Corrupt PSD and AI Files

I have recently had two files become un-openable over the course of a couple of months, something that I have never had the misfortune of before that. Both files were on a fairly new drive (LaCie Rugged SSD), which is connected via Thunderbolt.

As both the drive and the connection type are new to me, I'm wondering if one of these may be the cause, but that's just a stab in the dark.

Anyone here have similar problems, or any tips on avoiding corrupt files?

The files could have become corrupted if the drive was disconnected without properly ejecting the drive. Or the SSD itself could have become corrupted, but from your description it seems as though the AI or PSD files themselves are what have become corrupted regardless of hardware.

*Are these two files linked together in any way? i.e. the PSD linked as an object placed in the Illustrator doc?

Not sure if this is related, but it seems like copy/pasting a PSD file into an Illustrator document damages the AI file. The proper way to link/place PSDs is to use the file > place option, not copy/paste.

*Please give the message you are receiving when trying to open the files.

*Try opening them using the program open menu itself, rather than double clicking them in the finder.

Just some quick suggestions, report back if anything helped.

milessthomas said:

*Are these two files linked together in any way? i.e. the PSD linked as an object placed in the Illustrator doc?

Click to expand...

No, these two files are unrelated

milessthomas said:

*Please give the message you are receiving when trying to open the files.

Click to expand...

Photoshop: "Could not complete your request because the file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop."
Illustrator: "An unknown error has occurred"

milessthomas said:

*Try opening them using the program open menu itself, rather than double clicking them in the finder.

Click to expand...

I did try that at the time. One of the files I was able to recover from a backup (though this has now happened twice to this particular file). The other file I have written off as a lost days work, just wanting to avoid this continuing to happen in the future.

An update: This is continuing to happen, and still only to files on this drive. I'm pretty convinced that the problem derives from the drive somehow, whether that be the drive itself, the cable, the Thunderbolt technology..

Any suggestions what I should do from here?

LaCie does not manufacture hard drives, they only supply the case and electronics. They use hard drives from various suppliers. Having said that, did you at any time do a verify and repair of the drive using Disk Utility? Also it may be advisable to check the SMART status of the drive.

It appears from your original post back in 2013 that you're encountering file corruption. And it may be the same thing happening. The corruption cause most likely points to the drive. It's not the Thunderbolt connection and cables are easy to swap out for test.

I can't remember if I have done a verify or repair in the past, but I just did a verify and didn't get any errors. The SMART status is "Verified".

Maybe I'll try contacting LaCie..