Alright, I know I shouldn't have left but all my symptoms were gone so I assumed the problem was handled (I know, newbie mistake).

The warning has stopped popping up, however, I went to access some of my word files the other day whilst filling out applications and found that all of the text in the word documents in my "My Documents" folder has been turned to gibberish and funky characters. When first opening the document it asks me to choose the encoding, giving a preview of the text below. All options provide different types of gibberish.

I assume that the problems are related somehow as the warning was saying I needed to download filefix 2009 to fix my files (not doing it). Anyway, I'll be on the road for most of today but I will try to check back frequently over the weekend and follow any and all steps in a timely manner.

Some solutions I've tried, yet haven't worked:

A few programs that claim to restore corrupt word files
Open and Repair option
Recover Text from any file
Open with other programs (wordpad, notepad, open office)
Send to another computer (both mac and pc)
Copy paste contents to another document

Thanks for your time and consideration.