Unable to load the board file

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a design for a while now, always ensuring that I had the schematics and board files both open so that any changes I make are properly tracked.

A few days ago i tried opening the project again, the schematics editor launches regularly but when the board editor tries to launch i get this warning message "no forward-/backannotation will be performed!" and then a text editor shows this error message:

"Error:

line 1, column 1: Start tag expected."

I've attached screen captures showing the messages in this post. Please help! I've spent way too much time on this project to re-do it from scratch!

I'm currently using Eagle 7.7.0, I thought the issue could be fixed by updating to 8.0 but I still get the same issue 😞

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a design for a while now, always ensuring that I had the schematics and board files both open so that any changes I make are properly tracked.

A few days ago i tried opening the project again, the schematics editor launches regularly but when the board editor tries to launch i get this warning message "no forward-/backannotation will be performed!" and then a text editor shows this error message:

"Error:

line 1, column 1: Start tag expected."

I've attached screen captures showing the messages in this post. Please help! I've spent way too much time on this project to re-do it from scratch!

I'm currently using Eagle 7.7.0, I thought the issue could be fixed by updating to 8.0 but I still get the same issue 😞

[edwin.robledo · Accepted solution]

Hi sanadarida,

Greatly appreciate your participation on the Autodesk EAGLE forums, really sorry for the inconvenience.  

Seems that your original board file has become corrupt or then header has been modified.  This is not a common occurrence, but we have had previous problems with drive Defrags or Antivirus scans that will corrupt the integrity of the file.  The fastest and easiest solution here is to recover from a backup, EAGLE does create 2 forms of backup and will exist in the exact directory wherever you file is located.

.b#1 to .b#9 are backups that are added every time you click on the save command, the second backup is a timed interval backup, this backup will overwrite the previous timed backup and will have the extension .b##.

Observe the time stamp of your board backup files and rename the file with the extension .brd.  

Best Regards,

Ed

Please 'accept as solution' if my reply resolves your issue.

[edwin.robledo · Accepted solution]

Hi sanadarida,

Greatly appreciate your participation on the Autodesk EAGLE forums, really sorry for the inconvenience.  

Seems that your original board file has become corrupt or then header has been modified.  This is not a common occurrence, but we have had previous problems with drive Defrags or Antivirus scans that will corrupt the integrity of the file.  The fastest and easiest solution here is to recover from a backup, EAGLE does create 2 forms of backup and will exist in the exact directory wherever you file is located.

.b#1 to .b#9 are backups that are added every time you click on the save command, the second backup is a timed interval backup, this backup will overwrite the previous timed backup and will have the extension .b##.

Observe the time stamp of your board backup files and rename the file with the extension .brd.  

Best Regards,

Ed

Please 'accept as solution' if my reply resolves your issue.

[Anonymous]

You. Are. A. Life. Saver.

Thank you so much!

[Anonymous]

You. Are. A. Life. Saver.

Thank you so much!

[Anonymous]

Hi I cant open a file it showing an error . 

But the file was not created in this computer so there is no any backup as you mentioned in the solution.

please help me in retrieving the data

Thank you so much in advance 

[Anonymous]

Hi I cant open a file it showing an error . 

But the file was not created in this computer so there is no any backup as you mentioned in the solution.

please help me in retrieving the data

Thank you so much in advance 

[edwin.robledo]

Hi surekhakc,

I hope all is well with you and thank you for participating on the forums.  What error are you getting? Nothing was attached to your post. 

Try your best to retrieved the original EAGLE file from its source. .  

Best Regards,

Ed

[edwin.robledo]

Hi surekhakc,

I hope all is well with you and thank you for participating on the forums.  What error are you getting? Nothing was attached to your post. 

Try your best to retrieved the original EAGLE file from its source. .  

Best Regards,

Ed

[Anonymous]

I have a similar problem but have no backup file.  Is there a way to override this error?

Loading D:/Jack Gallagher/Desktop/Apple/820-2523.brd ...

Error:

line 1, column 1: Start tag expected.

[Anonymous]

I have a similar problem but have no backup file.  Is there a way to override this error?

Loading D:/Jack Gallagher/Desktop/Apple/820-2523.brd ...

Error:

line 1, column 1: Start tag expected.

[jorge_garcia]

Hello aikjig,

I hope you're doing well. Unfortunately, there is no way to override that error. If it was a board originally made in EAGLE then you could try opening the file in a text editor and see if there's any human readable text. If it's not originally an EAGLE file then EAGLE won't be able to open it no matter what you do.

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[jorge_garcia]

Hello aikjig,

I hope you're doing well. Unfortunately, there is no way to override that error. If it was a board originally made in EAGLE then you could try opening the file in a text editor and see if there's any human readable text. If it's not originally an EAGLE file then EAGLE won't be able to open it no matter what you do.

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

I am getting the same issue (first the warning, then the text editor error message exactly as above). But, the .sch file I am attempting to open is from a .zip that I am getting from another website. Would this be the same problem but on their end?

[Anonymous]

I am getting the same issue (first the warning, then the text editor error message exactly as above). But, the .sch file I am attempting to open is from a .zip that I am getting from another website. Would this be the same problem but on their end?

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @Anonymous,

I hope you're doing well. If you are downloading from github make sure to download the entire repository and not just the individual schematic and board files since that will download some html into the file.

This message never involves EAGLE's own code it's a reaction to the file that it has been given. If the file isn't an EAGLE file you will get this error. Check the website and see what tool the design was made in and then go from there.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @Anonymous,

I hope you're doing well. If you are downloading from github make sure to download the entire repository and not just the individual schematic and board files since that will download some html into the file.

This message never involves EAGLE's own code it's a reaction to the file that it has been given. If the file isn't an EAGLE file you will get this error. Check the website and see what tool the design was made in and then go from there.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,