Older PDFs give corrupt message?

[The_Digitiser]

Hi All

Checking files in an archive I tried to open a series of PDFs that were created and saved in 2015, but when I try to open any of them I get the following message, which makes no sense as the PDFs were simply created and saved to the location and not emailed etc.  Are they dead or can they be recovered or repaired?

Many thanks

[Bernd Alheit]

Can you share a sample file?

[The_Digitiser]

Sadly no as they are in copyright.

[try67]

Are the files loaded from a local folder, or from some kind of external device (portable hard-drive, USB stick, etc.)? If the latter, try copying them to the local computer first, and then load them.

Also, try opening one of these files in a plain-text editor, like Notepad. What does the first line look like?

[The_Digitiser]

I thought they were on a local media server but it turns out they are now held in Azure. I downloaded them and tried opening them from there but I got the same message. They wouldn't open in notepad, or at least there is nothing to see. I tried photoshop to see what it made of it but it seems even photoshop dioesnt recognise them?

[try67]

They should open in Notepad. Do you not see anything when you open them there?

What are the file sizes?

[The_Digitiser]

In notepad, if I do control A and then select I get a large blue box. If I drag a small area and ctrl c and paste into a doc there is nothing to see even if i change the font colour? File sizes as shown here. I note they all show a modified date of 2022 which I think is when they were migrated to Azure and maybe they were corrupted then?

[try67]

I don't follow your description. Simply drag one of the files into a Notepad window and it should load.

You should see something like this:

The first line is what I'm after.

[The_Digitiser]

It doesn't display anything, but there is something there as shown by draginga  selection?

[try67]

Seems like the file is empty, but without seeing it I can't help any further.

[The_Digitiser]

No problem, thank you for trying. I bounced this to our IT dept and they have been able to restore them from back up.