Disaster...please help!

[kincaids]

I was working away on a report that I've been building for weeks and many of you have helped me on.  Power BI Desktop crashed and upon restarting the program, I had the AutoBackup ribbon appear.  I clicked on the button to open the backed up file.  Everything looked fine.  I went to "save as..." and selected the normal file name.  I got the warning of "this file already exists, do you want to save over it?" and I selected Yes.  The system crashed again.

Upon reopening Power BI again, I selected the file on the startup window and get this error:

What do I do?  Have I lost all of this work for good?

[abatbayar]

Did you find any way to solve this disaster? i have been in same situation. I have developed a report for one month and it is corrupted now so sad. thanks hope you reply me 

[tringuyenminh92]

Hi @kincaids,
Before having downloading pbix file from PBI service or auto recover file in PBI desktop, i used to got this situation in July or August..Could not remember. But i tried to clone the data model by zip file as @v-micsh-msft said, but it was not working. so i have to begin again:( it's so sad.

Have you ever published this file to Power BI service in this month?, if yes, it could be downloaded the previous version of that published.

[Anonymous]

Try to locate the file in the auto recovery folder:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop\AutoRecovery

Change <username> for your user. If you found the file, save with another name, or in a new location.

[kincaids]

Unfortunately, the file isn't there.  What was there was simply an "Untitled," empty file.  Any other ideas/suggestions?

[Anonymous]

In the project folder and/or autorecovery folder, try going to the folder properties and try to recover the file in the "previous versions".

[kincaids]

@Anonymous

In both locations I see this:

I'm guessing this is not a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Try to display hiden files, and see if there is any file in the folder, or in Temp folder. To more details see the event viewer from your system, and try to find out why the file corrupted.

[kincaids]

@Anonymous,

There are no hidden files in any of the folders, including the temp folder.  I've opened the Event Viewer, but I don't have the foggiest idea of what I'm looking for or how to even navigate this.  Any tips would be helpful.  Thanks for all your help to this point.

Update: upon further research, I did find this - does this help at all?  I can't tell, though, if it's the error that caused the need for me to open from my autorecovery backup, or the error in trying to save over the old file.

[alanhodgson]

Hey @kincaids,

Definitely not good, hope you can get it back.

That error is a .NET Framework error. I would recommend reinstalling the .NET Framework on your machine, make sure you are running version 4.5 or higher.

Also, just to cover all basis, I would run the System File Checker tool for your machine.

Follow instructions:

    1. Open Command Prompt (Run as Administrator)

    2. Type "sfc /scannow"

Hope this helps,

Alan

[kincaids]

@alanhodgson

This is what I'm seeing...but I don't know what it means.  Am I running the correct version of .NET based on this?  I'm on a pretty new (only a few months old) Window 10 machine.

[v-micsh-msft]

Hi kincaids,

Windows 10 by defualt have .Net Framework 4.6 installed, there is no need installing 4.5.

When you save the PBIX file, the system crashed again, not only the Power BI desktop application, right?

I saw a lot of application 1000 errors logged in your Event Viewer, are all they related with Power BI desktop?

For the PBIX file, if you are able to find the original file, then please follow the method mentioned by smoupre in the thread below, see if it would have it back:

PBIX file corrupted

"

copy the first file to a zip file. Create another new PBIX file, rename that to a zip. Go into the first zip and copy out certain files like "Data Model" and paste into your new zip folder, rename the zip to pbix and see if you can open it.

"

Or you may try to download any zip tools like WinRAR, use this to open PBIX file, then choose to repair the Archive.

For Power BI desktop, and the system, Suggestions should be:

Download Power BI desktop install package, and install it again;

For system, perform a repair with the following command under CMD with admin rights:

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Or use Windows 10 install Media to perform an upgrade install.

Hope the information above should be helpful.

Regards