Powerpoint presentation doesn't contain data?

Question

I was working on a powerpoint presentation when my laptop (a Lenovo, Windows 11) bluescreened out of the blue.
After I booted it back up again, Powerpoint said the file couldn't be opened and it couldn't be repaired. I looked at various other posts on how to fix this but nothing worked.

I tried using 2 third party services, but both of them said that the file doesn't contain any data, even though the file size has stayed the same.

It was an unfinished 34 slide powerpoint and I'd love it if I didn't need to start over

The error message given after clicking repair is "Sorry, Powerpoint can't read [filepath]."

Answer 1

Dear Lara,

Good day! Thank you for posting your query in our community.

Although not all lost data can be retrieved, we try our best to provide all possible suggestions to help you:

1. If you have the "backup copy" option selected in PowerPoint, there might be a backup copy of the file in this location: C:\Users<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\PowerPoint. To check whether this option is on, select File > Options > Advanced, scroll down to the Save section, and then select Always create backup copy.
2. If you enabled the Windows backup and the media or drive that your backup is saved on is available, you can restore a file from a backup. For more information, you can refer to this article: Backup and Restore in Windows 10
3. If you use OneDrive, then you can go to OneDrive online and sign in with your account, then check if your document is there. Use version historyto restore a previous version.

If you can't open the file via above methods, given this situation, we are afraid that the file that have not been successfully saved may have been lost.

Additionally, in order to prevent the same thing from happening in the future, my suggestion is to save your documents to a cloud path like OneDrive. Because if you save to OneDrive, you will always keep a backup of your important documents, and files. Not to mention it has version history. In case of emergency, you will be able to restore the data from OneDrive.

Appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,

Jazlyn | Microsoft Community Moderator