S2 Recovery Tools for PowerPoint: Conversation with Paul Pruitt

Paul Pruitt graduated with a degree in science before he got interested in computers. He has served professionally in the IT sphere since 1996, and works extensively trying to recover data from corrupt files. Since 2002, his S2 Services Data site has evolved into a comprehensive information source on free resources and freeware links that help users recover data lost to file corruptions, file deletions, failing disks and lost passwords.

In this conversation, Paul discusses his new S2 Recovery Tools for PowerPoint product.

Geetesh: Can you tell us more about your S2 Recovery Tools for PowerPoint – what motivated you to create this product?

Paul: I was motivated to create a free PowerPoint recovery application because none exists now except for a corrupt PowerPoint text recovery program which I also created, called Corrupt PPTX Salvager. I believe people pay enough for Microsoft Office programs and in their time of need, they don't appreciate being slapped with a $30 - $100 fee for recovering their file. Also I always keep in mind users from poorer countries than the US or other affluent Western countries, who simply can't afford the expensive recovery programs or find it a real hardship. So in a real sense I made it for them. Finally Microsoft recommends some tactics for corrupt PowerPoint recovery, but the manual steps are hard to implement so I envisioned creating programs which engage these methods with simple pushes of buttons.

Geetesh: What can PowerPoint users do in the first place to avoid corruption – can you share some tips?

Paul: The most important thing they can do is to create backup copies. In addition to having daily backups, users should be sure that autorecover is turned on in the options of PowerPoint in the Save section. In the options you can look to see the location of also of where Powerpoint is storing these autorecover files. And then manually navigate there in an emergency if PowerPoint does open them automatically upon restarting of the program.

Other things to do are not to try to work on a file that is in the middle of saving. Also having a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) is good too in case you lose power in the middle of an editing operation or with an unsaved presentation. Another thing is to know the capabilities of your computer and to not max out its memory with too many programs open and running while working in PowerPoint. Since PowerPoint is a heavy graphics and sometimes multimedia user it makes sense that it uses a lot of memory and processing resources, which if your computer is short of, increases the likelihood of corruption. Also it's possible if a presentation is too complicated with excess animation and multimedia that the file is more likely to be corrupted. So if you experience one corruption episode, maybe try simplifying your file.

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