HomeVery often you may find that you are working on a Microsoft Excel workbook and the program stops responding. In order to avoid any corruption of the file, Excel allows you to close the workbooks and program you are working on in a controlled manner. When you try to open the file the next time around, Excel quickly analyzes it for any errors, and recovers as much information from it as possible. There are instances, however, when no information can be recovered and you may have to turn to alternative recovery tools such as Advanced Excel Repair.
When the Excel program stops responding and you try to restart, the program attempts a very quick Excel recovery and presents you with up to three versions of the file it was able to recover. Next to the name of the file there will be indicators containing details of what changes were made to the file during the recovery process. This feature allows you to actually open the files, understand what repairs were made, decide which version you would like to go with and delete the remaining options. You could always choose to save all three versions and make a decision on what to do with them later.
Another method to ensure that you can carry out an immediate Excel recovery is to use the AutoRecover feature. By enabling this feature, you are automatically and periodically saving a temporary copy of the Excel file you are working on. If you face problems such as power failures and have not manually saved your file, you can be sure that AutoRecover would have saved most of the changes that you have made in your file. The more frequently you set the AutoRecover option to save the file, the more information you will manage to save. Of course, you need to bear in mind that the AutoRecover option should not be used as a substitute for regularly saving your files manually or for backing them up. It is a feature that allows you to quickly restore your Excel data in case of any problem.