Entire directory of shapefiles suddenly unopenable

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11-03-2014 05:06 PM
NathanPavlovic2
New Contributor

I've run into a strange problem with all of the shapefiles in a particular directory. Last week, I was able to access the files with no issues. This week, I tried adding one of the shapefiles in ArcGIS 10.2.2 (in Windows 8), and received the error "Open Failed: Error opening feature class" and "Warning: Could not add the specified data object to the map." Shapefiles stored in other locations load with no issues. Normally, I would assume that this was some sort of corruption of the shapefiles, but the modified dates on all of the files are listed as about a year ago, and even the shapefiles in this directory that I haven't opened in a year are affected.

 

I've tried the shapefile repair tool (Shapefile Repair Tool) and it throws an error stating that the file is in use by some other program. But I restarted and opened no GIS software, and then ran Unlocker (UNLOCKER 1.9.2 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB) on the file, and it still gives the same error. I'm not able to open the files in QGIS either. I also tried copying the whole directory to a new location, and that did nothing to help.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? Can anyone suggest anything else to try here? Thanks!

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4 Replies
MarkChilcott
Occasional Contributor III
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NathanPavlovic2
New Contributor

Hi Mark,

This patch won't install on my machine - it says that the wrong version of the software is installed. Should this patch also apply to 10.2.2, or only 10.2?

Thanks,
Nathan

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

could be anything, if you did nothing else like moving files etc.  It may be a bad sector on your hard drive, I would explore disk recover tools as an option

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NathanPavlovic2
New Contributor

Hi Dan,

Ok, that makes some sense to me. The strange thing is that the other file types in the same folders (databases, pdfs, spreadsheets) seem to work fine. I'll try running chkdsk and see what happens, though. Thanks!

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