ArcView 9.2 won’t read project file

January 16, 2007 by blog.

Last week I had the opportunity to install the latest ArcView version, 9.2. Instead of being totally excited by the new features, I found that the program occasionally corrupts its own project file, the mxd format.

The symptom is that the program will start to load the file then dissappear and display the Microsoft Crash reporter.

I read the forums about the well-known problem with no solution, applied the first patch SP1. This did not clear up the problem. I still had four files I could not edit.

The work-around solution I found to work, through trial and error, is to change the path to all the data. For networked users where all files are located on servers, I unmapped the network drive. I opened the files by accessing the network share through Windows Network Places. The project opened but without the data. Then right-click on one of the greyed entries in the Table of Contents, go to Data, and remap the data by going through Windows Network Places. Usually remapping an entry will remap all of the entries, but make sure all layers are remapped in the manner. Then use the Save As Copy to store the project. This is very important, Save and Save As write a corrupt file. Restore the normal drive mappings. Now you can keep working until ESRI issues a patch to this debilitating “feature”.

I completed this by logging in to the network as another user, completeing the task, then logging back in as myself. Users with data on their local harddrive will have to rename the folders that contain data and projects, then changing them back.

This seems to be limited to projects that began in 9.1 and might have already been edited once in 9.2.

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