Alfred, When I look at the file it does load about 1599 individuals correctly ... and it crashes leaving the PAF in an OK ish state but not the tree I want to get to.... So I assumed it was GED. but thanks for your help anyway.Ali > Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:32:41 -0500> From: adeller@santel.net> To: gen-comp-tips@rootsweb.com> Subject: Re: [GEN-COMP-TIPS] Looking for a way to repair gedcom files> > If it has massive amounts of unprintable characters in it then it is not > a GEDCOM file.> It may have the GED extension, but it sure doesn't sound like it is a > GEDCOM file.> > A GEDCOM file is plain ASCII text, readable with wordPad or any text editor.> > Alfred D. Eller> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~adelr/index.htm> =======================================> > > Alison Archer wrote:> > > > 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 _________________________________________________________________ It's simple! Sell your car for just $30 at CarPoint.com.au http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fsecure%2Dau%2Eimrworldwide%2Ecom%2Fcgi%2Dbin%2Fa%2Fci%5F450304%2Fet%5F2%2Fcg%5F801459%2Fpi%5F1004813%2Fai%5F859641&_t=762955845&_r=tig_OCT07&_m=EXT