Excel file will not open anymore

I am running Windows XP and Office 2000 and I have an Excel file that will no longer open. This file contains all of my personal income and expenses for this year and I did not save it anywhere except on the flashdrive. Please help if you know how I might fix this problem.

 

does the flash drive show the file as still being there?

 

Yes, it's still there, but I get a message on the screen saying my program cannot open this type of file, which makes no sense.

 

Make a backup copy of the file in another location (C drive maybe)
Check the file extension of the excel file.

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Click Appearance and Themes (if not in classic view)
Then click Folder Options.
Click on the View tab
Un-check Hide file extensions for known file types
OK your way out.

Check the excel file again - should display the extension now.

If it is .XLS
Try opening the file on another computer with excel installed

If it is .XLSX
You probably opened excel on a different computer with office 2007 or newer and now need the compatibility pack installed.

Google:
"Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats"

Also you can try (not the most secure thing)
Uploading file as an attachment to google see if you can open it via google docs.

Or try installing Open Office and see if it opens with that.

 

Hi Aprex,
Thanks for that advice. I downloaded OpenOffice and tried to open those files but all I got was thousands of # symbols.
I just posted another question that I think relates to this. I think it's the flash-drive.