Ubuntu
openoffice.org package

doc., pdf., and jpeg files created in windows unreadable in Ubuntu

Asked by Mikef1957

HI,

sorry about this as it is probably a "schoolboy" error on my part.

I installed Ubuntu 10.10 alongside my Windows XP installation. Once I was happy with Ubuntu I proceeded to transfer all my images, documents to DVD's (4 in all) and installed Ubuntu from scratch.

I transferred the files back into Ubuntu. The files are all there and the sizes are correct. BUT when I go to open them in their appropriate programs I get Files unreadable. In Open Office I get the choice of Character set and then just pages of small squares.

Is there any way I can resolve this issue. I would hate to have lost all the documents and images.

I tried to read the DVD's in my Windows laptop but there is no data there.

Many thanks for your great help. I hope this can be resolved as I am about to install Ubuntu on my Sony Vaio.

Kindest regards

Michael

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Revision history for this message
Tony Pursell (ajpursell) said : 		#1

Hi Michael

When you say 'Files unreadable' exactly what is the error message you get?

What applications other than OpenOffice have you tried to view the images in?

What application have you tried to open the PDFs with? Some PDFs need the latest version of Adobe Reader. This can be installed via the Ubuntu Software Centre (with Canonical Partners repository enabled)

Tony

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Mikef1957 (mikef1957) said : 		#2

Hi Tony

In Gedit a .csv, or a .txt file gives me this error

"gedit has not been able to detect the character encoding.
Please check that you are not trying to open a binary file.
Select a character encoding from the menu and try again."

In Notepad, the area is blank with "spaces" going through the whole document.

In OpenOffice Writer I get asked for the encoding and get small squares all throughout the document.

With the .pdf files I have Adobe Reader Version 9.4.2 and I am getting the error message "Un-supported or damaged file"

With .jpg files I have tried Imager Viewer and I get the error message "Error interpreting JPEG image file (Not a JPEG file: starts with 0x00 0x00)"

In Gimp I get the message "Failed. JPEG image plug-in could not open image"

The files and filsizes are there but I cannot open them. Any help would be great.

Many thanks

Michael

Revision history for this message
Tony Pursell (ajpursell) said : 		#3

Hi Mike

There seems to be some widespread corruption of the files you saved to DVD.

Do you get the same problems when you read the data direct from the DVD? If you do, there seems little that can be done about it.

Myself, I still have XP on my PC but rarely boot into it. However, the data is still easily accessible to me from the XP file system. When I get my next PC. I may only have Ubuntu, but I will just copy the data over from the NTFS file systems.

Sorry I cannot help further.

Tony

Revision history for this message
Tony Pursell (ajpursell) said : 		#4

Hi Mike

There seems to be some widespread corruption of the files you saved to DVD.

Do you get the same problems when you read the data direct from the DVD? If you do, there seems little that can be done about it.

Myself, I still have XP on my PC but rarely boot into it. However, the data is still easily accessible to me from the XP file system. When I get my next PC. I may only have Ubuntu, but I will just copy the data over from the NTFS file systems.

Sorry I cannot help further.

Tony

Revision history for this message
Mikef1957 (mikef1957) said : 		#5

Hi Tony

I guessed as much. I should have left the Windows Partition there. I have learned my lesson. Many thanks for all your help.

Kindest regards

Michael