So large file that Excel cannot open it...

[BELFRED6]

I have a file that became too big due to phantom bloat, unused range saved by Excel and all that kind of reasons. Thank to previous posts on that board tackling that issue, I was able to find how to proceed to reduce the file back to its normal size.
But I did so in a beta file (test file). The real file has become so big (103MB!) that Excel cannot even open it anymore! The file contains archive info that we do not have anywhere else.
Is there anyway then to open the file or to reduce its size without opening it (through magics...)? I just honestly don't know how to retrieve that info before deleting that file.

Thank you very much for your help.

 

[BELFRED6]

We are a tiny company with 10 people and we all have the same computers (as mine). And of cource no separate IT department. That would have a been a good solution though.
Definitely I just need to be able to open the file. Afterwards, I can work on it to reduce its size.
Thank you for the advice.

 

[Stormseed]

Did you try out the steps I provided you lately in my last post ?

 

[Stormseed]

This is what I did, when I had the same problem,

go to your IT help team, ask them to copy the file to any of the server mechines they are using (with high RAM capacity/Processor speed), try opening from there and change any formula to values or try to split it into more than one file

Sankar,

I would rather be relaxed and make the OP realize all the possible workarounds before I hit on a hard conclusion. Moreover, not everyone is in an as rich company with an IT department.

 

[BELFRED6]

Still having the same problem. No more success after having tried yor very last suggestion.

In each of my various attemps, I always wait for Excel to return me the "unable to open" message before taking any further action. Usually speaking, the message pops up after 6 or 7 minutes.

Sorry to bother you so long with my problem...

 

[Stormseed]

Now that we have tried the most common workarounds and still the issue persists, it would not be a good idea to suggest something else unless I can visualize the file in front of me. It would be technically a bit complex.

Can you upgrade to Excel 2007 or atleast to Excel 2003 ?

 

[wsjackman]

if someone in the office has a computer at home with 2003 or 2007 and more memory
try putting the file on a flash drive and have the person open the file in safe mode. extract the archive info and put it into another file.

additionally if you know where the information you want is, say all of the archive info you are interested in is in sheet1

open a new book. in cell a1 enter ='[corrupted workbook name]sheet1'!a1

copy over the area where the data is.

select all copy and paste values

you might want to try this on a file which is not corrupted first, to insure you have the formula format correct.

 

[BELFRED6]

Yes, that seems to be the only solution...
I'm going to look for a newer version of Excel (2003 or 2007) and will keep you all posted if it did solve my problem.
Thanks a lot!