Microsoft Excel--repair "corrupt" file

[ThomasBens]

I have this unusual situation and I hope that you can help. I have some Excel files (.xls) which I would like to view. However, I have a problem in opening them.
When I open the file with a Wordpad-type program (TextPad), it opens, showing a dump of data. When I try to open the file using Excel, it gives me a "datafile.xls could not be found" error, even though the file is OBVIOUSLY right there. I attempted to open the file from Excel and do an OPEN AND REPAIR option, but it gave me the same error. Windows explorer shows me that the file is there.

Any suggestions??

thanks

 

[DelJo63]

To be clear;
navigate the explorer window to the directory containing the Problem_Excel_File.xls

• double click on Problem_Excel_File.xls
• you get an error
• and the recovery doesn't work either.