Repairing Very Important PDF Files

Report · Oct 19, 2021

I need to repair some very important PDF files that I have managed to recover from a USB ahrd drive thatw as connected to a Windows 10 PC that all of a sudden became a RAW format hard drive. So much for trusting Windows 10!!!

I now need to read these files but virtually every online or other nefarious website flooging it's so-called Repair Tool has achieved zilch. So, am seeking help here, if anyone can come with a solution that really works.

Report · Oct 19, 2021

Hi @default70bokar73sm4, I'm sorry to hear about the situation! On the USB hard drive, do the files have an expected file size? For example, a four page bank statement might be around 250KB. Do the file sizes seem reasonable for what you expect the PDF to contain? If not, it's possible they weren't fully saved or there was a read/write error when you moved them to the USB.

If you've tried all the online repair tools without success, then the files are likely corrupted. I'm assuming you tried copying one of the documents to a new directory on your main system and changing the extension from .raw to .pdf to see if the file would open normally. If the files are corrupted there might not be anything you can do to get that data back. I'm also assuming you don't have the original files that the PDFs were generated from (unless the PDF was created by saving from a URL or clipboard). Is is possible they were ever emailed to anyone or otherwise backed up?

A final thought is to see if Notepad will open the file (via right click and "open with"). You will see a lot of code mixed in with the text but it might recover some data.

Report · Oct 19, 2021

I appreciate that you are trying to help. Thanks.

a)The file sizes are what I am exepceting them to be.

b)They were fully saved onto the SATA hard drive which was on another older 4-cored 2nd Generation computer build. But because Microsoft's OS inherent Windows 10 is about as reliable and as robust as a chocolate fireguard, that PC build OS went down. Luckily, I had built a much newer 8thGeneration PC, and using a USB Docking Station tried to access the files on that Backup SATA HDD.Which worked fine for a few days until Windows 10 64-bit decided it would convert that SATA hard drive to RAW.

The 2nd paragarah of your reply, thankful as I am, clearly indicates to me that you have not quite grasped the handle of my issue. I have not converted any PDF fies with *.pdf extensions to *.raw extensions !! The whole SATA hard drive got changed to RAW by Windows 10. Follow now?

I'll try your final paragraph. Thanks for that suggestion.

Report · Oct 19, 2021

When you open the file in Notepad, what's the first line you see in it?

Report · Oct 19, 2021

Tried opening it with Notepad and all I got was more than a pageful of gobbledygook characters that made absolutely no sense at all

Report · Oct 19, 2021

You can't really extract any meaningful info from a PDF file (if that's what it is) by viewing it in a plain-text editor. However, you can check what type of file it is (sometimes). So what's the first line you see?

If it's not something like this, then it's not a PDF file at all:

%PDF-1.4

Report · Oct 19, 2021

Forgot to say at the very outset, as it has only just struck me. Apologies.

These were old DIY magazines that I wanted to get rid off, so scanned the relevant pages I wanted to retain as jpg images, which I then converted them to PDFs as I never foresaw Windows 10 going belly-up!

Just re-checked using Notepad. That %PDF-1.4 does not show