Under certain conditions, you may encounter an error message when attempting to open a document created in CorelDRAW 5. This error may read as one of the following: "Error reading FILENAME.CDR" "Invalid file format" " problem occurred accessing memory - temp drive may be full" Note: For the purpose of this document, we will assume that your file is named FILENAME.CDR These errors are usually a result of conflicts within the computer, or due to a conflict which occurred at the time of saving the file. The following outline steps to take in order to recover your file. Before starting, be sure your file is on a the local system. Attempting to open a file from a network drive, floppy disk or removable media device ,such as a ZIP drive, Bernoulli drive, or external hard drive, may complicate troubleshooting. Copy the file to a local hard drive before opening it. Check for backups of the file Search the hard drive for valid copies of the file. Be sure to do this before restarting CorelDRAW, as backup or temporary files may be deleted if CorelDRAW is restarted and closed correctly. To search in Windows 3.1: Open File Manager from the Main group, and click File, Search. Type the name of the file followed by a period and an asterisk on the Search For command line. On the Start From command line, type the name of the drive that normally contains your documents, followed by a colon, such as [C:] (without the brackets). Repeat these steps for the drive that contains the WINDOWS directory, or any other drives you may use to store documents. To search in Windows 95: Click Start, Find / Files or Folders. In Named, type the name of the file, followed by a period and an asterisk. In the Look In list box, click My Computer. Ensure Include Subfolders is enabled, and click Find Now. Once the search has completed, you should be left with a list of one or more copies of that file. Make a note of the directory in which these files are stored, and check the file size of each. Any file that is 0 KB in size is invalid and cannot be recovered. Once the location of the backup files is determined, start CorelDRAW and open the backup file. To do this, 1. Click File, Open. 2. In the File Name box, change the CDR extension to ABK or BAK, click OK. You can include all three extensions by typing a comma in between them. For example, C:\CORELDRW\*.CDR;*.ABK;*.BAK. 3. If the file you want is in another drive or directory, type the entire path name in the File Name box, or, click the drive from the Drives list box and the directory from the Directories list box. 4. In the File Name box, type the name of the file you want to open, and click OK 5. After opening the file, click File, Save As, and save it with a .CDR extension. While working with a file and saving it to disk, up to four copies of the file may be generated: FILENAME.CDR is the file you have saved, with the name you have assigned it. FILENAME.ABK is a timed backup of the file. By default, CorelDRAW automatically saves a copy of your document every 10 minutes. Under the Special, Preferences, Advanced, settings can be adjusted to disable backups, vary the time between backups, or change the directory to which backups are saved. FILENAME.BAK is a backup of a document that is created each time Save or Save As is used to overwrite an existing CDR file. This can also be disabled, if desired, under the Special, Preferences, Advanced menu. Temporary Files are created when working in almost any Windows application. Normally these files are deleted when an application has properly shut down, but occasionally they can be found and retrieved if required. Occasionally, an entire CorelDRAW document will be saved as a temporary file. By doing a search on your hard drive (as described above) for [*.TMP] (without the brackets), a list of all existing temporary files will be assembled. Sort the list by date modified, and check the date, time and size of the files to find one that sounds consistent with your original CorelDRAW document (if the date/size are not readily apparent, click View, Details, or All file details. Make note of the name of the file and the directory in which it is stored. The file can be opened in CorelDRAW using steps similar to those described for backup files by substituting the extension [*.TMP] in step 2. Use alternate methods to open the file If no valid backup file is found on the system, try different methods to open the file. Before starting, use File Manager or Windows Explorer to rename the following files: COREL50\CONFIG\CORELDRW.INI, COREL50\DRAW\TEMPLATE\CORELDRW.CDT Rename both files to CORELDRW.OLD. These files hold preferences such as default fills, line weights and default directories. If resetting preferences presents a concern, they can be renamed back to their original filenames after following these troubleshooting steps. Once the file has been successfully retrieved save or export the file with a different name. You may want to save the file as a different type, such as Corel Presentation Exchange (*.CMX). The CMX format will support all the graphics within your document, though it will only save the current page, and layout information (page size, orientation etc.) will be ignored. These steps will ensure you have a copy of the document, until the conflict can be resolved. As always, be sure to save the file to a local hard drive, whenever possible. Perform the following steps, attempting to open the file after completing each one. 1. Windows 95 only: Try opening the file while in Safe Mode. Safe Mode is able to eliminate most complicating factors that may be causing conflicts. To boot into Safe Mode, reboot the computer and press F8 when the message "Starting Windows 95" is displayed. From the menu, choose Safe Mode. 2. Import the file instead of opening it. To do this, click File, Import. Change the List Files of Type list box to CorelDRAW (*.CDR), and load the file. 3. Use the Corel MOSAIC RollUp to drag the file onto the CorelDRAW page. To do this, open CorelDRAW, and click File, MOSAIC RollUp. Click the button in the upper-right corner of the RollUp. Locate the document to open, and ensure that the List Files of Type list box is set to CorelDRAW Thumbnail (*.CDR, *.PAT...)", and click OK. Click the file to be opened, and drag it onto a blank CorelDRAW page. If a message appears asking to create "an OLE object for dropped file", click Yes. 4. Use CorelCHART in conjunction with CorelDRAW to open the file. This method is often very successful, but it is only feasible if CorelCHART is installed and the document is 1 page only. To do this, Start CorelCHART, and click File, New, and click OK. Click Chart, Display Status. Click No Text, and click OK. Click the blue background, and click the Fill tool. Assign no fill by clicking X from the flyout. Resize the chart to the size of an icon, and move it to the top left corner of the page. Click File, Page Setup, and change the page layout to match that of your CorelDRAW document. Import your CorelDRAW document. The document will slowly build on screen, and may stop importing at the point of corruption, though the rest of the document may be recoverable. Once the image has stopped building, click Edit, Copy Chart. Start CorelDRAW, and open a new document. Click Edit, Paste Special, and click Corel Presentation Exchange Data. Click OK. Save or export the file to a different file name. Preventing future file problems Many file problems can be avoided through routine hard drive and file maintenance, including SCANDISK, DEFRAG, and the removal of unnecessary temp files. This should be done on a regular basis. These procedures are outlined in Fax on Demand documents #1001 - Optimizing Your System, and #2010 - Diagnosing General Protection Faults. When saving files, be sure to save the file to a fixed disk with more than adequate available space. Files can be corrupted when saved to a disk with little free space, a diskette, for instance. Remember that when CorelDRAW saves a file, it also writes backup and temporary files to disk. Under normal operation, most of these files are removed at the completion of a CorelDRAW session, and are not seen by the user. Ensure that you have the latest revision of CorelDRAW 5. To determine which revision is currently installed, click Help, About CorelDRAW. You should be running either version 5.00.F2 (Windows 3.1) or 5.00.G1 (Windows 3.1 or Windows 95). Contact Customer Service for information about obtaining the latest revision.