Something CHANGED my jpg to #$#

[artdeals]

Hello to everyone here. I am new and just found this message board. I have Photoimpact 5 Bundled Edition and something very strange happened to me. I framed a jpg I had and saved it as a jpg under another name. When I looked for it the file had been changed to a .#$# file. I cannot find information about this kind of file but when I scanned it with Norton Antivirus it scanned 93 files from the one file. I don't get it. What might have happened? I am not real technical so please help!

[Bobm03]

Creation of a *.#$# file happens to me when I'm saving a number of similiar files with very slight changes in rapid succession (e.g., Image01, Image02, Image 03, etc.). I'm using PI 10 in a Windows XP SP2 environment. It is an annoying glitch, but all I do is rename the file, changing the "#$#" to "jpg." I make the change using either Windows Explorer or ULead's PhotoExplorer.

[artdeals]

That's interesting. I'll have to try it. Another thing happened also. I went to open up one of the files I saved as a jpg and internet explorer wouldn't allow me to open it giving me a warning about some sort of security issue. I decided to delete the file just in case there was something wrong with it.

[Kimberly]

Question: When you get the .#?# file extension after saving a file, does it also render your file size to 0 bytes? I had this problem with versions 7 and 8 of PhotoImpact (the trial versions), and although I submitted the problem to tech support, a solution was never found. I can't remember if I tried changing the extension back to .jpg, but my file was ultimately ruined, and I had to delete it. It seemed that by saving the file, the file became corrupted and was unusable. It always happened after saving the file the second time. This "glitch" apparently happened to very few people (I came across only a couple documented cases, with no solutions), and it only occured on my old laptop (which wasn't old at the time). I recently tried the trial version of PI 10 on my newer laptop, and the files saved just fine. I purchased the full version and it has also been saving files without a problem.

However, the file extension/corruption problem was a very frustrating one for me, and caused me to stop using PI for a long time, following version 6 (which was my last registered version before my recent purchase of ver. 10). I'm glad I'm back on board with PI, as it's always been one of my favorite programs.

[artdeals]

Kimberly, I didn't notice if the files were 0 bytes or not but yes it was frustrating although it didn't happen too often so far. Sometimes I just started over with editing the original photos I took with my digital cam and then it worked OK the 2nd time.

Totally, I really love the Photoimpact program. So much can be done with it even though some of my files have disappeared. I've been trying to remember to save any important files on a CD. I've not tried any other programs that have so much to offer but only some real simple ones.

[VT Photog]

I have had this happen since PI version 4.2 on occasion. It generally has only happened when opening a file from Photo Explorer, editing in PI, and then saving. What I have found, is that the .jpg file is there, but with a file size of zero, and the new file has the .#?# extension. Usually I can hear the difference in how the hard drive sounds when it is doing disk access. If I am aware of it, I just save a second time, and all is well. Otherwise, I use Windows explorer to delete the 0byte .jpg and rename the extension on the .#?# back to .jpg, and go on from there.

I think, though I am not sure, that what is happening is that when the image is changed, and the file size changes, it doesn't fit the same physical block on the drive. This confuses things when Photo Explorer and PhotoImpact are both open (but only sometimes). If the .#?# extension is something that PI uses internally for temp storage, it saves it instead of the .jpg , leaving an empty .jpg file marker. Saving a second time overwrites the markers.

brian

[2log]

this happens just once in a blue moon... just rename the file and replace #$# with jpg...

Better not make it a big deal... might just drive you crazy...