Some files seem to be corrupted and have ~$ at the start of the filename.

[TwistedHelixis]

I have no idea if this issue is Google related issue or not but we recently moved all our planning folders at a school over to Google Drive and I have just been sent an email from year 6 saying the some of the files are corrupted and will not open. Apparently its not just one type of file but a mix of Word, power point and smartbaord files.

 

I am not at the school to physically check on the teachers laptop but have just contacted the IT coordinator why looks after Y4 and all her files are OK.

 

Before I reply to the year 6 teacher does anyone know what ~$ (~$filename.doc) denotes? Does it mean its a hidden file, or has corrupted?

 

Also has anyone had Google Drive corrupt any files before?

 

Thanks

[TwistedHelixis]

I think I have found out what those symbols are

 

[h=2]Temporary files[/h]When some applications (such as Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) open a file, they will often save a temporary file in the same directory and name it in one of the following ways:

 

• Name begins with ~$ (a tilde and dollar sign) or .~ (a period and tilde)
  
• Name begins with a tilde and ends in .tmp, such as ~myfile.tmp
  

[FishCustard]

Temporary files that should be deleted when the program (e.g. Word) closes, but sometimes aren't (if the program crashes or can't delete the file for whatever reason). They can safely be deleted - Google Drive can't open them, and they contain no recoverable data.