What the?!?!

[Thatch]

So I finally start doing some illustration work again, everything is going well, listening to a little Cat Stevens, drinking a New Castle and drawing away (something I haven't done in earnest in quite some time). After several hours of reintroducing myself to the various Xara tools what should happen but a warring box pop up and then disappear taking the entire application and all my unsaved work (probably a good 45 mins worth) with it, all within a frogs breath. I couldn't possibly tell you what the notice box said as it all happened at the speed of a screen refresh. The gist of it is "enjoy doing all that work again sucker!"!!

I've worked with Xara since its initial Corel release (still have the original box and book) and am fully aware that its had some memory allocation error issues through its history but they were very few and far between. I guess the question is have these problems increased? Has Xara not yet dealt with the issue before adding all the new tools and those have now aggravated the issue? Is there anything in particular that sets these things off? Do you notice any more problems in XP than one of the other OS's?

Ok so that's not "A" question. I'm just trying to get a grip on the extent of the problem. (well that and asking a question about this is better than hurling the computer through the window which is option 2 at this point) [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]


J

p.s If I ever get this thing finished I throw it in the gallery... its really just another of my experiments but somebody might looking at it.

[Thatch]

So I finally start doing some illustration work again, everything is going well, listening to a little Cat Stevens, drinking a New Castle and drawing away (something I haven't done in earnest in quite some time). After several hours of reintroducing myself to the various Xara tools what should happen but a warring box pop up and then disappear taking the entire application and all my unsaved work (probably a good 45 mins worth) with it, all within a frogs breath. I couldn't possibly tell you what the notice box said as it all happened at the speed of a screen refresh. The gist of it is "enjoy doing all that work again sucker!"!!

I've worked with Xara since its initial Corel release (still have the original box and book) and am fully aware that its had some memory allocation error issues through its history but they were very few and far between. I guess the question is have these problems increased? Has Xara not yet dealt with the issue before adding all the new tools and those have now aggravated the issue? Is there anything in particular that sets these things off? Do you notice any more problems in XP than one of the other OS's?

Ok so that's not "A" question. I'm just trying to get a grip on the extent of the problem. (well that and asking a question about this is better than hurling the computer through the window which is option 2 at this point) [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]


J

p.s If I ever get this thing finished I throw it in the gallery... its really just another of my experiments but somebody might looking at it.

[Old Dog]

not only have you not been drawing in a while, you haven't kept up with music for some time either! Just kidding, the Cat was always one of my favorites in the 60's, and on occasion, feel compeled to hear Peace Train one more time. Or, maybe you were listening to some of his new work. He has started recording on a limited basis again.

I'm rather new to Xara and computers, so I'm not up on any problems in the past with Xara. But the one thing I've learned with all programs, is save, save, and then save some more! Personally, when I make any major change in a drawing I'm doing, I immediately hit the old save button! It has saved me a couple of times.

I know that doesn't help you now, and it certainly doesn't alleviate any of your frustrations, but it's the best I can do!

I really was just kidding about the music. I like your taste in tunes. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Jack

[gwpriester]

Joe

If you look in the Windows/Temp directory, you may find a Xara file with the same name as the file you toasted with a BAK appended to the file name, for example Toast.bak

If so, you might be in luck. Rename the bax, XAR and then try to open it.

If you have rebooted your computer the backup file will probably not be there.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[Thatch]

Its a bit of a mantra in the development world to not only save but "Save As" often and you are obviously quite right about saving. I'm typically much better at it than that. I guess the problem here is that its been so long since I've had a chance to do this that I got a bit lost in what I was doing and failed to treat it like a real project. Had it been drudging work I'm sure I would of done that. Serves me right for having fun =}

I was just kind of currious if there have been more problems creep into the Xara code and should I expect these problems occationally or if I just got unlucky and hit be "one of those things". Hopefully thats the case and the code is nice and stable. I just haven't used X enough since its release to really know what to expect from it.

J

[Bob C.]

Hi Joe,

The advice Jack has given is one I'd like to confirm.

XaraX will occasionally (less than once a day) crash or hang the computer completely so when working with it I attend to this motto:

Save early and save often. Not a bad thing to do in general.

Running Win98 does not help the cause I'm sure!

Bob C.

[Thatch]

Thanks Gary. Missed your post before I wrote my last one. I tired that just now and not only did I not find that temp file I didn't find any bak files on the system other than 3 obvious windows system related files. Interesting. I just got this new system with XP on it. I'll make sure 'ole Bill isn't keeping me from seeing files for my own protection but so far nothing. Its a shame, I've done more work on the file (in fact its open now) but its being worked on under a new file name and I didn't redo the work I lost I moved on to other areas so finding it would still be a big help.

Thanks again for the assistance.

J

[gwpriester]

I think it was Paul Shotan who suggested, always create two versions of your document, and take a moment and save and save as. This way if one file gets fried, you have a backup of the same file.

It is a bit of a bother, but not as much as a bother as having to recreate your entire file.

Priester's Law: The longer you go without saving your file, the greater the chances of a crash :-)

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[dalel]

&nbsp
As a web designer, I'm a fanatic about saving, so I save many versions of my graphics as I develop them, and discard all but a few when I get a version I'm satisfied with.

It's only a bit of hard drive space, and can be reclaimed.

Of course, when I don't "save" or "save as", the "unimportant practice stuff", I usually regret it, just like you. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

Dale

Why, I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know...
- Lewis Carroll