Could not open project file

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Greg Holden
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Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:43 am
Location: Adelaide Australia

Could not open project file

Unread post by Greg Holden »

Greetings.

I am running Help & Manual Professional Edition Version 5.1.1 Build 750. I am building a manual and already have considerable content in it.

I did some editing, saved my work and closed H&M5. I have now opened H&M5 again and went to open my project and got the message: Cannot load xxxx.hmxz!. Please check you have sufficient rights to open the project.

Nothing has changed on my system. It was working - now it isn't.

Why won't it open my project? What do I do?

Thanks,

Greg Holden
:?:
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Greg,

If you have been working on a modular project this may be an issue that has cropped up recently on some user's computers. I have mailed you a link to an updated HM version that will correct it if this is the case.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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DonnaS
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Unread post by DonnaS »

Hi! I am having the same issue can you help? Thank you.
Greg Holden
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Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:43 am
Location: Adelaide Australia

No luck on two counts

Unread post by Greg Holden »

Thanks Tim, but no luck on two counts:

I am not running a modular project with child projects. I'm a beginner with all of this so I'm starting with a basic single stand-alone project.

But I have downloaded the version you suggested and tried it, but it didn't work either.

Short of restoring a previous backup of the project, are there any other suggestions please? I would hate to think that every time I work on a project I have to make sure I have a good backup waiting in the wings.

Cheers,

Greg
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John Waller
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Unread post by John Waller »

Greg,

Are you running the Standard or Pro version of H&M?

With H&M4, I frequently encountered project file corruption because it used a single binary file to store the project and this was susceptible to corruption due to network glitches etc. We had to have a strict 4 step backup process to ensure quick recovery from corrupt .hmx files. Occasionally we had to admit defeat with trying to open a corrupt project and restore the previous day's backup.

With H&M5, projects are now stored in plain text XML files which makes them far more robust.

The standard version of H&M5 only allows storage in single file compressed mode (.hmxz) but the Pro version offers uncompressed XML mode (.hmxp) where your project and all its topics, formatting and settings are stored in a collection of plain-text XML files.

Since switching to H&M5 Pro and using the .hmxp file format in a multi-user environment we have been free of data corruption (to date) because, each time we save, H&M only saves the individual topics which have been changed. Plus, saving is much quicker now.

Having said all of that, "sufficient rights" sounds like permissions rather than file corruption. Are you on a standalone machine or are you pulling the .hmxz file from a network share?
Regards

John Waller
v.6.2.2 Build 2636
Greg Holden
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:43 am
Location: Adelaide Australia

Unread post by Greg Holden »

Hullo John.

Yes definitely running the Pro version but my project was saved in .hmxz.

In future I will save it as an uncompressed XML file - but I've got to get it back first of all. I don't really want to start from scratch again.

You are right that "sufficient rights" seems to point to permissions. But I have been working on this project in exactly the same location for over 10 days and no more than 30 minutes previously I had successfully worked on the file and saved it. I have full control over the folder and nothing had changed on our network - I'm the systems administrator. I have also copied the file from the network drive and onto my desktop and got exactly the same error message.

Cheers,

Greg
Greg Holden
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:43 am
Location: Adelaide Australia

Unread post by Greg Holden »

I have fixed my problem, but only by restoring an earlier version.

Because I am running on a Vista PC I was able reinstate an earlier version from the shadow copies Vista makes of files. Luckily I had a shadow copy from when I finished work on Friday afternoon and I lost very little work from yesterday (Monday).

While it doesn't solve my problem of why the file was corrupted and whether it can be uncorrupted, it at least gets me working again. Clearly it was not a permissions issue as the error message was indicating.

I will now save the project as an uncompressed XML file and see if that is a lot safer in the future.

Thanks to all for your input.
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Greg,

If possible we'd very much like to have a look at the version of the project file you couldn't open -- I'd be grateful if you could mail it to support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) so that I can check it out. It is actually possible that it may be a permissions issue, even though it doesn't seem like it on the face of it. This is particularly likely on Vista, which has introduced a lot of new complexities and layers to the permissions system in an attempt to make Windows more secure.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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DonnaS
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Unread post by DonnaS »

Tim,
Hello! Would you be willing to look my problem file? Unforunately, too many changes were made to just go to a back up.

File worked fine we upgradaed to version 5.1.0 build 750. Changes were made to file/project and it was saved. Note the changes were made on a machine running VISTA. Since the changes were made and saved we have not been able to open the file. Yesterday we upgraded to version 5.1.1 still unable to open the file.

Thank you.

Donna
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Donna,

Yes, please do mail me the .hmxz file. Pack it in a zip and mail it to me at support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @). It would also be important for us to know whether you are saving on a local drive or a network drive. Almost all of the problems we have seen with Vista saves so far have been on network drives.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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DonnaS
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Unread post by DonnaS »

File was zipped and emailed. We save to a network drive. Thanks
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DonnaS
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Unread post by DonnaS »

Tim,

Thank you very much for your help! I was able to open the recovered file, etc.

Donna
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John Waller
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Unread post by John Waller »

Hi Tim,

Did you work out what the problem was with Donna's file?

Anything we can learn from it?
Regards

John Waller
v.6.2.2 Build 2636
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi John,

I just wanted to post on this. We have seen isolated reports on corrupted .hmxz files when saving on network drives with Vista (I was able to recover all the topics from Donna's file, only the internal .hmxp file was damaged). This appears to be connected with high levels of network traffic while saving and it is clearly not very common -- in one case a user was able to determine that a badly configured network printer driver was causing a constant high level of traffic on the network, for example. We're looking into it but for the moment we would recommend caution when saving on network drives with Vista -- it would be better to save locally until we are absolutely certain what is behind this.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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DonnaS
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Unread post by DonnaS »

Tim Green wrote:Hi John,

I just wanted to post on this. We have seen isolated reports on corrupted .hmxz files when saving on network drives with Vista (I was able to recover all the topics from Donna's file, only the internal .hmxp file was damaged). This appears to be connected with high levels of network traffic while saving and it is clearly not very common -- in one case a user was able to determine that a badly configured network printer driver was causing a constant high level of traffic on the network, for example. We're looking into it but for the moment we would recommend caution when saving on network drives with Vista -- it would be better to save locally until we are absolutely certain what is behind this.
Hello! Any status on the ability to use Vista and save to network drives? We are considering upgrading to the Professional version of Help & Manual. If we upgrade the Vista end user will start working in Help and Manual again. I came back to this forum thread to see if it was an issue with the professional version and it looks like it is. Any updates would be great. Thank you.

Donna
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