Xtreme Pro5 File corruption - out of disk space

[TomVan]

I work on a corporate network so people are forever eating up network space, occasionally it runs out completely. Most programs I use simply let you know that there is insufficient disk space and then prompts you to save elsewhere or at least allows you to continue working. XXPro5 seems to lock up completely, and also corrupts the file you're trying to save.

Reading through the forum I see this is an ongoing problem from earlier versions of Xara Xtreme.

Any idea if there's a way to repair this file, or if there are any plans to rectify this ongoing problem? Surely it's an easy fix?

TomVan

[Soquili]

Hi Tom,

Welcome to Talkgraphics.

It would be a very good change to the program to allow recovery from insufficient disc space.

If it were an easy fix I'm sure the Xara developers would have made the change years ago.

Unfortunately making even minor changes to existing code can break other parts of the program. This may be why we have not seen this fix implemented.

Perhaps one of the Xara developers will provide some insight on the problem.

[TomVan]

Thank you for your kind welcome!

I'm sure you're quite right, I have no idea what would be needed to fix this issue.

Do you have any ideas for repairing the corrupt file? I've tried:

1. Opening
2. Importing
3. Drag/drop

Are there any utilities that may be able to repair a corrupted xar file? File size seems about right, preview is all in tact. On import (merge) I can see the content of the file, on a new page, but I get an error box saying an unkown PNG error has occurred? Any ideas?

[TomVan]

sorry.... import (insert) not merge!

[Soquili]

Hi Tom,

There is a command line (DOS mode) utility named expandxar.exe available for download on the XaraXone shareware page. http://www.xaraxone.com/html/shareware.html

This can recover some files if they are not totally corrupt.

What is the current file size of the corrupt file? If it is 0KB or otherwise very small there may not be enough information to recover you work.

BTW while at the shareware page you can download XaReg which can be used to enable .bak files to be created when you save your .xar files.

[steve.ledger]

Tom,

Please review our Read the FAQs forum with particular note to this thread:

How to use ExpandXar to recover a corrupt file

[TomVan]

Wow! Superb, that worked perfectly, thanks guys! A very handy little utility to know about.

[Soquili]

Glad to hear you were able to recover your file.

[wuerthne]

Hi Tom,

It would be a very good change to the program to allow recovery from insufficient disc space.

If it were an easy fix I'm sure the Xara developers would have made the change years ago.

Unfortunately making even minor changes to existing code can break other parts of the program. This may be why we have not seen this fix implemented.

Perhaps one of the Xara developers will provide some insight on the problem.

I looked through our bugs database but could not find an entry for this problem. So, maybe this is simply a bug we have not heard about yet.

I think it is unacceptable that the program loses your file when there is not enough disc space. That should never happen. It might be difficult to avoid that your existing file is lost because it is overwritten with an incomplete file, but at least you should only get a single error message and then be able to save to a different place or recover some space on the target medium and try again. I will test this here and enter a bug report if I can reproduce it.

[wuerthne]

Good news: I could not only reproduce but even fix the problem, so future versions will not suffer from this fault.