What made you decide the hard drive needed replacing?
Did you create the 4 CDs after you knew the hard drive was no good?
What program did you use to create these CDs?

When asked for the form you want the files to show try selecting .rtf (Rich Text Format) then it should open in Wordpad.

The $90, was that for Windows 7 or for replacing the hard drive and installing Windows? Big difference.

Wordpad is on every version of Windows so should be there. I forget in Win 7 but try clicking Start, All programs, Accessories, Wordpad. Failing that use this tutorial to find Wordpad.

Thanks Owbist....the reason I replaced my hard drive was because every time I turned on my compter it would do a 3 part check disk run. I conferred with Landzdown and they concurred that I had a bad hard drive as I had thousands of bad sectors! They told me to back up my computer which I did the back up that my HP told me to do a while back ....it is part of the program on HP machines. And no, I did it long before I knew I had the problem. I paid $90 for the Window 7 and $75 for the hard drive....I have the larger 1 T ram. I found the Wordpad, you are right. It is there! The documents that I am wanting are in WPS form. I tried changing them via "Save as" but it didn't work. What do I do?

I'm not sure if it would work or not, but I think it will.
http://office.live.com ... Word

If you upload microsoft works .wps to office live, I think then you can save as .docx or other formats. ... RTF is a good one :) Then everybody should be able to read it.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://office.live.com

This post was edited by mikie on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 14:50

Scroll down here where it says the free abiword will open WPS files and also lists some others for free that will open them. I can vouch for the other 2 programs as I have used them. Also read about converting WPS files, since you don't have word that is out. Mary

Here is a link that might be useful: WPS files

mssg deleted

This post was edited by mxyplx on Thu, Sep 25, 14 at 7:31

I have 2 computers with windows 7 home premium and I have word pad under accessories on both computers. Was there from day one when I took the computers brand new out of the box and set them up. Mary

WordPad is included in all versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95.

Yes guys, if you read my last post I said that I did find it. Thanks. Craftylady I checked out your links but when you look at OS requirements none of them list Windows 7. I really don't understand why they became WPS....and yes they were created by a Microsoft Works program. That is what makes me so sick is because I had that on my PC before. THe more I am reading ....that back up program was probably a window program....so I have those 4 CDs of back up that I can't find out how to use. Microsoft Works might be on that CD???

Open office works with windows 7, it says so here. Sorry I should have posted direct links to the products. Libre office if you click requirements then windows 7 is listed. A lot of my friends use these instead of the expensive MS office with most using open office. Mary

http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/

Here is a link that might be useful: Open office

It's hard to say what's on the 4 CDs but maybe it's just the operating system and not your data. You'd have to look at what's on those CDs to know what you have there.

WordPad is different that Works. WordPad (which is included with Windows) is fairly basic and Works falls between WordPad and Word (full featured word processing software).

Open Office works really well and is free. It can open a large variety of file formats including Works and Word (both .doc and .docx files). The other option is to use one of the free "cloud" based systems like Google Docs. The nice thing about the cloud is that you can access your documents from anywhere you have an Internet connection, including smartphones. Microsoft's Office 360 is also cloud based but isn't free.

It's also a really good idea to make regular backups. Obviously you can use removable media like CDs, DVDs, or thumb drives. It's a good idea to also use one of the cloud based systems like DropBox. Those pretty much automate the backup process so you don't have to think about it. Most services give you about 5 gigs of storage for free, which is plenty for documents. If you have a lot of pictures, you may need a separate service for those (or pay for additional storage).

Microsoft has free Office Online too .. https://office.live.com
Word/Excell/PowerPoint.. more.. Save as PDF even from Word online.

All you need is one of the free Microsoft email accounts. Outlook/Live/Hotmail/MSN

The Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage/backup is now 30gb free with maximum single file size of 10gb. .. plus you get 1/2gb bonus's sometimes :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Microsoft OneDrive

Thanks for all the help. I am experiencing some personal problems currently....just wanted to let you know that I am not ignoring your help...

I'm back! Crafty Lady....I tried that Open Office and I'm not having any luck. I get an e-mail from our pastor every week which has our bulletin in it.. I can't even open it up. I am really discouraged. I don't know what to do!

I assume this is an attachment in the email? If so what is the file extension. Mary

Casi for the short term ask your pastor to save and send his papers in Rich Text Format .rtf - you will notice no difference in the document and can edit it or do as you will with no issues.

Microsoft (and the public) promoted Word with .doc and now .docx to become the set up of choice. We should all have stayed with Rich Text Format (.rtf) which is understood by all computers and all word processing software including Macs.

Another thought is attach the document as a .pdf. Some browsers automatically open .pdfs, or one can have a reader such as Adobe or Foxit.....also several other free .pdf readers.

Did you get this all straightened out ?
I might be able to help but it would be a lot easier if you posted specifics, like the name of a sample file with extension for each type of data or information that you have, but that you can't open.

For example, campingnotes.wps, or abook.mab

Also it would help if told us any programs you used to back up, and how you used them, and what files they created.

Last, if you still have the hard drive, all the information is still there, except for files that have been damaged because of bad sectors.

