PDF Form Data Lost?

[billencar@adobeforums.com]

I have several Form Field PDFs that were filled out with various information over the last several years. Just recently, I transferred some of these files to another drive for disk space purposes. I now find that most of these files are missing the information that was filled out. This is very traumatic as these are important to me. Any ideas?

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

Form data is stored INSIDE the PDF - so if you transferred the PDF, then you also transferred whatever data was in it.

I recommend you check the original computer/disk - you will find that the info wasn't there either :(.

Where did it go? I don't know, since I don't know how you originally entered the data, what's been done to the PDFs since, etc....

[billencar@adobeforums.com]

Thank you for the reply. I'm running version 6.0 (yes, I know it's old). I opened the same files on another PC to find that the information was not lost as originally thought.
Do you have any ideas as to what in Acrobat may have been changed on my desktop PC to not allow the viewing of the data?
Should I re-install the program? Is there a "repair" program option?

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

Are you running version 6 on both computers? If you click in one of the fields, does the information appear?

[billencar@adobeforums.com]

Version 6 is on both computers.

No, the fields do not respond to any action while in the Form Field mode.

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

What do you mean they "do not respond to any action"? That sounds like they aren't actual forms...

Can you post one that demonstrates the problem?

Also, have you tried downloading newer versions of Adobe Reader to see what it displays>?

[billencar@adobeforums.com]

While in the Form Field mode, the fields do not respond to left or right clicks. They are identified as form fields, but that is all. They can not be manipulated. I've verified that the security is off.

If I posted one of the files, I am confident that it would show as a "filled" form as it does on my laptop.

I have not tried to download newer versions of the reader. Before I do that, I may try to re-install the original 6.0 Pro program.

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

That sounds like the fields were "flattened" - eg, that the actual field was remove and only the data was left...

[Unregistered]

Please try this

Put in a blank CD and, with file explorer, open up the CD drive.

Attempt to copy the pdf file to the CD.

Look for this error message:
The file "........" has extra information attached to it that might be lost if you continue copying.
The contents of the file will not be affected. Do you want to copy the file anyway?


I suspect that pdf uses some sort of end-of-file marker to separate data added to the form from the original form.

I'm trying CYGwin and using tar to make backups.
But the problem may be in how XP/Windows handles files..

Have a better day tomorrow .
Jay