Thank you to all of those who helped. In the end I have exactly what I need. All I did was to edit the file on Vista with Microsoft Word 2007 on Vista and deleted out the big unprintable section and then loaded that into PAF. There were a few errors but nor that many from PAF - and as it happened I got everything that I was interested in. One happy girl here! LOL AliPS: When I tried to edit on Windows XP it took too long so I killed it. For some reason Microsoft have made Word work better on Vista (I think or there is some other reason). > From: thomasw208@comcast.net> To: gen-comp-tips@rootsweb.com> Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:18:13 -0400> Subject: Re: [GEN-COMP-TIPS] Looking for a way to repair gedcom files> > http://www.mudcreeksoftware.com/> > If you can get another copy of the gedcom from your original source, the > above website has a wonderful utility for> viewing gedcoms. That way, you don't have to use PAF to open it. It is a > standalone utility.> > There is a paid version, GENViewer 1.23; there is also a free version, > GENViewer Lite 1.15, which can be found> under "Totally Free Software" at the left of the page.> > I have used GENViewer for years and am VERY pleased with it.> > Jan> > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Alison Archer" <alisonarcher@hotmail.com>> To: <gen-comp-tips@rootsweb.com>> Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 7:04 AM> Subject: [GEN-COMP-TIPS] Looking for a way to repair gedcom files> > > > Does anyone know if there is a GED file clearup or repair utility. I have > been given a very large (30 Mbytes) GED file and I would like to load this > into a new PAF file and extract the relatively small information that > interests me. Unfortunately the when I try to load it up it takes ages under > Windows XP and then PAF crashes. It takes ages from reporting the initial > errors until it actually crashes and the PC is very slow.> > When I try to load up on my work Vista laptop there are some security errors > and warns about various security things - but it does not crash. I have > opened the GED file using Microsoft Word 2007 and it looks there is a > massive amount of unprintable characters. Does anyone know of a utlity that > can get rid of the invalid things. (I am hoping that what I am interested in > is still in the rest).> > Ali> > -------------------------------------- > Having trouble with your subscription? Contact the List Admin at gen-comp-tips-admin@rootsweb.com> -------------------------------> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GEN-COMP-TIPS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Search for local singles online @ Lavalife http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Flavalife9%2Eninemsn%2Ecom%2Eau%2Fclickthru%2Fclickthru%2Eact%3Fid%3Dninemsn%26context%3Dan99%26locale%3Den%5FAU%26a%3D30290&_t=764581033&_r=email_taglines_Search_OCT07&_m=EXT

A GEDCOM file usually starts out with a few lines of source information, which should tell you what program created the GEDCOM file. Then there is a GEDC version number and a CHAR type. I understand you have the data extracted now, but I am curious as to what program created this kind of a problem. I wonder if the unreadable/unprintable section could be some sort of an embedded graphic. (I don't know if anyone tries to put graphics in GEDCOM files though.) Alfred D. Eller http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~adelr/index.htm ======================================= Alison Archer wrote: > Thank you to all of those who helped. In the end I have exactly what I need. > > All I did was to edit the file on Vista with Microsoft Word 2007 on Vista and deleted out the big unprintable section and then loaded that into PAF. There were a few errors but nor that many from PAF - and as it happened I got everything that I was interested in. One happy girl here! LOL > > AliPS: When I tried to edit on Windows XP it took too long so I killed it. For some reason Microsoft have made Word work better on Vista (I think or there is some other reason). > > > > >