File Too Big?

Hey all, I just finished saving a file I was working on and then closed it. After I tried to reopen it, I get this error message:

Could not open "filename.psd" because the result would be too big

Anyone ever run into something like this? Granted the file size is rather large (1.7 GB) but, I wasn't aware of PhotoShop (I'm using ver. 7) having any such restrictions.

As far as physical space, the file itself resides on a 120 GB drive with 100 GB free space and I've got 1 GB of memory installed on the machine.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Are you sure the file is only 1.7 gig? There is a limit in PS 7 that files can be no larger than 2 gigs. The sad point is, you are not warned that your file is over the limit when you save, which would allow you to flatten some layers to get under the limit.

I know of nothing to do about this, unless you have some other program that can read a PSD file.

Photoshop sees the file as 1.62 GB. As it resides on my local disk it reads as 1,699,505 KB. (the link below shows this)

<http://www.mattandsherry.com/filetoobig.jpg>

I'm currenlty trying to open it in Illustrator 10 and so far it's still thinking about it... ;-)

Wasn't aware of the 2 GB limit in PhotoShop but, that might be some useful advice in my further designs.

Thanks.

Don - most of the time Photoshop 7 does warn about files going over 2 Gig. But yes, there are some cases where Photoshop 7 misses the file going over 2 Gig and fails to warn the user. That's all fixed in Photoshop CS.

I've also heard mention that PS CS MIGHT be able to open some files that reuslt in that error in PS7 - I think it was Stephanie or Mark who said it. So don't trash the file. CS is right around the corner!

I figured there was a fix for it in CS, Chris. It has never happened to me (I doubt I've ever had a file over 20 megs.) But I have read about it happening to others on the forum to know it is a problem.

Glad to hear it is fixed.