Unrecoverable InDesign crash on MS-DOS external

[pjny]

Hi,

A relative lost an InDesign document after the program crashed on iMac 27 2014 with Yosemite.

I discovered she had document and associated files on a 2tb external drive that was MS-DOS formatted(i think it said FAT32). I know that there are some issues with permissions etc. with Mac on MS-DOS drives and this can be catastrophic if there is an app crash. Also there were strange date creation times such as Dec. 1969.

I installed a trial version of Paragon NTFS. Would this help her work on her InDesign documents while she orders a drive that can be formatted Journaled.
Not sure if Paragon NTFS applies to MS-DOS formatted drives.

What could have caused this irrecoverable error and is there any way to recover three-days of work from the InDesign document?

Thanks.

 

[monokakata]

Considering it's a FAT32 drive, you might as well try to work with it in Windows, if you can.

I'd suggest that you get some Windows recovery software, connect that drive to a Windows PC, and see what you can recover. When I was in the Windows world I used Gibson Spinrite -- don't know if that's still out there, or whether there are others as good or better.

Although you shouldn't do it until you've exhausted all recovery remedies, you should be able to format that drive for Mac when you're ready to. Unless she has to share that drive with Windows users, there's no reason not to make it a Mac drive, and thus no reason for Paragon.

 

[pjny]

Thanks. She just said the Indesign crashed and she couldn't recover the files. I am not there anymore but would like to find a temporary solution till she can order a new drive.

Do you know why InDesign might be incompatible with FAT32 and why app crashes can lead to lost data? She worked with ID with Windows but just got the iMac recently and said that didn't happen.

Thanks.

Considering it's a FAT32 drive, you might as well try to work with it in Windows, if you can.

I'd suggest that you get some Windows recovery software, connect that drive to a Windows PC, and see what you can recover. When I was in the Windows world I used Gibson Spinrite -- don't know if that's still out there, or whether there are others as good or better.

Although you shouldn't do it until you've exhausted all recovery remedies, you should be able to format that drive for Mac when you're ready to. Unless she has to share that drive with Windows users, there's no reason not to make it a Mac drive, and thus no reason for Paragon.

 

[MisterMe]

Thanks. She just said the Indesign crashed and she couldn't recover the files. I am not there anymore but would like to find a temporary solution till she can order a new drive.

Do you know why InDesign might be incompatible with FAT32 and why app crashes can lead to lost data? She worked with ID with Windows but just got the iMac recently and said that didn't happen.

Thanks.

Based on your post, we know three things:

1. Your relative was using InDesign on her Mac when it crashed.
2. Her data were stored on a FAT32-formatted external drive.
3. Your relative does not know how to recover her data.

And yes, your relative is new to Macs.

To the suggestion above to use Paragon NTFS, understand that Paragon NTFS is a NTFS driver for the Mac. It is the best such driver. NTFS has nothing to do with FAT32 and will not help your relative in this situation. If her external drive is not recoverable, then she may use Paragon NTFS is format the drive as NTFS. Then she may read and write to the drive from virtually and Windows computer or any Mac with a third-party NTFS driver.

I am struck by the fact that your relative was using a 2 TB drive formatted as FAT32. This capacity is way outside the design envelope of FAT32. NTFS will handle this capacity without issue, but NTFS requires a third-party NTFS driver to be fully operational on a Mac. My guess is that your relative never had a problem with InDesign on Windows is because she was using a NTFS-formatted drive.

There is another alternative--that I personally do not recommend. Microsoft provides exFAT as a free file system to handle high-capacity drives in a cross-platform environment. It is supported by recent versions of Windows. Apple supports exFAT on OS X out-of-the-box.

I prefer NTFS over exFAT due to some exFAT design compromises.

 

[monokakata]

OP, what's the status these days?

I fired up InDesign CC, opened a couple of projects, and saved them to a USB drive formatted FAT32. Force quit InDesign, did other things except, now that I think about it, yanking out the USB drive when InDesign was connected (nothing useful was on the drive).

Has she tried to recover her files, using Windows apps? I don't think she should give up until she's done that.