This post was edited by kbarb on Mon, Oct 13, 14 at 21:17

Kbarb, sorry for the missing information....don't even know if I know the answers! The hard drive that was removed was kept by the repairman.
The back up was what was prompted by my PC....don't know if it was part of the HP stuff that came with the PC or if it was a Windows thing. I did the "back- up" as I was prompted and it produced 2 CD's. I saved all my pics and documents when I was getting ready to have the hard drive replaced. It was a only 4 yrs old so I don't know what software it had on it but I used to be able to open the church bulletins without any problem.
Today my SIL sent me a copy of Office XP Pro that he used to use. It didn't help either. It looked like in the set up that it has Word, Excel and some other stuff.
All I can tell you about the church bulletin is that it said .doc.
The other lists I have been trying to open are XLR and the church address directory is a WPS. I've just started making new ones.

Someone correct me but don't you need MS works for XLR and WPS files? Haven't used works in a few years so maybe I am remembering wrong. Mary

Now even I had to look up an acronym - SIL.
;-)

Ok, so you have MS Works XLR & WPS files.

The problems you are having - or going to have - is that Works is old, and the Office XP Pro your SIL gave you is also old, being actually Office 2002, version 10 of Office.

If you don't have too many files, I think your best bet is to try an online file converter.

Zamzar claims to be able to open and convert Works files.
http://www.zamzar.com/

Save :
XLR (spreadsheet) files to xlsx
WPS (word) files to docx

If you don't want to buy a new version of MS Office, try installing LibreOffice - the newer version of OpenOffice - and it will open xlsx and docx files

[ If you want to stick with your SIL's MS Office XP Pro, then convert those files to xls & doc files, respectively.
That version of Office is very old though. ]

There are other ways of handling this, but probably if you you're going to try anything else, your best bet would be buy MS Works off Ebay or Amazon for $10 or so, open and convert all the files.

Btw, you can't even open a .doc file in Office XP Pro ??
That's not a good sign - probably a sign of corruption.

Btw #2 - When you say you can't open files, I take it they are on your current hard drive, and not within some compressed backup folder. That is, not within a zip file or the like.

Re your backup cds :

Can you load one of them, then rummage around in their files and tell us what you find ? (as in, names of files and extensions ?)
Most likely they are proprietary formats, but if we know what they are, we could perhaps tell you how to retrieve them.

Last, anyway you can get the hard drive back from the repair service ? Probably not, but it would be a second source of backup files.

Let us know how it all works out.

Just to ask again - aside from my (long) last post above -
You say . . .

"made a "back up" of my PC onto 4 CD's. . . . . . But now my documents that I had saved show up as jiberish."

I'd really need to know how you are trying to open the files in question.
Are you opening them off the backup cd ?
Or you copied them from there on to your hard drive ?
Something else ?

(This is my 3rd post post this morning so make sure you read the two above)

You could also try opening the files directly using Libreoffice, but since you already tried that with OpenOffice I doubt that would work.

OpenOffice is discontinued, so use LibreOffice - the current derivative of OpenOffice.
Libreoffice is an excellent free alternative to MS Office.

Update....sorry it has been awhile. I think I got my issues resolved with the church bulletin. I believe she is sending it in rich text now.
I decided to figure out how to use those back up CD's...figured out how to get them going. Turns out they are an HP recovery program. It restored some pics and some of my music files....but no programs. I have no office/word program. I have the Microsoft Excel which I believe was the one my SIL gave me....but this is too outdated you think? Won't help me?? So I should get something else? Also I have no program to edit my photos. I needed to crop and print a pic yesterday and I had to go to my '98 IBM with Windows '98 and then I had troubles with that! Thought I could move the pic to my HP but it was in a different form so had to unhook my line for my printer and hook it to the IBM. So anyway....any suggestions for a program for that. I do play with my photos a lot so I really need something in that category! Thanks.

Yes, your old Office program that your SIL gave you is older than I would be comfortable working with.
If you don't want to buy a new version of Office, your best bet is to use the free LibreOffice (not OpenOffice which is not being developed anymore)

http://www.libreoffice.org/

The only caveat there is that by default it will try to save documents in its own native format, so you will have to remember to tell it to save in the Microsoft format if you want to ensure that other people can always open it.
Like this :

Writer (the LibreOffice Word program) :
--> default is xyz.odt, but you can choose to save as xyz.docx (or the older xyz.doc)

Sheet (the LibreOffice Excel program) :
--> default is xyz.ods, but you can choose to save as xyz.xlsx (or the older xyz.xls)

For a photo editing program :

I use Photoshop, but that's expensive.
There are many great, free programs for basic photo editing.
Popular programs are Picasa, IrfanView, and XnViewMP (listed i think in order of increasing power and complexity).

I prefer XnViewMP, for it's power, but if that's too complex I'd probably go with the popular IrfanView.
You can install as many as you like and try them out.

Here's an article to help you decide :

"Best free image viewer : IrfanView vs XnView vs FastStone vs Picasa vs Zoner"

http://dottech.org/129555/windows-review-top-best-free-image-viewer-program/

This post was edited by kbarb on Sun, Nov 2, 14 at 11:31

Thanks Barb

Btw, for Libreoffice, you can set the defaults for "Save" in the Options - to Microsoft .doc or .docx, whatever you like.

That way if you don't want the defaults as they are, you won't have to change them each time you save a document.

-Kent