10 Replies Latest reply: Jan 12, 2011 7:08 AM by P Spier RSS

    Cannot open file

    Buzz81 Community Member

      I am using Indesign CS4 on Vista.   I have been saving my file on a flash drive and edited the file on 2 different computers.   This morning I could not open the file.   While opening, Indesign returned the message "could not complete your request because of a database error," and then  Indesign shuts down.  Is there a way to recover the file?

        • 1. Re: Cannot open file
          P Spier CommunityMVP

          Not easily, if at all. Your best hope may be to convert to Quark and back again using ID2Q and Q2ID, conversion plugins for the two applications from Markzware. If you don't own a Quark license and or don't want to buy both plugins (at about $200 each, I think), Markzware will try to do the recovery for you for somewhere around $200 I think, no recovery, no fee. Fix Your Bad InDesign Files!

           

          Your other option is to attempt to open the file and repair it in a binary editor, if you can figure out what's damaged.

           

          I suspect you'll probably end up rebuilding the file from scratch and take a way a valuable lesson about using flash drives: Don't use them for working on the files, only for storage and transfer. While editing, copy the files from the flash drive to your hard drive, then back to the flash drive when finished, and be sure the write operation is complete before removing the drive from the system.

          • 2. Re: Cannot open file
            Buzz81 Community Member

            That's what I suspected.   What's the best way to back up the file?   Export to INX?   Also, how do I back up the entire file to just a text or rtf (when I export, it's just exporting the text in the text frame that I'm in).   Thanks.

            • 3. Re: Cannot open file
              P Spier CommunityMVP

              The best way to back up a file is to make a copy on a safe (and reliable) external drive or optical disk. Using .inx will get yo a very small file that has all you need for recreating the file, but without any image previews or other non-essential ingredients like color management information. This might not bother you. There is no way to export the entire file to text.

               

              And the time to do a backup, of course, is BEFORE you have file damage.

              • 4. Re: Cannot open file
                Buzz81 Community Member

                Peter - thanks for your help!   This is very frustrating, but it's a valuable lesson learned.

                • 5. Re: Cannot open file
                  P Spier CommunityMVP

                  It safe to say that unfortunately most of us seem to learn these lessons exactly this way. External hard drives and dedicated drive imaging software are pretty inexpensive when you look at the cost of rebuilding after a disastrous hard drive failure or other disaster. Lots of users are now even using "the cloud' for off-site backup.

                  • 6. Re: Cannot open file
                    BobLevine CommunityMVP

                    Indeed. I almost learned a very hard lesson myself last year when my basement flooded.

                     

                    I knocked my backup into the water while pulling the computer off the floor.

                     

                    I'm now using Carbonite as an insurance policy.

                     

                    For working on multiple machines, you can't beat dropbox. You can get a free account here: http://db.tt/dE9aJpM

                     

                    That will give you 2.25 gigs of free space which should be more than enough for what you're doing. Another possibility is Windows Live Skydrive. I don't like it quite as much as Dropbox but it does give you 25 gigs of free space.

                     

                    Hope that helps,

                     

                    Bob

                    • 7. Re: Cannot open file
                      Buzz81 Community Member

                      I keep a 1 TB external at home and an extra backup at work.   I normally back up duplicates of our entire network using Synctoy.    Works really well, except that here I got caught with my pants down because I was editing the file only on the flash drive that I carry back and forth between my desktop at work and my laptop at home.   I've now created SyncToy pairings to copy to my C drive on both units for editing and copying back to the flash for storing.

                      • 8. Re: Cannot open file
                        Buzz81 Community Member

                        One more question - do I get the same nasty behavior if I link my images to files on the external drive?   Or, should those also be linked to the hard drive?   I suspect it doesn't make a difference, but you never know.

                        • 9. Re: Cannot open file
                          P Spier CommunityMVP

                          Since you are not editing the links, at least in theory, the only downside to remote links is probably the performance hit for generating previews and preflight, and I suppose a potential for network glitches during output.

                          • 10. Re: Cannot open file
                            P Spier CommunityMVP

                            Of course, if you don't have access to the remote drive at one location or another, you're screwed if you need to print or export a PDF...