Re: unexpected end-of-file encountered

From: Tim Au Yeung (ytau@UCALGARY.CA)
Date: Tue Sep 04 2001 - 17:05:56 CDT

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    Message-Id: <200109042208.f84M87b02704@sitelicense.arizona.edu>
    Date:         Tue, 4 Sep 2001 16:05:56 -0600
    From: Tim Au Yeung <mailto:ytau@UCALGARY.CA>
    Subject:      Re: unexpected end-of-file encountered
    To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
    

    <pre> I've run into it many times -- the problem lies in the size of the files. Usually this isn't a problem on smaller files but with large files, you can encounter a buffer overrun or underrun that isn't properly reported in the CD writing software -- it looks like it's written properly but it hasn't. The solution is usually to set the speed of the writer to a slower speed. Also try creating disk image prior to writing to the CD-R. However, always stay at 2x and above; I've seen some lit. suggesting that the current CD-Rs don't write well at 1x. As well, there's the typical suggestions for improving CD-writing performance such as not running anything in the background like antivirus during the write, defragmenting the hard drive, not writing across a network, etc.

    Another problem is in bad bits; if the bad bits aren't that substantial, Photoshop can sometimes recover but large portions of bad bits can cause a file to go south.

    A technique I use to ensure good CD writes is to generate a CRC-32 value for images prior to writing to CD; once written I generate a CRC value on the files on CD -- a quick comparison of the two shows if the write is successful. It's worked like a charm; I once did a write that had a couple files with wildly different CRCs. I opened up the CD and the hard drive versions and they both looked fine at first gloss. After a fair bit of searching, I was able to identify 6 pixels that had dropped out due to bad bits.

    Also Photoshop is very finicky about properly written file formats; if you do need to try to recover a corrupted file, try one of the file conversion utilities. I've generally had better luck with things like Irfan View and the like than Photoshop.

    Tim
    -------------------------------- Tim Au Yeung Manager, Digitization Initiatives Information Resources (Press) University of Calgary voice: (403) 220-8975 e-mail: ytau (at) ucalgary.ca

    ----- Original Message ----- From: "Guenter Waibel" <mailto:guenter@UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU> To: <mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU> Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 3:31 PM Subject: Re: unexpected end-of-file encountered

    >
    > Hi Julie & all,
    >
    > yes, I have run into this problem before, and posted to various lists
    > (including this one), and unfortunately, nothing turned up. Then I
    > e-mailed Bruce Fraser, (co-)author of the Real World Photoshop series
    > and general digital imaging guru. He essentially said that once that
    > error occurs, there's nothing that can be done unless you want to
    > engage in some extremely time-consuming excavation of the hex code
    > itself. At that point, I wrote off the files, gave up the quest. I
    > still get e-mail from folks who find my old posts and are looking for
    > a solution to this exact same problem themselves.
    >
    > All of this to say: you're not alone, Julie (if that's any
    > consolation), but this error is bad news, and the files to my best
    > knowledge are beyond resurrection. I'd love it if somebody could
    > prove me wrong on this one, but after all the fruitless digging and
    > posting, I doubt it.
    >
    > I've lost about 120 low-res image files sitting on a server to this
    > error, and 2 high-res 100 MB tiff files. The circumstance which
    > trigger the error are still unclear, which actually is what bothers
    > me the most. The files were easily refreshed from back-up, but I'd
    > like to be able to prevent the problem from occurring in the first
    > place. I guess the story just re-inforces the same old lesson: make
    > more than one back-up.
    >
    > best,
    > Guenter
    >
    >
    > At 1:14 PM -0500 9/4/01, Julie Dees wrote:
    > >I have run into a problem with some PC-format, RGB TIFFs I have been
    > >trying to back up to CD-ROM using Adaptec's Easy CD Creator 4.05. Ten of
    > >the thirteen images copy fine and can be opened in Photoshop 5.5 (the
    > >same program I used to create and save the original images) with no
    > >trouble. Three images can't be opened from the CD and give me an
    > >"unexpected end-of-file encountered" error message. I can open the hard
    > >drive and server copies of these three TIFFs with no trouble, but the
    > >three times I have tried to copy the thirteen images to CD I have
    > >received the same error message on the same three images. What could be
    > >causing the problem? Has anyone run into this before?
    > >
    > >Many thanks in advance for your assistance,
    > >Julie Dees
    > >Archival Reformatting Unit
    > >Mississippi Department of Archives and History
    >
    > --
    > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    > Guenter Waibel
    > Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
    > Digital Media Developer http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/
    > Digital Imaging SIG Chair, MCN http://www.mcn.edu/visig_subscribe.taf
    > mailto:guenter@uclink4.berkeley.edu
    > Phone 510-643-8655
    > Fax 510-642-4889
    > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    >

    </pre>



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