Corrupt file errors occur when you double-click on the file to open it, or when you try to open it from an application. If you encounter one of these messages, here are some ways to fix the problem.

Corrupt files can occur in any file type, including Word, Excel, PDF, image files, and Windows system files. When this happens, you will see an error message that says something like "The file is corrupt and cannot be opened" or "The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable." Another message you will see is "Word has found unreadable content in [file name]. Do you want to recover the contents of this document?"

There are a number of reasons why files can become corrupted. A common reason is that the sector on the hard drive where the file is stored is physically damaged. A sector with physical damage is known as a bad sector.

In other cases, multiple files are allocated to the same space in memory, causing a corrupted file error. Files are stored in memory in a cluster, and sometimes an operating system bug or a computer crash can cause two files to be allocated to the same cluster.