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Need Help URGENT help needed!

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Phil Swanson

Premium Subscriber
I am finding dozens of Flexi files that are saying "File Format is not supported" on many of my flash drives.
I don't know why this is happening.

These files contain hundreds of hours worth of work. I am panicking over this as I am going to need some of these files soon. Seems very random, some newer files and some old files.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Is there ANY WAY to get these files to open?
 
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Phil Swanson

Premium Subscriber
These are (.fs) files. Flexi Sign files that have only Flexi fonts in them.
I have shut the computer down and restarted, no difference. The files on some flash drives won't open.
 
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bannertime

Active Member
The file looks corrupted when compared to a clean file that I created. Hard to say. I'd need you to send a new file with just a single shape so I can compare the two.
 
timgo

timgo

Graphics Designer
Phil Swanson said:
I am finding dozens of Flexi files that are saying "File Format is not supported" on many of my flash drives.
I don't know why this is happening.

These files contain hundreds of hours worth of work. I am panicking over this as I am going to need some of these files soon. Seems very random, some newer files and some old files.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Is there ANY WAY to get these files to open?
Click to expand...


Try it in another PC with FlexiSIGN to open the files. If it goes well then there is something wrong with your FlexiSIGN software.

Uninstall the FlexiSIGN software and reinstall it (clean install).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ddarlak

ddarlak

Go Bills!
have you run a memory check on your flash drives? how old are they? they don't last forever, have you used them a lot?
 
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Phil Swanson

Premium Subscriber
So upon further investigating I've found that only 2 ( of 9 ) of my flash drives have some of these files that won't open. Total of 18 files on my hard drive won't open.

Right now I am concerned that I might have something that may effect other files on my hard drive and I may loose more files one by one. ( don't know if that a possibility )

My plan is to copy all of my GOOD files from my hard drive on to a new flash drive and then delete all of the files in Flexi. Then reload the good files off of the new flash drive. ( also doing a full virus scan ) Then deleting the files that won't open off of the flash drives also.

I'm praying that I have backup copy's of the bad files on the other flash drives.

Any other suggestions on how to deal with this? My biggest fear is that I will continue to loose files.
 
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Phil Swanson

Premium Subscriber
ddarlak said:
have you run a memory check on your flash drives? how old are they? they don't last forever, have you used them a lot?
Click to expand...

No I haven't a memory check..? Not sure what you mean by that. Yes some have been used a lot. Some are nearly full and are getting old.
Should I be replacing them after xx years?
 
Modern Ink Signs

Modern Ink Signs

Premium Subscriber
You might want to look at getting (2) Synology drives. This way you can save all your files locally and also have a backup off site. I have 1 at my shop and 1 at home

I switched to this a few months back after my Drobo took a dump and we ended up loosing some files. Likely nothing truly important. Just pics of completed projects.
 
ddarlak

ddarlak

Go Bills!
eHow says flash drives can last up to ten years, but as mentioned on NYTimes.com,flash memory doesn't usually degrade because of its age, but rather because of the number of write cycles, which means the more you delete and write new information, the more quickly the memory in the device will start to degrade

per Google
 
G-Rex

G-Rex

New Member
The best way to archive data is to use M-Discs. They are more cost efficient and reliable than any other option.
They have a Blu-ray version that can hold 25GB 50GB or 100GB. Lasts for 1000 years.
 
fuzzy_cam

fuzzy_cam

The Granbury Wrap & Sign Guy
I'm stopping in to put in my 2 cents on the on-site storage + backup solution. We've got a 2-Bay Synology NAS on-site with 2x 4TB Drives that mirror each other (RAID 1, in case one HDD fails the other has the same copy of data). The NAS also backs up to Google Drive the instant a file is saved to it. We pay $10/mo for 2TB of Google Drive Cloud Storage... cause like many others we can't put a price on our files.

I also have a 4-Bay Synology at home with 4x 3TB Drives in RAID 5 (one drive can fail without losing any data, replace the drive and the NAS will rebuild the storage array). I utilize Google Drive to sync our work files to home so there are literally always 3 up-to-date copies of our files. I also sometimes make a physical backup with an external drive, too. If you have important data you can't lose, don't have just one copy of it.

Hope it helps.

EDIT: If OP has any questions about setting this up, feel free to reach out me via PM and I will give you my email.
 
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Stacey K

Stacey K

I like making signs
I use OneDrive (cloud) to save all my files once I have closed the job ticket out, also all my forms, spreadsheets, job tickets - everything. I once used an external hard drive and it died and I lost everything, never again. As long as Microsoft doesn't get hacked by the Russians and delete all my files, I feel pretty confident about using the cloud. Your issue may not be with the flash drives but for ease of use and peace of mind consider switching to a cloud based system instead.

The pros are that I can access the files anywhere, work, home, phone. The con is I need an internet connection...fortunately it's rare that I lose my internet connection.
 
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Reveal1

New Member
I second CamTX; any backup plan should include a local backup (such as CamTX s mirrored drive) and an off-site solution (such as Google Drive or Stacey K's OneDrive)

I also use a Synology with mirrored drives but also use both OneDrive AND Backblaze which also backs up my other three computers. Call me paranoid but I will never lose my business' most valuable asset.
 
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Reveal1

New Member
Another thought - we too use Flexi for production and some simple design, but mostly import PDF's created in AI. If we only used Flexi, I would be tempted to save a copy of every file as a PDF which is a more universal file format.
 
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