How to resolve a "corrupted" .txt file?
How to resolve a "corrupted" .txt file?
I had these .txt files with a lot of text, and then they suddenly turned into strange symbols and black-background letters. I’m not sure if this is corruption or something else. I’ve tried using an app to recover the file from last month, but it still shows the same messy text. I’ve also opened it in Notepad, Notepad++, WordPad, and changed the encoding, but nothing helps. It’s really frustrating. Please help...
What was your final action prior to this situation?
Which app were you using to restore the previous version?
Have you performed any extensive virus or malware checks recently?
Let me know for more information.
There was an update that significantly reduced my laptop's speed, so I removed it and performance returned to normal. Then I changed all my folders to non-read-only (by the way, I have two SSDs on my laptop). I downloaded a video that only works on the main SSD, but after copying it to another SSD it stopped playing, even for that file only. That’s why I made all folders read-only because I thought that was the issue. Before this problem with Notepad, I was scanning for replaced files using Disk Drill, which was so slow I ended up closing it from Task Manager.
The data recovery tools I used were Recuva, Recover it Wondershare, and Fonelab Data Reciever.
Recuva had an older version, possibly a few days before the issue started, and when I opened it it was still broken (same strange messages). Recover it cost money, but I could at least preview it and saw the same gibberish. The last one was Fonelab, which was updated once a month before September, and I was satisfied until I opened it and it still didn’t work.
I haven’t run any deep malware scans yet, so I’m still writing this as it is.
Thanks for your help!
Folder permissions aren't functioning properly. This could indicate a faulty file or an SSD issue. Was the recovered previous version of your file something you had deleted, or is there another explanation? The .txt file appears to be encrypted, possibly due to malware or ransomware.
Yeah, I don't fully grasp folder permissions. For that faulty SSD you mentioned, only the video file can't be opened, while other videos work perfectly. Some people suggested using chkdsk, but it reported no bad sectors. The file that was "recovered" seems to be just an older version of the same file—something I never deleted, just edited over time. I'm not sure if this will help, but the note file contains many comic titles I read, though it's full of them and I really need it back. Also, I thought some noise in the notes was causing the issue, so I checked other .txt files on the SSD and everything looks normal.