.PSD recovery software or plug-ins?

[Gregg]

Can anyone recommend a good, reliable, way of restoring a corrupt .PSD file?

Unfortunately, we've been running into this a lot lately. PSD files are becoming corrupt when saved onto our server. The flattened TIF is always fine, it's just the layered PSD that goes corrupt. For a while we thought it was exclusive to PSD files that had live type, and that our font management system may have had something to do with the file becoming corrupt. But we have since ruled out that theory.

The file can be placed into ID, and properly viewed in Bridge, but when you attempt to open it within Photoshop we get a "This file is not compatible with your version of.." (can't remember the exact language). The files were either created in PS CS2 or CS3.

If anyone has some suggestions, I'm all ears. As you can imagine this problem is a major pain in the ass.

[Stephen Marsh]

Are you saving the file from Photoshop direct to your local HD, then using the OS to move the file to your server?

Or are you saving direct from Photoshop to the server?

The second can be problematic.


Stephen Marsh

[Gregg]

Hi, Stephen.

It's the second - we are saving directly to the server, and are now realizing the risk in doing so.

It's odd because that has been our policy, for the entire design dept. for well over 10 years, but we are now just having the corrupt file issues.

[Stephen Marsh]

Originally Posted by Gregg

It's the second - we are saving directly to the server, and are now realizing the risk in doing so.

Ah, I thought that would be the case. I don't have an official Adobe reference, however I am pretty sure that they recommend saving locally then moving the file back to the file server - never working direct. However, now that there is VersionCue, I am not sure if this has changed.

It's odd because that has been our policy, for the entire design dept. for well over 10 years, but we are now just having the corrupt file issues.

It has been my personal policy for over a decade to work locally, then move to the server - despite what the internal policy may be. IT managers sometimes do not get it, what works in theory does not always work in practice. I understand why in large work groups a central server is desired, however the people that tout these policies are not the ones that have to directly deal with corrupt images.

Back to recovery...

There can be different problems. Sometimes one is presented with an error message that the doc is corrupt - however the file does open and all appears to look good. In these cases, I generally make a new document and copy out the data from the old to the new and save the new doc, which appears to get rid of the message and any issues.

Other times it appears as if a single channel has had an entire block of data shifted down or across the page. Sometimes there are corrupt single rows of pixels. Retouching may be required in these cases, one may also copy to a new doc if one does not trust the original file anymore.

If the file is layered and you have a saved composite version in the file, one may be able to access the composite image which may not be corrupt, while the layers are corrupt.

At one point, MARKZWARE was working on a solution to recover corrupt Photoshop files, AFAIK it never made it to market, I am not sure if it is still in development. On the MS Windows side, I think that there are some other options out there from various file recovery vendors, however I am not sure if they work or are worth the money, I have no experience with them, although I dimly recall them from Google searches.

Far better to avoid the problem in the first place - and the problem seems to be saving direct over a network rather than locally.


Stephen Marsh

[Tech]

Hi Greg,
I have come across a few of these psd corrupt files lately as well. If you can still see the preview icon on desktop, good chance it's not completely corrupt. Try changing the files extension to .tif and open up with Photoshop again then resave the file. I'm probably won't link this as server issue until you can rule out it is an end-user error.

[Gregg]

I think this one is a loss. Fortunately, I did have the flattened TIF, so it is not a complete loss.

I was able to somewhat restore the file using an app called Advances PSD repair, by DataNumen. After running the corrupt files through this program I was able to open it, but it was flattened.

About 6 hours of P'Shop work down the tubes!

[Mark H]

Greg,

You're problem is either being cause by network lag or dropped packets. Talk with whomever manages your IT needs and ask what your current network speed is. Chances are you're using 10/100 switches, stepping up to 1G switches could do wonders if your workstation NIC cards will handle the bandwidth.

You might also want to look into network usage. I ran into bandwidth problems several weeks ago that resolved down to several employees who were streaming radio/music. That stuff eats up bandwidth.

Mark H

[Chief_1975]

We have had this happen many times and our IT department has never got down to the bottom of the problem. We have 1G switches already so upgrading your network isn't guaranteed to cure the problem, not to say that it happens all the time but even if its was once in a blue moon its still a lot of man hours lost. Its make it worse if only a small amendment has been made & its not realised that file has been corrupted until its revisited a week late for further work, major headache!

[Stephen Marsh]

Originally Posted by Chief_1975

We have had this happen many times and our IT department has never got down to the bottom of the problem. We have 1G switches already so upgrading your network isn't guaranteed to cure the problem, not to say that it happens all the time but even if its was once in a blue moon its still a lot of man hours lost. Its make it worse if only a small amendment has been made & its not realised that file has been corrupted until its revisited a week late for further work, major headache!

I would repeat my original question (post #2).

EDIT: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/322/322391.html (a little out of date, however it could still apply - these problems hardly ever happen locally, while they always seem to appear sooner or later when working direct over a network).

http://photoshopnews.com/2008/06/02/...rom-photoshop/


Stephen Marsh

[Stephen Marsh]

This plug may be of help in PSD file recovery:

Telegraphics - Free plugins for Photoshop & Illustrator...and other software

Quote:

"Photoshop file (PSD) Extract/Recover tool
This plugin lets you grab image layers from any PSD/PSB file. It's faster than opening the whole PSD in Photoshop, if you just want a layer. Most importantly, it can usually recover image layers from corrupted PSD files that Photoshop won't open (if Photoshop opens with damage, this plugin recovers a more intact image). Beta version.
FREE, $10 donation suggested if it saves your day/sanity/job."


Regards,

Stephen Marsh