Recover dwg 'file not valid'

[Anonymous]

I'm using AutoCAD 2012 LT and have just had a fatal error message.  AutoCAD asked me if I want to save a recovery file which I agreed to, obviously.  Now that I'm trying to recover the file, titled <FILENAME>-recover.dwg, its telling me that the drawing file is not valid.  The BAK files are older than the recovery file, as is the originally saved file.  I want to open the most recent, recovery file, but can't... Any ideas?!

[Charles_Shade]

It was posited earlier to look in your Temp file for SV$ files and see if these are more recent.

Search SV$ if the Temp folder is not readily apparent.

Have you tried to just use Recover from the big red A menu?

And what size is the file that you are trying to open? It may not be viable.

Temp File location can be found under OPTIONS; Files tab:

[Anonymous]

Looking at explorer, the recovery file (which I can't open) is 11.6MB whereas the original file was about 6MB.  I haven't done much to it between these files to justify that much of a hike...

The recovery manager (through the big red A) won't open it either.

The SV$ file doesn't exist, even though I've got my autosaves and backups switched on.

We have just upgraded to 2012 from 2009, and it worked perfectly well then, I know because the pcs suffered fatal errors quite regularly, which is the reason for the upgrade in the first place - AutoCAD just got upgraded with it.

[BrianBenton]

I have had this happen to me several times.  The recovery file generated can’t be opened.  I found that at that point there was little that I could do.  BAK files are always older than the DWG file they are backing up.  Since it seems there is no SV$ I think that all you can do is open the DWG file and redo your work.  This happens regardless of the release of software.  It's unfortunate.  To help remedy situations like this I tend to save (by pressing CTRL+S) every few minutes.  It's a habit that I have gotten into and has saved me several times.  Also check your auto save settings.  Bump up the save time interval.  Make it ten or maybe even five minutes.  The problem with that though is that it may interrupt your work to execute the save.  I find it annoying when it does which is why I manually save the files myself so often.

I know this doesn't help your current situation and I wish I could help there.  I wanted to share my experiences with you demonstrating how I deal with this constant issue.

[Charles_Shade]

Try posting the file here. Maybe someone else can give it a go opening it.

The smaller 6meg one

[Anonymous]

i am unable to open this file please any body can open this file and send it to me as soon as possibe i am very thankful please repair this drawing and send me on this mail famaan2@yahoo.com

[Charles_Shade]

The file is dead and at 219 KB is pretty small. There may not be any valid information in it.

Do you have a BAK copy of this file?

[Anonymous]

Recovery Toolbox for DWG is able to recover deleted AutoCAD DWG files if it was deleted by accident, deleted from a reformatted partition, deleted partition by accident, partition inaccessible, bad MBR, bad boot sector etc. Any kind of AutoCAD .DWG files can be recovered by tool. All you have to to is to download this program from http://www.dwg.recoverytoolbox.com/ and start to search your .DWG files now.

There are several methods how to try to open a corrupted AutoCAD drawing file.

Use the Recover command Open the file and press ESC key just before Regeneration/Error message, save to DXF, load, save as DWG, Audit Insert the complaining DWG as a block into an empty drawing

Open/save the DWG in an older version of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT or Actrix

[Anonymous]

Hi，CJPmha

The DWG file format is very complex. It starts with a file header containing the meta information of the whole file, followed by several parts containing the actual data. You can find more detailed information about the DWG file format by searching on Google with the keyword “DWG file format”. If the file header containing the meta information is corrupt, or any follow-up parts are damaged or corrupted, then you will not be able to open the file correctly with AutoCAD. In such a case, the first step is to try to use the built-in repair or recovery function in the AutoCAD, to see if it can repair or recover the corrupt file. If not, then you need to resort to a third-party dwg recovery tool to scan the corrupted file and retrieve all recoverable data for you. It is also possible to find a data recovery expert or company to do the task, but in most of the cases, they will also use a third-party tool to do the recovery for you.

The main difference between using the software by yourself and by a third-party service company is:

(1)    The company is familiar with the data recovery industry so he knows which software is the best one. While you need to search and compare the software online by yourself, which is time-consuming.

(2)    The company purchases the software for multiple usages, while you purchase the software for one-time usage only. So normally the service fee may be cheaper than the license fee for the software.

(3)    DIY will keep your data confidential while do the recovery via a company may cause data breach.

If you want to perform a DIY recovery, then you can try the following methods:

First of all, you can try the build-in "Recover" command in AutoCAD to recover your corrupt DWG file,

If the above method does not work, then you can try a third-party  tool. Normally the tool has a free demo so that you can try before you buy.

[Emmsleys]

Thanks for sharing that detailed response. I don't think the OP will be back since this is a fairly older post. 

But I'm sure other users who might have a similar will find this post helpful.