Recover a Mathcad file

[tubetone]

After many days of creating a Mathcad file when I went to reopen it an error came up which said "The requested file is not a valid Mathcad XML file". Does anyone know how to recover this?

[ptc-1176891]

If you're using version 14 and are using the Autosave feature, you might have a recent version of the file saved. My directory is located on my computer at:

C:\Documents and Settings\pbaxter\Application Data\Mathsoft\Mathcad\14\Autosave

Thanks,
Preston

[RichardJ]

Which version of Mathcad (including which service releases)?

If your version is lower than 14.0 M020 you could post the file here. Maybe a later version than yours can recover some or all of the file.

Richard

[PhilipOakley]

If it is large (and these xml files are - see http://collab.mathsoft.com/read?115605,20) then you may need to email it direct to someone.

Philip Oakley

[dpsycho]

See if there is a .tmp file created in the same directory as your file. Check to see also if your file is a 0-size file.
If there is a .tmp file in your directory then rename it to .xmcd and it will probably work.

[smokler]

Thank you Dimitris! This just saved me hours of lost work in mere seconds!

[jeyjay082898]

sir help me with my files. it is so important and is deadline tomorrow. please help

[LucMeekes]

This file is really broken.

The size is 240 k, less than 10 % of that (23 k) contains Mathcad sheet file data.

All attempts so far to repair failed.

I assume, as a good digital citizen, you have made a backup....?

If not: take your loss and rebuild it.

Success!
Luc

[jeyjay082898]

sir i think i may have rewrite things in the notepad. any chance you can
fixed it ?

[Werner_E]

Only a few regions at the top of your worksheet were saved and could be recovered. The larger part of the file simply consists of null bytes, so there is nothing which could be recovered.

Attached the recovered worksheet, but I guess most of your work is lost and must either be recovered from backups or will have to be redone.

[ClaudioPedrazzi]

Hi everyone!

I do realize that I am answering an almost prehistoric 🙂 post.  But this happened to me yesterday exactly; the main MathCAD file (Version 15) was corrupted and I got the message, "the requested file is not a valid MathCAD xml worksheet",. and it had 0 bytes.  This was after a crash of MathCAD and I am ready to swear that I did not "save" anything during the initial phase of the crash (where MathCAD was simply not responding anymore).

Then I noticed a tmp file with about the right size, and I renamed it, and it worked.

Only, it was a version of the day before.  My backups are daily and would be even older, in this particular situation.

My question is: in MathCAD 15.0 M050 is there some trick to tell the software to save this tmp files more frequently, say every hour?

Thanks a lot and best regards

Claudio

[LucMeekes]

Check under Tools -> Preferences for an autobackup option.

Success!
Luc

[ClaudioPedrazzi]

Hey Luc!

Thanks a lot for the very quick answer.

Believe it or not, after so many years of MathCAD, I never noticed this option.  There is an autosave option and one can input the minutes of interval.

I was used to save "of my own initiative" relatively often, but this is better!

Nevertheless, do you know also something about those mysterious tmp-files, that yesterday saved me at least 3 hours redoing the same work!

Are they produced automatically when a crash happens? The help, of course, does not mention this subject.

Best regards

Claudio

[LucMeekes]

Don't know, I don't have a license for Mathcad 15.

I'd say RTFM, or, in polite terms: read the manual.

Success!
Luc

[Werner_E]

> RTFM

I guess MC11 was the last version with a comprehensive manual. MC14 has a manual but a much thinner one and  AFAIK there are no manuals whatsoever for MC15 and Prime (just a few thin pdf's and the help system).

I am not aware of any information about the mentioned tmp files in the docs. I guess they are not created in case of a crash but everytime when you save a file. If saving worked OK those tmp files are immediately deleted so usually you are not supposed to ever see them.

According MC's autosave feature - IMHO you should not stop saving the files yourself regularly.

In case something goes wrong and MC does not automatically offer to restore a file from its autosaved copy - those copies are located in

c:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\Mathsoft\Mathcad\14\Autosave\

And yes its "14" even though you are using MC15.

The files are regular Mathcad files and the file name also reflects drive letter and path

Turn on autosave and have a look yourself. In case something goes wrong its always worth having a look at that location. But again - it is not a substitute for a regular backup

[ChrisKaswer]

My observation has been between all the guides and references  Mathcad 15 has listed here in the top 2 main sections under the "Help" menu, there are a significant number of resources baked into Mathcad 15:

In fact, there is a 168 page PDF "User's Guide" you can find on from the main page of the "Tutorials", "QuickSheets" or "Reference Tables" links shown above. Of course, the 3rd section shown just above under "Help" is rendered useless since it wants to navigate to outdated web pages...

There is a fairly complete user manual ("Mathcad Help") for Mathcad 15 - here is the portion that describes the Autosave feature and the ability to set the time period:

Hope this helps!

[Werner_E]

Yes, the 168 page pdf was what I referred to a the "thinner manual" of MC14. Its unchanged since MC14 and the MC11 manual is 528 pages thick, containing a full reference manual.

But I agree that the help and the quicksheets in MC15 contain VERY helpful informations.

The autosave feature (which is sorely missed in Prime) sure is mentioned in the docs, but so far I have not found any reference to the tmp files Claudio was asking for. Guess they are not mentioned as they are not supposed to be ever seen 😉

[ClaudioPedrazzi]

Hi @Werner_E 

thanks a lot for the additional information.  Yes, I agree, Autosave is neither a substitute for a regular backup, nor a real solution for crashes like the one I described.  I have a daily backup around 12am but as Murphy's law predicts 🙂 the crash happened around 10 am... So, no big issue, but annoying to "rethink" and "retype" the work of a few hours in a complex MathCAD-Worksheet.  My method will remain, 

a) saving everytime I believe I have made some important change 

b) for important changes or new features, save a new "version" of the file, and leave old versions untouched behind (I use this way of working since years, and have often be thankful of doing this).  

And @LucMeekes I do use the help, I'm one of the old generation that surprisingly 🙂 was used to read the manual while learning to use a software.  I find the help and the quick sheets very useful, but for "system questions" like this one, well, the do not have much to say.

All in all, as usual, I have learned a lot by asking, thanks all of you!

Regards

Claudio