After Avast cleanup, my older files are corrupted. Help.

I am a professor, with many document files that I may not open for several years, but need to keep. For example, I have a directory of bibliograhies (lists of references) on various topics that I’ve done research on in the past, or might in the future.

I responded to an Avast marketing email to clean up “unused drivers” that were slowing down my computer. Suddenly every file in the bibliography directory is “corrupted” and can’t be opened, except for ones that I’ve used recently. (I tried & failed to open with MS Word Text Recovery Converter.) And the file sizes are now suspiciously mall. I checked some other older files that I haven’t opened recently, and the same is true. This is also true for my older Adobe Acrobat files.

What can I do?

I’ve been unable to figure out how to reach a person at Avast tech support.

Thanks for any help.

Follow up:

After a difficult time I was able to locate the Avast tech support phone number (it’s on my electronic receipt, but I never could find it on the Avast tech support website), I spoke with a very helpful tech support agent.

She fixed the problem.

Number to call is: 1-844-973-3072

Thanks for the update.

The number may help someone else.