I am trying to open a .pdf file and I am getting the message "Adobe
Reader could not open <filename> because it is either not a supported
file or because the file has been corrupted (for example, it was sent
as an email attachment and wasn't properly decoded)."  This is a file
I had burned to a DVD and then copied to my desktop.  I am using Adobe
Reader 6.0.  I would like to know if there is a .pdf file recovery
software that I can use to recover this data.  Thanks!

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 24 Jan 2005 13:00 PST

If you haven't done this already, try opening Adobe Reader first, then
opening the file from the FILE pull-down menu.  Oddly enough, it
sometimes makes a difference in being able to open a stubborn file.

Good luck....let me know if it works, and if not, we'll see if we can
come up with something else.

pafalafa-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 09 Feb 2005 09:21 PST

bmarkssvbank-ga,

Just thought I'd check in...did anything help?  Are you still stuck
with an unopenable file?

Let us know how it's going.

paf

You might want to try "Solid Converter," which can reconstruct some .pdf files:

http://www.solidpdf.com/pdf_documentation.htm#recovery

I note that you are using Adobe Reader 6.0 so I assume you do not have
the full Adobe Acrobat programme (either standard or professional
versions)installed. If you are running Windows XP or Mac OS 10.3 you
migt want to download Adobe Reader 7.0 which is now available.

If the PDF file was supplied to you by mail does that mean it was
created by someonoe else? That person may have created it using Adobe
Acrobat 7.0 and the author has enabled the "additional modifying
tools". This is a new function available in Adobe Acrobat 7 so that
anyone using the free Adobe Reader 7.0 can make small text amendments
or add annotations to the PDF.

The message given is that "because it is either not a supported
file or because the file has been corrupted". It could be a non
supported file because of these advanced options or it could be
damaged. The full Acrobat programme will try and fix damaged files
when opening them: if it can it will, if it can't then it's best to
ask the author to resupply it.

I note that you are using Adobe Reader 6.0 so can I assume you do not
have the full Adobe Acrobat programme (either the standard or the
professional version) installed. If you are running Windows XP or Mac
OS 10.3 you migt want to download Adobe Reader 7.0 which is now
available.

When Adobe launched Adobe Acrobat 7.0 in December last year they added
new functions that allow creation of a PDF in the full version
incorporating advanced modifying options that "become available" for
anyone using the free Adobe Reader 7.0. This means that I when I
create a PDF file that I only want you to read, I do not add these
options to my PDF. You receive the file, you open it with Reader and
the standard tools menu is available. If I want you to modify or
supply annotations to the PDF file, I activate these advanced options
and when opened in Reader you have not just the standard tools menu
but also the advanced modifying tools menu available.

If the PDF file was supplied to you by mail does that mean it was
created by someonoe else? Is this person within your organisation or
is he a client? Is it possible to have the PDF re-supplied?

The author may have created the PDF using Adobe Acrobat 7.0 and has
enabled these advanced modifying options. The message given is that
"because it is either not a supported file or because the file has
been corrupted". It could be a non supported file because of these
advanced options or it could be damaged. The full Acrobat programme
will try and fix damaged files when opening them: if it can it will,
if it can't then it's best to ask the author to resupply it.

Try to use one conversion software, Example: PDF to WORD
http://www.investintech.com/

Or: Easy PDF2Word Converter v2.0.3 
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/File_Maintenance_and_Repair_Utilities/Advanced_PDF2Word__PDF_to_RTF_.html

Even you could try to extract the text from a PDF:
http://www.zdnet.fr/telecharger/windows/fiche/0,39021313,11010371s,00.htm
http://www.retsinasoftware.com/extract-convert-pdf-to-text.htm


Or maybe you can use an alternative PDF reader:
http://www.visagesoft.com/products/pdfreader/index.php

I recently had exactly your problem... with a PDF file I knew I hadn't
corrupted which I remember having read a few years ago.

I realised that when I was able to read the PDF document in question I
was using an earlier version of AcroRead (probably version 3,4 or 5)
whereas now I only have version 6 at my disposal. I hunted around for
a PDF recovery tool and only found this [
http://www.pdf-tools.com/shop/products.asp?pcid=REPS&lang=en ] With no
demonstration I was extremely reluctant to buy this product on the off
chance it would solve my problem.

I took an alternative tack - I used a different viewer - XPDF (a
standard PDF viewer for Linux and friends) and this tool was able to
read the PDF without problems.  Spurred on by this success I used
pdf2ps to convert the PDF file from PDF format to postscript - then I
used ps2pdf to convert the postscript back into pdf.  This seemingly
pointless exercise increased the size of the PDF threefold - but,
importantly, the output from ps2pdf rendered fine in Acroread 6 - and
this solved my problem.  I can't be sure that the pdf2ps then ps2pdf
trick will work for you but I can vouch for my luck with the
technique.

The programs I used (i.e. XPDF; pdf2ps and ps2pdf) are available as
standard with most linux distributions if you have a Linux machine
handy.  Alternatively the Cygwin project includes all these tools and
runs them in a POSIX compatibility layer on top of Windows.  The whole
Cygwin toolkit is available from http://www.cygwin.com/ - run the
installer and then select the packages you require.  Be warned that
XPDF requires Xwindows functionality and while available under Cygwin
(you need to execute startx in order to initialise Xwindows from the
Cygwin shell window once it is installed) this is a laborious install
- especially over a slow internet connection.