Contents of web files vanishes after xampp crash !!!

[thethakuri]

This must be the weirdest problem ever reported. I use xampp 1.7.4 and dreamweaver CS 3(as editor) for web development. Recently, I have been facing a strange problem. Sometimes when the xampp crashes, the contents of the web files(eg. php, js etc) just disappears although the file size doesn't change. When selected all, it just selects a whole lot of white spaces. I don't if this is the problem with xampp or dreamweaver but it is really bugging me out since I have to rewrite the whole file. Please help !!!

[JonB]

I will give you a 'good guess' only.

If the files are open or new AND you reboot before saving the files in Dreamweaver, its quite possible the files are in an indeterminate state as far as Dreamweaver is concerned. Dreamweaver uses a local cache for open/new files. This makes a good case for backing up AND saving files as you work. I use a tool called Fbackup which is free and quite reliable (and can be automated) to backup my XAMPP folder very day on the Windows machine I use. On my XAMPP Linux box is use the built-in LAMPP backup every time I work.

Good Luck

[thethakuri]

Actually I do save the files regularly and matter of fact, the Dreamweaver didn't crash and I closed it after saving all the files. The problem seems to be with the XAMPP. However after reboot, when I open Dreamweaver it did say some kind of XML error(sorry I didn't write down the whole error message) and the contents of the files last opened seem to just vanish, although there are contents in there as the file size doesn't change.

[JonB]

You might try opening the files with a different editor after the next crash. I can't see any way for XAMPP to 'write-back' to a PHP file. In theory, the files are opened as 'read-only'. Of course there could be some bug, but I just can't imagine how it would happen. And, I guess knowing what the XML error was would be useful also.

I do have an odd question - are you trying to write 'dynanic php' in some context???

Good Luck and let us know what is happening...

[thethakuri]

I have tried opening the files with every possible editor including DOS Edit. All of them just show empty file while, like I said, the file size hasn't change. If you want, I can upload the file or give a link to the "ghost" files. Also, I will be sure to jot down the XML error in dreamweaver the next time it happens (although I'm hoping against it).

[thethakuri]

Okay it happened again. What happens is xampp httpd crashes and every network connection(including wifi) is blocked. After rebooting and opening Dreamweaver, following error is thrown:
" xml parsing fatal error: Invalid document structure, line: 1, file: C:\..\Adobe\Dreamweaver\Configuration\panelset.xml"
After that, when trying to open the last opened file, it just show whitespaces while the file size doesn't change.

[Sharley]

What happens is xampp httpd crashes

You need to investigate why Apache (httpd.exe) is crashing as this is at the root of your other issues.

There are log files that may hold a clue:
C:\xampp\apache\logs\error.log - check this around the date and time of your last crash.
C:\xampp\mysql\data\mysql_error.log - as above.

You seem to have also found the Windows Event Viewer>Applications tab but you need to paste here the content of the crash event so it can be assessed.

What exactly were you doing at the time Apache crashed?

Any other relevant information about the crash would be helpful in trying to troubleshoot this crash issue.

Best wishes.