On 05/23/2010 03:55 PM, Anna wrote:

Right after that I turned off my computer

Just to make sure: Did you turn it off by cutting power, or did you turn it off in a "proper"/"nice" way?

/ Martin

Hello Anna,

When asking for help on any forum, it is a good idea to let people know a minimum of information:

1. Which platform are you using? [Mac OSX, Linux, FreeBSD, Other?] 2. Which version of The Gimp are you using? 3. Which file format did you save the work as? [.xcf, .jpg, .png, .other?]

da Bear

Anna wrote:

I was just finishing a drawing and then I pressed the "save" button and saved it. Right after that I turned of my computer *Gimp said that the drawing was saved btw* But when I turned it on again and open Gimp, then try to open the drawing Gimp tells me that the file is broken, in fact so broken that it can't open it!

Help me please I've been drawing on it for like 3 whole days! And it's really important that I recover it! Is it anyway for me to save it? Please help me!

My best guess at this point is that GIMP gave you the message that the file was saved, because GIMP was all through with it, but that the Operating system was not finished writing the file to the disk. When you shut off the power, nothing further got written, and you have a corrupted file image on the disk.

If you happen to have made incremental back-ups (that is, saving your work periodically, under different names--like myfile1.xcf, myfile2.xcf, &c--like every 20 minutes or so, this would be a time when they would be quite useful, as you could simply go back to the last back up. Otherwise, if you happen to be skilled with low level file editing and the details of the ~.xcf format, you might be able to open the image in a file editor, and recover some of the information in the file, but since I follow the incremental back-up method religiously, I've never had to do that.

ns

2010/5/23 Anna :

On 05/23/2010 03:55 PM, Anna wrote:

Right after that I turned off my computer

Just to make sure: Did you turn it off by cutting power, or did you turn it off in a "proper"/"nice" way?

 / Martin

Ehm, the evil way. I chocked it so to say:P

Well, now you know why you should NEVER do that. Let this be an important lesson for you. Unfortunately I don't have a solution for you in this case…

Johnny Rosenberg

Johnny Rosenberg

2010/5/23 Anna :

My best guess at this point is that GIMP gave you the message that the file was saved, because GIMP was all through with it, but that the Operating system was not finished writing the file to the disk. When you shut off the power, nothing further got written, and you have a corrupted file image on the disk.

If you happen to have made incremental back-ups (that is, saving your work periodically, under different names--like myfile1.xcf, myfile2.xcf, &c--like every 20 minutes or so, this would be a time when they would be quite useful, as you could simply go back to the last back up. Otherwise, if you happen to be skilled with low level file editing and the details of the ~.xcf format, you might be able to open the image in a file editor, and recover some of the information in the file, but since I follow the incremental back-up method religiously, I've never had to do that.

ns

Sounds logical!

Dammit! I'm doomed! The one time I decide not to save backup xD I hate myself so much right now!

But what kind of file editor are we talking about here? Like another program or something like that?

Sad hugs, Anna

Some kind of Hex editor I would guess.

Johnny Rosenberg

On Sun, 23 May 2010 16:32:06 +0200 (CEST), Anna wrote:

But what kind of file editor are we talking about here? Like another program or something like that?

Hex editor - not something for the faint-hearted.

On Sunday 23 May 2010, Anna wrote:

Some kind of Hex editor I would guess.

Johnny Rosenberg

I'm totally doomed xD Well thanks for the help anyways^^

To help prevent that sort of thing in the future, please give the filesystem time to flush everything to disk before hitting the power switch. Modern operating systems, windows included, don't have a clue that your finger is headed for the switch.

And modern operating systems also have a shutdown procedure that is designed to make sure everything is all cleaned up and put away, then they can kill the power themselves once its safe to do so.

So please do use the systems shutdown, its a good way to have confidence that it will all be there the next time you boot it up.

On Sun, 23 May 2010 17:01:06 +0200 (CEST), Adlevo wrote:

So like..... Are there any good tips on how to use it:p Cause I've downloaded it but..... ehm, no. I really just went, "Hell no" when I saw it :P Any idea on how I might proceed?

First just use it to look if there's anything in the file (that it's not empty or blank - because if it is, there's no point in doing anything else). If it's not empty, you'll need to find out what's wrong with it - but since you don't know the XCF format, you'd have to learn that first, which will definitely take longer than 3 days (and even then it's not guaranteed that you'll be able to recover the image).

On 23 May 2010 17:04, bhaaluu wrote:

Hello Anna,

When asking for help on any forum, it is a good idea to let people know a minimum of information:

1. Which platform are you using? [Mac OSX, Linux, FreeBSD, Other?] 2. Which version of The Gimp are you using? 3. Which file format did you save the work as? [.xcf, .jpg, .png, .other?]

da Bear

4) A descriptive subject

On Sunday, May 23, 2010 07:40:44 am Anna wrote:

Some kind of Hex editor I would guess.

Johnny Rosenberg

I'm totally doomed xD Well thanks for the help anyways^^

An additional possibility is a local computer shop may have ability to recover corrupt files. But it will cost something.

On Sun, 23 May 2010 08:52:13 -0700, upscope wrote:

An additional possibility is a local computer shop may have ability to recover corrupt files. But it will cost something.

Unlikely in this case, since the file probably hasn't even reached the disk.

On Sun, 23 May 2010 17:46:48 +0200 (CEST), Adlevo wrote:

Well there's some numbers there and stuff..... So then hope ain't completely lost:P Jeee, do I sound like a blond girl xD But this really ain't my field xD But tnx anway

Nah, it's just that reconstructing even trivial files is a complicated process (and GIMP's XCF format is anything but trivial).

On Sun, 23 May 2010 19:10:59 +0200 (CEST) "Adlevo" wrote:

On Sun, 23 May 2010 17:46:48 +0200 (CEST), Adlevo wrote:

Well there's some numbers there and stuff..... So then hope ain't

completely

lost:P Jeee, do I sound like a blond girl xD But this really ain't my

field xD

But tnx anway

Nah, it's just that reconstructing even trivial files is a complicated process (and GIMP's XCF format is anything but trivial).

Heh, yeah^^ Tnx anway ^^ I appreciate the help

You may consider a backup utility such as in http://registry.gimp.org/node/14246 to be a useful tool for your workflow.

Owen