PhotoImpact said it saved my file but didn't?

[lulutoo]

Hi, I was working on a digital scrapbooking page with lots of layers, saving every now and then as UFO. This was over a 90 min. time period and I probably saved 10x. The progress bar went across and so forth--no error messages. At the end, I saved one last time and then merged and saved as a png. Then I reduced the size and saved as jpg, and exited PI12. Then I wanted to change one thing, so I clicked on the filename in my recent items list (Vista). It said Windows is searching for the file. So I looked at the properties of the shortcut to make sure it was where I thought I saved the file and it was, but the file was not there. Not even any weird named files that look broken (with weird characters in the names) or anything. I did a search with Restoration (deleted file recovery) and also in DOS, but it's just not there. The file would probably be about 100mb and was saved on a drive that has no programs, only my scrapbooking layouts. I did not delete or rename the file, and the only files saved since then were the two versions right after the UFO.

So my question is what happened and is there any way to get my file back? Thanks for any ideas anyone has!

Editing to add more info: I guess the file was probably more like 200mb because that's the size of the one I did before that with the same kit. I noticed that while it's saving, the name has am extension of .#$# and it changes to .UFO when it's done. However, just lately one time it showed two of the same file with that odd name and then merged them into one when it was done saving. Another time, it kept the odd name when it was completely finished (and I refreshed explorer to make sure). So I resaved and then several seconds after the file was supposedly done saving, the name changed to UFO. So it seems like the naming/saving process was not completed with the missing file (even though PI said it was), but why not? This is awful to not be able to trust PI with my files.

[sjj1805]

Sounds like a hard drive problem, best that you check your Windows Error log which might warn you that your hard drive is on the way out. Please view Troubleshooting your computer

[lulutoo]

Thanks for the advice. I did look in there, but I didn't see anything from the time frame when the problem occurred. There wasn't much and none of it looked important, but I could take another look if you have more specific ideas on what I'm looking for and in which subcategory.

I feel that my Windows installation has become somewhat unstable (4 years old in mid August), because when I run low on memory sometimes with too many intensive applications open/not rebooting for a few days--then all of a sudden explorer will flash black and all of my task bar icons will shift to the left and the time will disappear from the right corner. Then when I try to click on a taskbar icon, it will shift back and forth, making it impossible to select the right one. If I mouse over the content of the explorer window, the items will reappear as I mouse over them, but they'll shift also. I can fix it without rebooting (and losing what I'm working on) by restarting explorer using process explorer. I did an error check on the drive (the kind that it does at boot) and it said the drive is clean after only a second. That's not at all what I was expecting it to do, but I guess Vista is different than XP.

That said, PhotoImpact has never worked that well on this computer ever since I started digiscrapping. It's just so demanding--the pages are 3600x3600 and it doesn't like that, nor the number of layers which can be easily 25 or more (some full size and some just tiny items). This is a new one, though, for it to act like it saved and not really have done so. I'm not sure, but I think that a dollar sign in a filename is a no no, so I think it did save it (badly) and the computer could not find it afterwards.

Is there anything new about the future of this PI, or is it a done deal that it's done with? I was so hoping they would come up with a way for me to save my files as psds with the blending modes, shadows (without having to go through each one and separate them), transparency, groups, etc. I have SO many pages done and as my skills improve, I like to go back and tweak them. I think I'm over 500 now.

[Ron P.]

Without knowing what your computer specs are, I'm just going to guess that your issue is more with your PC and not the program. I can't possibly see how any program on your PC can function when it behaves like that. With that said, having 25 photos open of that size, is going to demand a lot of resources, including RAM and / or a large swap-file, and a lot of free space for the working folder.

Corel does not sell or support PI any longer. They've put in on the shelf, but it is anyone's guess if they would bring it back out in the future. I wouldn't hold my breath though. Even though they do not support it, as long as you have an OS that can run PI, there's really no reason to just stop using it.

I suggest you first get your computer in order. You probably are looking at starting from scratch, reformatting the HDD, and re-installing everything. You would be surprised at how much that helps. I do it to my PC's at least once a year, sometimes more, depending on how sluggish they start acting.

[lulutoo]

Thanks for your response.

Well, they aren't really like photos, because most of them are small pngs (picture a real scrapbooking page with a little flower here and a bow there), but anyway, I have a quad processor and someone told me that my version of PI only uses one of them, so that definitely contributes to problems. Even though it's 4 years old, it had really great specs (2.4 GHz Intel Core2, 3g ram plus 4g readyboost high speed SD card) and has a newer video card (512 mb).

You're probably right that I need a new install, but with the way Microsoft doesn't give out discs anymore, and the backups they let you make don't include the updates, it would be SUCH a pain! I'll probably get a new computer within a year or maybe 6 months if I'm lucky.

One of the reasons I would like to change to PSE or PS is that there is no quick and easy way to use clipping masks in PI, unless they fixed that in X3? (My main issue is that it's hard to line up the part you want clipped--when I fill the mask with the photo, it often doesn't line up the way I expect due to the odd shape of the mask.) Also, the text paths leave a LOT to be desired in PI12--you can't make your own random ones that I know of. If you know if those two issues are improved in X3, please let me know.

Thanks for your help!