Hello newbiesforever
I wasn't aware that the .sdw standard had changed but no reason why I should be I suppose.
Is there any possibility that you could try one of these files on another installation to see if it is a problem with yours?
It may, of course, be an incompatibility between Star Office and Open Office but it may be worth trying an older version of Open Office as something that was in being closer to the time the documents were created. There is a link here to a download site for Open Office I.1.5 that may be worth a try:
http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.5/index.html