Crazy, crazy, PDF files

I have an important PDF file that went bad, is unopenable and has the attribute of 0 bytes. I know from reading and experience that zero bytes does not necessarily mean that there is nothing there.

I also have an ink version of the same file in a temporary file folder.

I tried one of the PDF repair programs, and it could not read it. It was made with Microsoft print to PDF, which I frequently use, but now which I have second thoughts about.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to reconstitute this file? Again, there are many programs in the marketplace that purport to do this.

Thanks

 

If it's 0 KB that means it was probably the shortcut to the file not the file itself.

Install Everything search, then in the search, type *.pdf to see all the PDF files on your computers quickly, you might be able to spot it.

 

Well, I think it's still a matter of a damaged file, and I must add that there are references on the Internet to damage PDFs, some with the 0 byte error. That's the last time I use Microsoft print to PDF, rather than Adobe.

So I'm still looking for some approach to possibly reconstituting these files, though the two trial programs I've tried so far didn't work. But Search Everything is a great tool, much cleaner and faster than WiseJetSearch which I've been using.

The PDF was of a webpage on a specific date, which happened to be May 12th. I did a cached webpage search, and both the Google archive, and the larger Internet archive only show as recently as May 2. Does this mean there are no cavhed pages since then, or just that the cached pages begin to show up every 15 days, which I read somewhere.

Thanks for your help.
h

 

If you right click on the file, do you see an option in the right click context menu which says "restore previous version"

 

I did try that initially, but there are no previous versions and the restore option is unavailable.

When I went to do an archived cached web page search I got this "Saved 10 times between January 17, 2021 and May 2, 2021." Does that mean that's it for that webpage, or will cached webpages for later dates in May show up eventually?

 

Dunno what happened there man, the last thing I would think if is to try a system restore. It might magically bring back that actual uncorrupted PDF.

 

System restores create their own problems occasionally, it wouldn't be worth it just for that one file.

Quite a mystery.

 

Open the file in notepad++, if no content shows up then 0 kb is correct, nothing left in there, it's only a filename.

About the possibility of something useful hiding in system restore, 1st make a disk image of current situation (macrium reflect or other reliable tool one may trust 100%), then do a system restore, with luck the file pops up, save it to some hd\usb, then restore the reflect image.

About search, nothing beats this one (imo) > https://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/

 

I'm beginning to think the file has zero content after reading about some of the anomalies with Microsoft print to PDF. Apparently there is a switch in the program for allowing special characters, and if the webpage had special characters and the switch is off off, then it would print a blank page. Thanks Microsoft! I wonder if the program keeps its own cache of print jobs.

There is something called shadow explorer that I looked into that would allow me to search a restore image for the file, but now I think is it's a Microsoft error that's going to be a dead-end.

My only hope is that the archived cached webpages after May 2 may eventually show up. I don't understand the process of how Google or other entities schedule their cached pages. It's just odd to me that this particular page, which is an ongoing page, would stop being cached May 2. I need May 12.

Thanks to everyone who has responded.

 

Did you try the wayback machine to see if later web pages were cached. Note some web pages have a lot of JavaScript that may affect the PDF file.

 

I did try. Possiby I didn't plumb it's depths.

The other day, as I said, the last cached version was May 02. I can't imagine that they stopped cachin the pade, and I'm wondering if later dates will show up

 

Microsoft, Google and half of the world may have conspired to give problems, but what happened exactly?

Scenario: page was printed to pdf & saved to a folder of your choice. As it seemingly was very, very important, it was immediately checked for integrity by opening the file. Then, of course made a backup of it on some external device \ cloud (and it was present in regular disc image backups) in case pc went belly up. Still, the file at the end turned up as a big zero ??

 

Thank you for your scorching, relentless, and high-handed response disguised as helpfulness.

If I ever needed an example of how not to help someone, or need to feel good about myself by slamming someone else, I will certainly make reference to your diatribe.

Sometimes there are too many things pressing on a person at a given moment to do everything sensibly,
but of course that doesn't apply to you.

Typically I do all of those redundant steps, but this time I didn't. And so I turned to the good folks on this forum for help, which most every person attempted to give. Nevertheless, one thing I learned from this is not to trust Microsoft Print to PDF. This is the first time this program revealed its idiosyncratic side, which is to create an empty file if the original has any special characters. There is an option to remove this restriction, and now I know about it, but
I will use the Adobe PDF tool from now on.

 

Whoops, sorry if offended, not the purpose, not specifically meant for any person but for this topic in general. Good tips imo for anyone reading, to stay clear of mishaps. Too many too often thinking things will always work automatically, did it last time and a dozen times before that, until the day it did not.

 

So this file what was it before the pdf conversion? Where was it saved to and how did it save it? Usually 0 bytes just means it can't read the file format or that it's corrupted now and it reads as 0 bytes. But alot depends on how it was converted from and how it was saved that can figure out how to undo it - if that is possible. But from experience 0 bytes regardless is not a good sign. Only other thing is if this was saved locally a Recovery program is the only way to find if it existed to restore but if the location was local drive that was written too many times. Then recovery is next to impossible at this point.