This morning, I encountered a problem with my hard drive (Mac: question mark flashing on a folder when I opened up). I called Apple and got the computer running but I can’t seem to open any of my Scrivener files…particularly the novel I’ve been working on.
I have a Time Machine back up from about a week ago but I’ve done a fair amount of work since the back up. When I try and open Scrivener, it says “synchronizing search strings” and then that box simply disappears. I can create a new file but not open the closed file.
Any advice? I’m having what they call—a hairy conniption.
What happens if you select one of the projects and press Cmd-I? Does the file size look roughly in the ballpark? If so, you could right-click on it and opt to view package contents. You should see a ton of files, mostly RTFD and text files. That would be the contents of your book. Search for a file called ‘ui.xml’ and delete it (don’t worry, it doesn’t have anything vital to your project in it). Then start up Scrivener and try to load it again. You’ll get a warning message and you’ll lose your window positions (split screen and all that), but it might fix what is happening.
Out of curiosity, did Apple say what was wrong with the drive?
I hope so too! Generally, that flashing question mark is not a very good sign though. It can be minor, but most often it means the disk is failing. Best of luck.