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sbiese
sbiese
Participant
March 15, 2019
Answered

pdf is either not a supported file type or has been damaged

  • March 15, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 860 views

We were able to open all of our pdf files until recently. Now, we get an error when trying to open many of the files. If it helps, I viewed the file source with a text editor. A good file has some text mixed with a lot of machine code blocks. When I view the pdf files that I can't open, there is NO text. Only filled solid with machine code (or whatever you call them) blocks. Is there any chance that these files can be recovered?

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Correct answer Test Screen Name

If you have backups, use them, but otherwise this looks gone beyond repair. The first line of any PDF will start %PDF. You have two likely possibilities

* A disk failure is damaging your files. Check your system logs for failures, and check your backup plans.

* A malware attack has scrambled files. If this is confirmed it is best to scrap the system and reinstall to a newly formatted disk.

1 reply

T
Test Screen NameCorrect answer
Legend
March 15, 2019

If you have backups, use them, but otherwise this looks gone beyond repair. The first line of any PDF will start %PDF. You have two likely possibilities

* A disk failure is damaging your files. Check your system logs for failures, and check your backup plans.

* A malware attack has scrambled files. If this is confirmed it is best to scrap the system and reinstall to a newly formatted disk.

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