"Unsupported Format Variant"

[smckinley]

Haven't been able to find anything quite similar in the forums, so I'm asking this question"

Running PM 4.5.4 on a Powerbook G4, running OS 10.4.11 with 2 GB RAM.
I'm shooting Canon RAW files (.CR2) from an EOS 1D MkII.

Went back to some file from a couple years ago, which had already been edited and colour tagged (possibly in the previous version of PM). I added a colour tag to a previously untagged photo, then suddenly got a black square in PM where the thumbnail used to be and "Unsupported Format Variant". Looking at the file in Finder, I noticed that Date Modified had changed to about the time I tagged it.

I've tried to open this CR2 in Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture and Preview to no avail.

I've emailed the file to work to try it out on my desktop there, but still no joy. (Intel G5, OS 10.4.1.1, 4 GB RAM).

This is new - I've never had this problem before. The only thing that's changed on my laptop is a couple of system software udpates, which may have included a QuickTime update. But the software on the work desktop hasn't been updatd since July 18/08.

Can anyone help me recover these files? And can I prevent this from happening?

Thanks in advance.

S.

[Kirk Baker]

Haven't been able to find anything quite similar in the forums, so I'm asking this question

Running PM 4.5.4 on a Powerbook G4, running OS 10.4.11 with 2 GB RAM.
I'm shooting Canon RAW files (.CR2) from an EOS 1D MkII.

Went back to some file from a couple years ago, which had already been edited and colour tagged (possibly in the previous version of PM). I added a colour tag to a previously untagged photo, then suddenly got a black square in PM where the thumbnail used to be and "Unsupported Format Variant". Looking at the file in Finder, I noticed that Date Modified had changed to about the time I tagged it.

I've tried to open this CR2 in Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture and Preview to no avail.

I've emailed the file to work to try it out on my desktop there, but still no joy. (Intel G5, OS 10.4.1.1, 4 GB RAM).

This is new - I've never had this problem before. The only thing that's changed on my laptop is a couple of system software udpates, which may have included a QuickTime update. But the software on the work desktop hasn't been updatd since July 18/08.

Can anyone help me recover these files?

Possibly.  You could send us one file and we could look and see what has happened to it.  Please click on my name to the left of this message, then click on the 'personal message' link.  I will respond with upload instructions.

And can I prevent this from happening?

I don't know.  Until we find out the cause, we cannot tell how to prevent it from happening again.  In the meantime I suggest using the hardware test disc that came with your system to test your RAM.  It may be that some of your RAM has gone bad.

-Kirk