Recovering a lost file

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Level 1

8 points

Recovering a lost file

I've been working on a Guitar Pro file for more than two months now, but today something happened which seems to have caused the file to become corrupt.

I'm using the Mac version of Guitar Pro, and there are still some bugs in the software which need to be ironed out. In addition, I'm using a little Mac Mini which isn't the most powerful thing around, and I'm running very low on storage space. Shortly before this happened, I got a message telling me my startup disc was almost full. Looking back, I should have restarted the machine there, but I didn't. I just clicked "ok" and kept working.

This is where things started going wrong. When I tried to paste something, Guitar Pro told me there was nothing on the clipboard, even though I'd just copied it. Thinking it must be because I was nearly out of memory, I quit the application and went to reopen it again.

Pow. Error message: "Unknown file. Loading aborted." I restarted the computer, but I still get the same message. The file is still there in the folder...but for its size, it says "Zero KB". Basically, the file has vanished.

So what I need to know is this: is there any way to recover the file, or restore my hard drive to how it was this morning? This means a lot to me, so if anyone can help at all I will be extremely grateful.

Mac Mini (Intel), Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Oct 21, 2007 10:27 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 21, 2007 11:04 AM in response to whirleygig

Hi Whirleygig and Welcome to Apple Discussions ...

Rule of thumb, never allow your hard drive to fall below 15% free hard drive space. Look at the bottom of any Finder window. It displays the amount of free space you have available.

As for the lost file. If you actually Save As a file, it would have the file name but since your Mini didn't allow you to go there, I have a feeling that file is lost. If you Saved the file and gave it a name, try Spotlight to see if it will show up there and the file size.

In order for your Mac Mini to get going again you need to move files off that drive as soon as possible. Either to an external drive, a flash drive, an iPod that has the "enable hard drive feature", back up to CD or DVD, or possibly to another Mac. The only way you're going to be able to keep the drive stable is to eliminate the extra load the drive has now. When you've accomplished this, run Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities) and Repair Disk Permissions.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

Oct 21, 2007 11:15 AM in response to whirleygig

Hi whileygig;

In addition to what Carolyn told, which I happen to agree with as far as she went, I would like to suggest that in addition to Repair Permissions you also Repair Disk. In order to do this you will have to boot from the install media you received with your Mac.

The reason I suggest this is because once you have run the free disk space as low as you have the chances for files corruption are greatly increased. If you don't take care of this file corruption you will be leaving yourself open to all kinds of strange problems in the future.

Allan

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Answer 3

whirleygig Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 21, 2007 12:10 PM in response to whirleygig

Ok, thanks for your help. I've just had a word with my dad, who has rather more experience with Macs than myself, and he says it's possible (if unlikely) the file will be recovered if I can free up enough space. Worth a try, at least. I know I really should get into the habit of making regular backups and try not to let my hard drive get too full, I just never get round to doing it. Looks like I've paid the price now...

Thanks again.

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