EAF file wiped blank

ELAN
1

I was working a file with linked audio and video over several days, saved multiple times. Recently my windows computer froze and was unresponsive. I had to do a manual restart, I had the 1-minute auto back-up enabled in the eaf file so I didn’t think this would be an issue.

I opened ELAN today went to ‘open recent file’ to find that it had ‘forgot’ the location where I keep my eaf files, indeed it seemed to have reverted to the default location where elan is installed or something. I pointed it to my filed and opened it. It opened without any problems but was completely blank. No associated media, no tiers, no annotations, nothing.

I looked into the pfsx file and it was empty of the file specific data as well.

I opened the log and got the following:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Checking file: D:\SayMore\NPK other material\Sessions\GP1_data_reel\qvz_SFHT_data.eaf

++ Start of XML validation by SAXParser

Fatal parsing error: Content is not allowed in prolog.
Parse problem - SAXException: Content is not allowed in prolog.
Checking contents of the EAF file
++ Start of Tier Types (a.k.a. Linguistic Types)
– End of Tier Types
++ Start of Tiers
– End of Tiers
++ Start of Controlled Vocabularies
– End of Controlled Vocabularies
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I tried the ‘validate eaf’ option in the file menu but it returned a similar message about the fatal parsing error.

What happened here? And it is possible to recover my data?

2

I forgot to mention, the back-up file is empty as well

3

It sounds like the file is damaged because of the crash, maybe ELAN was in the process of saving when the crash occurred? The “fatal parsing error” may suggest that the contents really is gone, but maybe it’s just a damage at the beginning of the file and the real contents is still there (but currently unreachable). If the file is only a few Kb in the Windows explorer, it is probably really empty, otherwise you can send it to me and I can try to see if anything can be recovered (han.sloetjes AT mpi.nl).
Do you have recent backups on another drive (so apart from the ELAN managed backup file(s))?

4

It’s a 159kb, so I think there’s something in there. I tried opening it with Notepad++ but it was a just a bunch of NULL symbols, I tried opening it in XML notepad but that didn’t work either. I will send it to you.

5

a final reply just in case anyone comes across this post in the future. The file was damaged beyond recovery and data was lost, even in the auto back-up. Luckily, I had backed up the file a few days before in separate location so not not all data was lost.