File saved yesterday. Opened today and only 5 of approximately 25 sheets remain

[scollette]

I have been building a worksheet for weeks now. I opened my document today and only 5 of my 27 pages remain. What does remain has to have the "F9" button pressed to calculate. It doesn't normally require that. It opens with everything calculated typically. I was able to open a previous version of the document that was from 4 days ago, but I have lost 2 pages of calculations unless I am able to recover the lost pages somehow. I saved the document and it shows to have saved yesterday right before I shut my computer down for the night. Has anyone ever had this problem before? Is there a solution?

[MikeArmstrong]

I have never heard of this before.

Can you post the worksheet?

[scollette]

An update to this...I just got off of the phone with a PTC representative and he says that without being able to recreate the issue on command that there is really nothing at all that he can do. This very same issue has happened twice to me now and both times it deleted back to the very same spot. He didn't seem to think that it was possible for the problem to be within MathCad. He suggests that Windows is the one deleting the contents of my file and changing the "Auto Calculate" feature to be checked off when that feature is always on by default on my worksheets that I create.

Mike,

Please keep in mind that the file was a 27-28 page document yesterday and that the auto-calculate feature was turned on when I saved. The file size is 1/3 of the size that it was before too now. The file was saved on my hard drive and not a server. I was able to recover a version of the file that was 4 days old due to the computer doing an auto-backup when it installed a Windows update on Monday.

[MikeArmstrong]

Well it all ran ok on my machine, but you expected that didn't you?

When working from a local disk I hardly ever have Mathcad crash on me. What version of Windows and Mathcad are you working on?

Message was edited by: Mike Armstrong

[scollette]

What is there runs fine once I turn the auto calculate back on. The problem is that there are 22 pages missing in the document. You only had 5 sheets there right?

I am using Windows 7 and MathCad 15 datecode M030

[scollette]

I found this discussion a few minutes ago and it seems to be similar to what I am reporting.

http://communities.ptc.com/message/246814#246814

[MikeArmstrong]

Yes I did see 5 sheets only.

Have you tried re-installing Mathcad?

[scollette]

I Didn't reinstall today, but have recently. This is the second time that this has happened to me. It happened two months ago on mu old machine. I got a new machine a month ago and installed MathCad on it at that time. Now I had this happen to me today

[MikeArmstrong]

That is even more worrying that he has occurred any multiple system.

Maybe the file is corrupt in some way. Have you tried to recover the data as Werner suggested?

[Werner_E]

It doesn't look like the file is the cause for this behaviour but rather one of the later MC15 versions.

Fortunately I haven't encountered that very problem and probably it wouldn't had hit me that hard as I am somewhat paranoic concerning backups (of backups (of backups (...)))

But with the recent versions of MC15 I very often encounter strange effects where worksheets won't be saved at all and only the automatic saved (I set the interval to 1 or 2 minutes) copies rescued me. It happens usually when a complex expression is evaluated symbolically and seems to try endless to do its job. I usually cancel the evaluation by pressing Esc and then I am able to continue work normally. But when I try to save the file (even if the complex expression is already deleted, modified or deactivated) I am not able to do so: I am seeing the hourglass (Win XP), an empty temp file is created where the MC file should be saved and thats it. It would be in this state for hours until I kill the mathcad.exe process via task manager. As already said - only help are the autosave copies.

I can not remember that I experienced this behaviour in the first relaeses of MC 15 and sure not with MC14. So I expect that some of the latest releases introduced that instability. I am working with the current MC15 M030, too.

[PhilipOakley]

Hi Werner,

I think that the latest versions are a bit too assertive about the XML completeness (you can only switch off large images, rather than all results/calcs).

I've had delay problems when I've done a minor edit of a long sheet that wanted to fully calculate the sheet before it could save it.

Once or twice I've been caught out by not spotting that the cursor is no longer the normal shape and is either missing/off screen, or is doing the spinning circle thing (is there a right name for that?), and until it finishes you shouldn't close the app. Frustrating.

One feature I would like is a 'save NO results' option (then it wouldn't need the calculate step, and would be better security in classified environments).

Philip

[Werner_E]

One feature I would like is a 'save NO results' option (then it wouldn't need the calculate step, and would be better security in classified environments).

Yes, I certainly would second that!

[PhilipOakley]

Are you in a corporate IT environment?

If you are your own boss and bought your own machine and already have full administrator rights as default, then I'd blame Mathcad as my first port of call. However ....

If you are in a corporate IT environment where 'they' provided your machine, and you don't have full administrator privileges, I'd suspect that the problem is more likely on local IT policies (which can be vicious and confusing).

In my local IT system we have the scenario of "roaming profiles" where what you think is part of your C: drive and a permanent part of the local hard drive is in fact a pale imitation and is copied to some remote store so that you will appear to have the same files on C: no matter where you log in.

But further than that, some of the default locations are actually 'not permitted' so if I think I've saved to C:\program files\mathcad\somewhere, then for the period of my login it appears as if those files are there, but when I log out, they are simply "lost" (sometimes I can't even save!). They do this for 'security' because users can't be trusted (which in the scheme of things is true - it's a one bad apple problem), so any changes to programmes (in C:\program files\) is a potential security hazard, while 'data' must be kept seprate and stored with the user, rather than the machine.

In terms of version management, I simply add a v1, v2, v3, ... v25, suffix to the various saves (i.e. SaveAs), just so I can go back in history and I can recover from transient data loss.

Some times if mathcad freezes, or takes too long to do the hidden calculate before save step, I find I've signed off before the new save has happened.

Do you have auto save set? It can be worth it for some crash recovery.

Summary: are you in a corporate IT environment? Do you check that the progress dial (for save) completes before any log off?

[Werner_E]

Yes, only 5 pages are displayed when I open your file.

Autocalc is OFF, thats the reason you have to press F9 or Ctrl-F9 to get calculations done. Autocalc is a worksheet option, but autosaving is something belonging to your Mathcad installation and should not change, even if the file gets corrupted.

You may try to search a directory "...\Mathsoft\Mathcad\14\Autosave" and look if there is a more recent version of your file. Its the directory where Mathcad saves its autosave copies. Filenames may look a bit strange as they include the full path of the file it is backup of.