Photoshop CS Help Please – Can’t open PSD file

quivertip · February 15th, 2005, 11:58 AM

A few months ago I created a Photoshop PSD file is Photoshop CS of 25.9mb. I was able to open it at that time. Yesterday I tried to open it and received this message:

Could not complete your request because it is not a valid Photoshop document.

I use Windows XP Home with Service Pack 1.

I have enabled large document format (.psb) in preferences just in case that was the cause but this did not help.

I have tried the file from my back up but with no luck.

I’ve tried to open it on another PC in CS but with no luck.

Hope someone can help.

This is the first time I've sought help on a forum, I hope I've done everything properly.

cryptoguy · February 15th, 2005, 05:02 PM

Maybe the file was somehow damaged while you were working on it. Sorry, can't provide a solution

OuTpaTienT · February 15th, 2005, 09:13 PM

If you don't already have it, download and install Irfanview (a freeware image utility). Then drag 'n drop your psd file onto an Irvanview window. If the file is not actually a psd file but instead maybe a tif file with an incorrect psd extension then Irfanview will tell you this.

This is the only reason I can think of that Photoshop will not open a file. And believe it or not saving a psd with a tif extension or a tif with a psd extension is a more common mistake than you would think.

quivertip · February 16th, 2005, 03:58 AM

Thanks OuTpaTienT, I tried Infraview but received the message:

Can't read file header !
Unknown file format

If the file is corrupted is there anything I can do to recover it? It seems strange the back up would have corrupted too though.

OuTpaTienT · February 16th, 2005, 12:53 PM

How large is the file? I'd be willing to check it out and see if there's any way to save it. I make no promises.

quivertip · February 16th, 2005, 02:59 PM

Ho OuTpaTienT

The file size is 25.9mb. I have uploaded the file to http://www.tuestunim.com/Stuff/ so you can download it if you want to try & check it for me.

The file name is:

911 Drawing.psd

I’ve also uploaded a JPG copy of 1.35mb for reference.

You probably already know this, but just in case, just right click on the file from the above link then chose save target as and save to a temporary file on your PC.

The PSD file is made up of lots of layers for all the various elements of the image, e.g. the car’s body is one or may be 2 layers, each of the car’s decals are a layer of their own, the wheels are another layer, etc.

I hope you are able to upload it OK. Any help you can give is very much appreciated as the idea is to be able to change the look of the car easily, e.g. change the door number, decals, etc.

Kind regards

Roy

Cyclone2 · February 16th, 2005, 07:36 PM

Wow, I hope Out had more luck than me................ open with notepad and its 25 meg of nothing
Photoshop and Illustrator wont do anything with it

OuTpaTienT · February 16th, 2005, 07:50 PM

Well I've spent a little time on it and it's not looking very promising. It's unfortunate because that a awesome piece of work there. I did find a number of utilities that claimed to be capable of recovering Photoshop files, but haven't been successful with any of them yet. Here's those utilites:

http://www.officerecovery.com/photoshop/

http://www.lc-tech.co.uk/PHOTORECOVERY.htm

http://www.sharewareconnection.com/oo-diskrecovery.htm

http://www.winhex.com/davory/index-m.html

Wish I could do more for ya. Good luck. And if you do have any success with even a partial recovery please let us know how you went about it. It may save someone else the headache and heartache of losing an important document.

jamescatania · August 3rd, 2006, 08:30 AM

I have the same exact problem and I need help !

I was workign on a prototype visual for a website, and Last time I worked on it fine and It closed normally and everything. I had a backup of this file aswell

When I went to open it today, it is saying , "Could not complete your request because the file is an invalid photoshop format", I said, ok, let's open the backup and its the same thing,

I downloaded IfnaView and its saying incomplete header.

I don't even have a JPEG reference file !!!, All i need is to extract even a screenshot so I can re-create the file.

If I don't I will have to re-design a compelte new prototype.

eskarina · December 8th, 2006, 08:09 PM

I had the same problem. try this: open photoshop, then go to "file" > "open as". select your psd-file, but then change the file-type to jpeg. (choose "open as" >jpeg).

for some reason probably, photoshop saved the document as a jpeg in my case, but named it as a psd. maybe it's the same problem in your case.