CS4 file jumped to 1.99GB

[Hayley26936093qtef]

Hi all - I know I'm using a dinosaur of CS4 14.0.0 but I don't use it often. Really just to make wedding invitations for friends. 

I've been working in a file for a bit now and have a handful of art boards in the file with no issue. I saved and closed everything out yesterday just fine. Today I turn my computer on and the file jumped to 1.99GB which is not possible. I have maybe 15-20 photos that are 3MB per photo and then rest are just wedding invitation options no don't see it being more than 250 MB total. I don't know why this happened but now my (very old) computer won't even open the file for me to restore it to the smaller version. 

Any advice to get the file back?

[Digital Halftones]

Usually when I notice an Ai file jumps up in size dramatically I go back and resave it with the "Create PDF Compatible" unchecked in the save dialog box. 

[Hayley26936093qtef]

The problem is it won't even let me open it. Do you know of a way to do that step without the file being opened? 

[CarlosCanto]

can you share the file? maybe one of us could open it and remove the images, then you could put them back into the smaller file.

[Hayley26936093qtef]

Thanks Carlos - how would you recommend I share that large of a file? This site (on my end) says 47 MB is the largest. Plus I'm not sure I'd want the file available for the entire community to see

[Hayley26936093qtef]

Additionally, I'm trying to see if I compress the file and then open if that would do anything..just grasping at straws here to not have to totally start over

[CarlosCanto]

you can upload it to google drive, OneDrive, weTransfer, or similar and post a link.

if you don't want to post the link here, send me DM with it.

[LAWRENCEcanDRAW]

If you do manage to get it open again I advice saving each one as a seperate file just to stop it happening again.

Cannot think of anything off the top of my head other than downloading a demo of the latest Illustrator just to open the file with but if your computer is really old then that might still not be the solution. I will have a think!

[Hayley26936093qtef]

Thanks so much. This puppy is from summer 2009 but she still kicks! I don't use it nearly enough to justify a new one. Trying to get through my own wedding planning and invitation design and then it'll probably be retired. Just my luck I have these issues on my own design. 

[LAWRENCEcanDRAW]

You could always go to a friend's house and sneakily download an Illustrator Demo on to their computor. haha.