Can this corrupted file be repaired?

[ptc-4310378]

Am really having worse of luck with 15.

I saved and closed the attached file, all looked fine. Then did a back up.

When trying to reopen the file, get a message indicating the content is corrupted: Reason: equal expected, line 665, position 61.

Must have happened when closing the file, because the back up is corrupted too, with same error.

Is there a chance the file can be recovered?

[ptc-4310378]

Tried the posted recovery file, but getting same error with the output test file. The interactive part of the recovery file is out of my league.....

[AndyWesterman]

Hi Laurent,

Partial recovery attached, I don't know what the content was in the corrupted region but hopefully it won't take too much to recreate.

The mathcad files are XML & can be edited in many programs My preference is Notepad++ (freeware).

Always remember to edit a copy - its too eaasy to do irreperable damage.

Regards

Andy

[ptc-4310378]

Thank you very much!

The piece that is missing is trivial, just formulas to type back in, nothing that I had to bleed on.

I was rewriting the file and was precisely at the missing spot when I got your repair! I would have had to spend the rest of the night redoing it to the end, I can catch a few hours of sleep now thanks to your help.

Very much appreciated!!

I had looked at the broken file through Explorer and the XP built-in Notepad; the problem is that I don't know how to recognize the broken bits.....Even after downloading Notepad ++ you mentioned, I cannot zoom in on the issue...Even going to the error message line 665 did not tip me in any way, I would have to print the broken file and your repair to try to catch the differences,

Thanks again!

[AndyWesterman · Accepted solution]

Hi Laurent,

Error message refered to line 665 & there was a significant diffetence in the text of this line compared to another region id line, so I simply deleted the whole section of XML code to keep it structured 'properly'.

saving & reopening in mathcad got a new error message about a region missing but once re-saved through mathcad I had the file that I posted & seems to function.

Very crude, but it seems to work around the glitches that occur from time to time.

I wouldn't compare the old & new files - I tried & there are a lot of differences.

Regards

Andy

[ptc-4310378]

Andy,

After some sleep, I can better see what you mean with the "disruption" at 665. Same with the in- and out-dent pattern.

When you delete a section, do you typically go from an initial <region> definition to the matching <region> at the bottom?

Notepad ++ now has a prominent spot on my desktop.....hoping I won't have to give it a try anytime soon (maybe I should have downloaded it with the optional so called "obnoxious old icon" to make sure I can spot it when in Panic mode!).

Googling what people do when Mathcad crashes, I found out that 15 has an Autosave feature that I didn't have with 2001. I have now turned it on, but wonder if it would have made any difference in this case? Would Mathcad detect the corruption at the time of the Save? If not, Autosave wouldn't have helped here as it looks like Mathcad wipes the file at closure if no error is detected.

Some CAD programs allow to automatically save a set numbers of previous versions of the file, would be nice to have here too......

Also found a post who advised to shut down by powering the computer off in case Mathcad freezes (had quite a few instances of that with 15) as this apparently provides the best chances of preserving this Autosave file. But no mention anywhere of where this file would be located and how it would be named....Looks like it is mainly designed for Mathcad own recovery attempts.

Thanks again.

[AndyWesterman]

As with any XML type language need to delete all up to the closing </...> for the <...> that you start with.

Since mathcad uses <region> . </region> - probably best to extract the whole segment.

Regards

Andy