Unknown Format & Cannot Be Opened

[Sandy Ramesh]

I have a file that was created in Illustrator 10, but now gives the message, " The file is an unknown format & cannot be opened.

I cannot place the file and it won't open in any other program (including Ill 8, Photoshop, Acrobat, etc).

The funny thing is that I can see the art in the preview mode and the icon for the file is the new Illustrator 10 head. Suggestions?

[Big Giant Head]

That was the first thing I would have said can you place the art. but you already tried that.

I don't suppose you have another program you could try placing the art into like Indesign or have you tried dropping the icon for the file on Adobe Acrobat.

Sorry that's all I can think of for now.

[Richard Schletty]

Try this:
Mordy Golding "Recovering Corrupt Files" 12/17/01 2:06pm </cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ef5b7af>

[Larry G. Schneider]

Sandy,

How did you get the file? FTP, email, you made it on the same computer? What OS? OS9.2.2 or OSX. All info we need to make educated guesses as to what's wrong. You could try opening the file in a Text editing program like BBEdit and make sure the file begins

%PDF-1.4

Some times spaces get added before the %PDF or if it was transfered with FTP, the new file format must be done in Binary format for it to work. Just some thoughts.

Larry

[Richard Schletty]

Sometimes a little surgery with BBEdit or TextWrangler can salvage a dead Illustrator file. Try this:

1) Create a fresh new AI file with maybe just a single line or simple rectangle. Save as EPS with version 8 compatibility.

2) Open both the new file and the corrupted file in BBEdit or TextWrangler. In the new file, cut out everything between %AI5_BeginLayer and %AI5_EndLayer. Repalce with everything between %AI5_BeginLayer and %AI5_EndLayer from the corrupted file. Save and try opening in Illustrator.

If this works, please tell us. If not, forget I mentioned it. <smiley emoticon>

[Wade Zimmerman]

I would be interested in trying to open the file if you have no luck at doing so.
I have no further suggestions at the moment, other than those already mentioned, on how to open your file. If you want click on my name for my e-mail address.