ArchiCAD files are corrupt! Please help us!

[Anonymous]

Hello!

Windows XP crashed and mystically the user account was recreated. And all the data files are gone. With data recovery software Getdataback we recovered all files. But unfortunately the files are broken. ArchiCAD gives us the errors:
Cannot read Plan file
or
Unknown document version (0.0)
The size of files let us think there is still information inside of files. Is there a possibility to fix the files?

[TomWaltz]

What files did you actually recover? The Archicad PLN files? Or the autosave files?

[Anonymous]

We recovered both PLN and autosave (bpn) files. Neither them works, we get error messages.

[TomWaltz]

janekj wrote:
We recovered both PLN and autosave (bpn) files. Neither them works, we get error messages.

I'm not sure what the problem is, but BPN files are no autosave files, they are backup files (from the last time you saved).

Do you have a recent backup? (like from the last 24 hours?) That may be your only salvation right now.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, my bad. I misunderstood. We can't open the backup (BPN) files - we get only errors.

[Karl Ottenstein]

janekj wrote:
Windows XP crashed and mystically the user account was recreated. And all the data files are gone. With data recovery software Getdataback we recovered all files....

Did you try to open the PLN or BPN on a different computer? Or reinstall AC on the crashed computer? It is conceivable that something about the ArchiCAD installation itself got corrupted, rather than your project files(s)...

Karl

[Aaron Bourgoin]

Past experience with corrupted files forwarded to me by clients found a solution in sending the file to Budapest. GS have utilities to 'repair' the file(s) which is usually due to corrupted attributes.

I've suggested this "recover' functionality find its way into ArchiCAD and while someone at Graphisoft said they thought this was a good idea it never got implememented. If AutoCad has recover, why then oh why don't we?

Contact your reseller and try to get your file forwarded on to GSHQ.

[henrypootel]

The only times i have had files which report their version as 0.0, they are dead. If you open up the file in a HEX editor or something, i think you will find that the file is just 0's all the way through.
I had a 30mb file which was just full of zeroes, so don't get your hopes up.

[Anonymous]

Rather than starting Archicad and opening the file, go to My Computer, browse to where the file is located and click on the file name. It should automatically startup Archicad.

I run into similar problems with Archicad all the time but when I open using the method above it works every time.

Hope this helps.

Grant

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
Did you try to open the PLN or BPN on a different computer? Or reinstall AC on the crashed computer? It is conceivable that something about the ArchiCAD installation itself got corrupted, rather than your project files(s)...
Karl

We tryed to open files on different Windows (same computer but different HDD & WinXP).

Aaron wrote:
Past experience with corrupted files forwarded to me by clients found a solution in sending the file to Budapest. GS have utilities to 'repair' the file(s) which is usually due to corrupted attributes.
Contact your reseller and try to get your file forwarded on to GSHQ.

Can You please comment their prices in Budapest?