The text inside some of my Word documents comes out all scrambled and non-understandable

Changed the file extension to .txt, to open it with a text editor.

Sorry to say, but ROME-I is corrupted (only 34305 “ÿ” in a row), and 33281 for ROME-II.

Don’t forget to edit your question and delete the link, if you don’t want you document to remain public.

Some years ago, I lost the content of a USB memory stick that fell from the desk, and not even a file was left readable.
Not sure how, but, if some files are seen, maybe you can scan the drive to recover some more data.

But I do understand your advice. I appreciate and will follow both trails : on the PC and then afterwards on an external drive.
Many thanks !