to upload one of the files (as long as you don't mind it being read). It is most likely a file formatting problem.
> Don't know quite what you mean about the icons, can you upload screenshots of them if possible (use Alt+PrtScn to just take a screenshot of the active window).
> ...


i will in a few hours once i get the lappy online but in the mean time id like to know if anyone you have heard the issue im describing and what are the odds of getting my info back and is it a good sine there are so many kilobytes?


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

One to Remember said:


> its a typical wordpad text file. win32pad in the past had helped to restore some other files.
> 
> its an rtf file, its size is 13,072, its "size on disk" is 4.00kb/4,096byes


A text file is opened with Notepad.

A "Rich Text Format" (RTF) file can be opened by Wordpad, Word, or other app supporting RTF.

What do you mean by "restore files"? You should not have to use win32pad or any other app to "restore RTF files". If saved as an RTF file, it is an RTF file.

Where does the file size of 13,072 come from?

Same with 4096..?

Where are you seeing these numbers?




One to Remember said:


> what are the odds of getting my info back and is it a good sine there are so many kilobytes?


It could be nothing but blank lines - we won't know until we can see the file. It is impossible to give you odds on this as there is no history to do so.

If the system containing the file(s) in question is unable to establish Internet connection, copy it out to USB/ DVD, copy it in to a system that is on-line, upload and attach to your next post.

Provide several files, if possible.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.


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## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

it will not let me upload the rtf it sez its an invalid file and error.


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## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

it will not let me upload the rtf it sez its an invalid file and error.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=32RTS4AW it cam up 12.27 kb o that site and now its saying 496 bytwa on my comp idk even if nothing comes of thios id still like answers. this has upset me soo much i lost thoughts, quotes, ponderings, odes to my love, songs, raps, the whole gambit


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

That file contains nothing but space - all blank lines.

I double-checked it with a hex editor - nothing in it at all.

Any other files?

You can zip the up - I'd like to see timestamps on the original files.

Copy several to a folder. RIGHT-click on the folder, select "Send to", select "Compressed (zipped) folder" - a zip file with the same name as the folder will appear in the folder you are in. Upload it & attach to post.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

I've downloaded your 10.rtf file and tried to open it in Wordpad and Notepad. It comes up blank in both, just a page of spaces.

Filesize 12.7kb (13,072 bytes). Size on disk 16.0kb (16,348 bytes).

I tried 2 file recovery programs. No luck.

I then tried a hex editor. 00000000 to 00003310 all zeros. Your data is gone.

For future reference, a good backup routine for important files is to make a copy from your laptop onto a USB flash drive that you can update when necessary, then make a permanent copy onto CD/DVD, external hard drive or another computer. It only takes a few seconds and saves a lot of trouble.


EDIT: You could also use a free online service like *Google Docs* instead of Wordpad. This saves your work on their servers, so you won't lose everything next time something goes wrong with your computer.


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## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

i just want answers as to what happened to it. i dontunderstand at all. i have no other files it will just come up the same. u guys were really quick though and i appreciate that. u guys f****** rule still ray: *in comic book guy voice* MOST APPROPRIATE EMOTICON EVERRR!


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

I'm not sure what happened here - as mentioned, the single file provided was nothing but blank lines.


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## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

vista is at times saying one or more programs need to be closed so everything can run smoothly. its usually firefox or IE that its b!+ching about. low on memory. but even so if i couldnt save i should have earliar versions. also each drive has 1 to 2 GB of free space


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

1-2 GB free space is not enough for Vista to survive on. Updates coming in are compressed and can require several GB's of temp storage space to expand.

Run msinfo32 - save as NFO file
START | type *msinfo32* | save it to Documents folder as "msinfo32.nfo" - NFO = default file ext (you'll see it when you go to save the file).

RIGHT-click on the NFO file, select "Send To", select "Compressed (Zipped) Folder"

You should find "msinfo32.zip" in Documemts.

Attach to your next post.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Hard drive space is not the same as memory. The technical term for memory is RAM.

1-2gb of free hard drive space is very low and could be causing you to lose data. There should be a minimum of 15% free hard drive space for Windows to run efficiently.

What's the total size of your hard drives, and how much RAM do you have?

To see the total hard drive size, open Windows Explorer, right-click the drive's icon and select Properties. You will see a pie chart split into blue and purple sections with the figures above it.


EDIT: Sorry John, didn't see your reply. We keep posting at the same time. :smile:


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

No problem...

I'm wondering if error message is referring to virtual memory vs. RAM; hence the reason I would like to see msinfo32.

John

.


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## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

MSINFO32.EXE in the run? not doin anything


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## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

502mb of free ram.


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## reventon (Oct 16, 2009)

Can you upload the *msinfo32* file or is it still not working?


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## One to Remember (Apr 1, 2010)

reventon said:


> Can you upload the *msinfo32* file or is it still not working?


it still will not let me


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## reventon (Oct 16, 2009)

Strange...

Could you please go to *START*-> type *perfmon /report* press enter -> wait 60 seconds for the data to be collected and then *save it*, *zip it* and *attach it* to your next post.


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## Phzdk (May 4, 2010)

I don't have a solution, but for what it's worth I have experienced this several times on a Windows XP box. Without exception, the problem occured in a document where I pasted binary data (such as images) and like the above poster, reading the document with a hex editor showed all zeroes.
Needless to say I would not recommend using Wordpad for anything important!


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