Cleaning Corrupted Workbooks

If you still believe your workbook is too large, it is possible that your workbook or component sheets are corrupt. Unfortunately, determining a point of corruption requires a manual process of elimination.

Again, we strongly advise you to save a copy of your workbook before proceeding.

To be sure you're not missing anything, unhide any hidden sheets by selecting View → Unhide under Windowoptions or right click and select Unhide (pre-2007, Format → Sheet → Unhide). If this menu option is grayed out, you have no hidden worksheets to worry about. With all your sheets visible, start from the sheet on the far left and move one-by-one to the right. For each in turn, delete it, save your workbook, and note its file size by selecting the Office button → Prepare → Properties → Document Properties dropdown → Advanced Properties (or File → Properties → General in pre-2007 versions). If the file size drops dramatically considering the amount of data on that sheet, you've probably found your corruption.

To replace a corrupt sheet in your workbook, create a new worksheet, manually select the data in the corrupt sheet, and cut (do not copy) and paste it into the newsheet. Delete the corrupt sheet from your workbook, save, and repeat.

By cutting rather than copying, Excel automatically will follow the data to the new sheet, keeping references intact.