error then file empty

[helianthe]

hi there, whilst working on a website in xara webdesigner 7, it suddenly gave an error and said it needed closing down. I tried to reopen the file, but its now empty! Anyone that can help, I much appreciate it....

[gwpriester]

Welcome to TalkGraphics

Ouch! I hate when that happens.

Fortunately, all is not lost.

In the File menu, click Open Recent...

Scroll down to the bottom of the list and click Backups...

Look at the time stamp and open the one with the latest time stamp. If this file is corrupted then try the next most current document.

[helianthe]

Hi Gary, it worked! I am so loving Xara Web Designer, used version 5, 6 and now 7. Loveing it even more now I know there are backups included, thanks so much for your help!

[Resurgam]

I had a similar occurrence yesterday. After four weeks work, on and off, on a new site I decided on a concerted effort to complete it yesterday, got to the final page (with regular manual saves in additions to autosaves) and experienced the 'serious error' message. Upon restart, the entire file was gone. In my opinion, an error of this sort, whatever the cause, should not cause the whole file to disappear. What is the point of regular saves if this can happen? Fortunately, the last backup could be restored and as a result only abut forty minutes' work was lost, but the experience has coloured my attitude to Web Designer 7, in that I now operate in trepidation of a similar error resulting in further loss of data.

[gwpriester]

When you consider the number of lines of code that go into an application like Designer or Web Designer, or most programs today, it is a wonder the do not crash more often. There are so many variables. Many times something you do may be something that has never been done or tested before. But often it can be memory caused.

Even if you have a gazillion GB of memory, the longer you go without saving your work, the more memory you use up, both within Xara and also system memory. When you have drained the available memory below a certain point, your system becomes unstable and crashes like this can occur and there is not sufficient memory to save the work.

So, my rule of thumb, which I follow religiously (after a crash and for a few hours afterwards ) is save your work often. The longer you go without saving your work, the greater your chances of a meltdown.