All programs crash. Today’s applications and operating systems are considerably more stable than their counterparts of a decade ago. But they still crash. Files will also corrupt.

It’s a fact.

These applications are extremely complicated, and the files they create have so many variables that perfection is still a long way off. And it’s not always the fault of the application either. You may have saved the file over a bad sector on your hard disk. There may have been a minor power fluctuation during the save. The moon could be passing Uranus. Anything.

Imagine that you’ve been creating a 40 page catalogue in InDesign for the last two weeks, and are almost ready to output to PDF. But this morning, when you double-click on the file name, you get a message along the lines of;

CANNOT OPEN FILE, or FILE DOES NOT EXIST, or FILE IS CORRUPT.

What do you do?

Well, once you’ve finished screaming and throwing things at the wall, there’s really only a few things you can do.

1. Try opening the file on another computer.
2. Try opening the file on another platform (Mac for PC or vice versa).
3. Go to your last backup and open that file, saying goodbye to the changes you’ve made since that backup.

What? None of the options work and there is no backup? Or the backup is also corrupt? Then I’m sorry, but you’re screwed. The only thing to do is start again. All that work.

Is there any way to prevent this?

Ever since working with Pagemaker 3 in the late ‘80s, I have always saved a procession of files. Pagemaker was prone to becoming the victim of corrupt libraries (the BAD TABLE INDEX message caused many users to lose their hair) or fonts. This is the habit I got into;

I’d work on the file for a day (or whatever) and save it, perhaps as JUMP_SPRING_CAT (short for Jumper Spring Catalogue). The next day, or the next time I open the file to do some more work, I would SAVE-AS JUMP_SPRING_CAT2. By the end of a long job, I might be up to version 12 or 13. Then, when it’s all finished, I’ll call it JUMP_SPRINT_CAT_FINAL or words to that effect.

It might sound like a lot of extra effort, but it’s nothing. A few seconds a day at worst, and some additional storage space. But it’s preferable to having a disaster.

Oh, and I backup my Data files every day. Without question.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Business and Marketing, Design Software, Graphic Design From Home, Tips and Tricks, graphic design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.