Can't open the illustration could not complete the requested operation

Question

I have a really big problem with an illustrator file which i can't open. As the file was saved Adobe Illustrator unexpected closed
down during the saving process which damaged the file. The corrupted file size is still big (368mb) and if i open the file through Bridge i can get
the information about fonts, used colors etc… I've tried many different solutions, as open it with Acrobat, Photoshop, Indesign,
open it with earlier versions of these programs and placing it in illustrator but without any success… the file has been work on for
50h+ so im really desperate to find some way of repair it. I read some similar problem on different forums without finding any solution…
Is there anyone who can help me somehow to try to repair this file?
If it's possible i would really appreciate it
Regards

Answer 1

Steve,
You may try this:
A) Safeguarding:
Save a copy of the file under another name.
B) Preparation:
1) Quit Illy;
2) Find and open the aiprefs file; you can see instructions in the Working with the AIPrefs file here: http://www.bugge.com/Family-and-friends/Illy/illy.html
3) In the aiprefs file, find "enable content recovery" and set the value to 1 (instead of 0);
4) Save the aiprefs file without changing its name;
5) Open Illy;
6) Create an empty document.
C) Creation of text files to work with:
1) File>Open;
2) Select the corrupted file, and Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Win) or Cmd+Option+Shift (Mac) when opening it;
3) Close without saving;
4) Repeat 1) - 3) for the empty document.
The two files will have an underscore added before the names.
D) Repair:
1) Open each of the underscored files in a text editor such as Notepad;
2) Delete anything in the corrupted file that looks like the contents of the empty document;
3) Copy the remaining parts into the empty document and save it under a new name;
4) Open the hopefully repaired document.
I hope this is enough. Midnight is near.
Please report back.