I have constructed a graphical family tree using X3. The file is some 90 pages and 15,860kb in size.
The last time I used it, I saved, closed, and closed CDraw.
When I next tried to open it, I got a single blank page.
The file in explorer still says 15,860kb, X3 graphic. The thumbnail shows a pencil instead of the normal page representation.
I have restarted the computer a number of times but the problem remains.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
Derrick
Try to open the Backup instead the original file
Not knowing exactly how much work (hours, difficulty, etc.) and exactly what you've done...
Before you do anything with the Backup file... first make another copy using Windows Explorer (File Manager) of both the original file and the Backup file that CorelDRAW makes if you have that as a Save Option to do automatically. If this file took a lot to produce (which it sounds like it did if you have the names all entered) I would hope you have a separate backup of the original file... or various incremental saves done. eg: Family Tree 1 at a certain point maybe 1 or 2 pages of it... etc.
Do not work on the original file or the original backup file at this point.
You may be able to recover most of the drawing by using the save as or export to .cmx or .pdf or somethin' like that.
Failing all of this... if it's worth it... there may be some file recovery real expertise available through Corel or whoever does that type of thing.
I would start doing incremental Saves at this point if you get the file recovered... maybe even break it up into files with less pages in each...
What's happened to you is not entirely unknown to happen but it's a hugely niggly recovery from it if all the names have been entered already.
If all you have is the lines or boxes, maybe not so bad to reproduce in a different manner.
the 'dd'
I do have a separate back up, but it is 3 months old. A lot of additions will be missing, but some 450kb has been added.
The file was open, editable etc and saved. The problem seems to have occurred when saving! as I could not reopen! The auto back up would have been deleted upon save. I did not have the save back up copy checked. Even if I did the action of saving would have produced two corrupted files surely? I relied on my 2x 1TB hard drives "piggy backed" to save a backup file. I have not checked the "phantom" HD, but if the orig got corrupted on save, so would the other one.
I have not used the back up feature in Corel as it saves to the same HD. This is not a good idea. If the HD malfunctioned, then the back up would also dissapear along with the orig. No point in doing that. It would be far better for Corel to allow a back up to be freely assigned to another location. They do it with the auto backup!!
It looks like I need a genious who knows how to recover corrupt files.
Thanks for your reply