Such a Heartbreak - 'read error' again

**cmpan1** · 30 September 2009, 01:28 AM

Well I guess it was just a shot in the dark wuerthne. Maybe just coincidence with my font theory. I don't doubt your skills.

Yes I saw an error on the 'save' but had no control from there on.

Anyway, I downloaded and now use Xareg suggested by the above and I feel much better now about working in Xara. It's a great utility. So thanks much to the creator of the Utility.. (sorry the name escapes me)

In fact during a save yesterday, I got one of those that killed my file again. But thanks to Xareg, I recovered.

Ya know, I'm not trying to be a pain in the butt, or complain. Xara has become my absolute favorite program. I have dumped Illustrator CS4, Serif, and a few others to moved over to Xtreme because of it's power and ease of use. This program makes even a half-assed designer and page layout guy like me look good.

But, I have no other program that this happens to. So I'm going to accept that there's some other interaction happening between SOMETHING in my system and Xara. So if it's not the font thing...... I took the next steps.

I have literally stripped, and I mean STRIPPED my system of ANY unnecessary start-up and background programs that have been present during my Xara use. I have even uninstalled a dozen or so other programs from the system, keeping only what is necessary so as not to possibly interfere with my Xara use. Even cleaned the reg of all left over residue, and performed all other possibilities that may have or might interfere.

I now have a lean mean fast machine.

I have used the program for approx 8 hours today without a hitch. So maybe I hit on the prob. If not, I will keep troubleshooting.

Thanks

Cliff

**steve.ledger** · 30 September 2009, 02:08 AM

Originally Posted by cmpan1

Anyway, I downloaded and now use Xareg suggested by the above and I feel much better now about working in Xara. It's a great utility. So thanks much to the creator of the Utility.. (sorry the name escapes me)

That would be Bill Taylor (Soquili) with a small amount of UI design and debugging from me..
Bill has done the entire TG community a huge favour by spending so much of his time working on XaReg.
Feedback and seeing that it helps people is the reward and motivation for doing something that helps all Xara software users (along with the odd donation of course

**wuerthne** · 30 September 2009, 08:08 AM

Originally Posted by cmpan1

Well I guess it was just a shot in the dark wuerthne. Maybe just coincidence with my font theory. I don't doubt your skills.

Yes I saw an error on the 'save' but had no control from there on.

Ah, so you did get an error, that changes everything! Of course, after an error during saving, it is not surprising that the file is incomplete. Please, please let us know the exact error message.

In fact during a save yesterday, I got one of those that killed my file again. But thanks to Xareg, I recovered.

Next time it happens, please take a note of all displayed information.

Ya know, I'm not trying to be a pain in the butt, or complain.

But you have every right to complain. An error during saving is not acceptable and we are determined to fix this.

**cmpan1** · 30 September 2009, 04:30 PM

wuerthne: Unfortunately, foolish me, I did not note the errors. But so far, after my housecleaning, all seems better. If, it happens again I will note it and pass it on so as to help you and Xara correct any possible glitches.

Thanks Much for the responses.

Cliff

**willdean** · 30 September 2009, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by wuerthne

Ah, so you did get an error, that changes everything! Of course, after an error during saving, it is not surprising that the file is incomplete. Please, please let us know the exact error message.

Next time it happens, please take a note of all displayed information.

But you have every right to complain. An error during saving is not acceptable and we are determined to fix this.

Would it be worth moving to a 'safe save' system, where you save to a temporary file and only if that completes OK do you do a ReplaceFile type operation onto the top of the actual target file? At least that way the existing file won't get pranged if the save fails.

**wuerthne** · 01 October 2009, 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by willdean

Would it be worth moving to a 'safe save' system, where you save to a temporary file and only if that completes OK do you do a ReplaceFile type operation onto the top of the actual target file? At least that way the existing file won't get pranged if the save fails.

That sounds like a good idea to improve reliability. However, you can achieve the same level of reliability already by enabling the file backup feature, plus that approach offers the extra benefit of always keeping the previous version, not only if the save fails.

**southwestg** · 09 October 2009, 07:47 PM

We have 3 computers all using Xara pro5 and have the same problem. We have lost tens of hours of work. Now we not only save regularly, but backup x3 all files! We have a list of error messages. I'm Xtremely cautious now

**steve.ledger** · 09 October 2009, 07:57 PM

This is a serious problem if you are having errors across 3 PC's.
My advice to you is to contact Xara support and supply them your list of errors and include details about your PC hardware and software installations such as which Security suite you may be using.

**Peebs24** · 10 October 2009, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by cmpan1

If I think back to the websites I've had trouble with in XX, it was because I had tried (unintentionally) to use fonts that weren't installed.... ie a fontface that did not have its bold equivalent installed, and I tried to bold it. XaraX does NOT like this. I've had to be very careful not to do that. Also....

With my last episode (this thread) I had opened a PDF and proceeded to highlight and copy the text to then paste it into Xara. Well the PDF font was of course embedded, so when it got into Xara, if that font was not installed, Xara hiccuped again.

Not to go into every instance, but I believe I have traced all of my incidences back to a font thing.

I have thoroughly cleaned up my installed fonts and have been careful to use them correctly in Xara, and the program seems to be running very smoothly.

Cliff

I agree whole heartedly!! Everytime I have had the problem - many, many times - it has always been while I was using the text tool and changing fonts. I now try to avoid the problem but every now and again I forget and CRASH!!!! Most annoying and something that Xara should look into QUICKLY!!

**Peebs24** · 10 October 2009, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by sledger

That would be Bill Taylor (Soquili) with a small amount of UI design and debugging from me..
Bill has done the entire TG community a huge favour by spending so much of his time working on XaReg.
Feedback and seeing that it helps people is the reward and motivation for doing something that helps all Xara software users (along with the odd donation of course

Why not include the back-up part as standard in Xara? Corel Draw has the feature as standard.