pdb file prob-need help pls

[PeteHH]

Hi.
I'm a new Palm User, Clie TH55. A friend of mine gave me an e-book to try: Crichton.pdb. I transferred it to my MS, but seems no program can open/read it. I installed PalmReader, MobiPocket and TomeRaider, but neither can find it on my MS and open it.
Can someone please help me?
Thanks in advance,

Peter

[tgeorges]

Who knows!?!  Sounds like the file isn't an ebook file in any known format, or could be corrupt.  Did you try reading it from RAM rather than MS?

 

Tom

[PeteHH]

yes, tried that, to no success unfortunately.

[Unregistered]

I'm not logged in right now, but I thought I'd reply anyway.

If you have a PC, open a copy of the file "Chrichton.pdb" using Notepad.

Mostly you'll see garbage, all of the formats are compressed, some are encrypted.

BUT...
At the very beginning of the file you should see the actual name of the book followed by some blank space. There are about 36 characters available. Then you should have a few more garbage characters and more blank space.

Then ther will be an 8 character phrase that is used by the PalmOS to determine what application to use to open the file. As examples: Tome Raider is "ToRaTRPW" without the quotes.
Palm Reader is "PNRdPPRS" (originally PeanutReader from Peanut Press)
MobiPocket is "TEXtREAd"

There are others, but I don't remember them.

If you don't see this kind of format at the beginning of the file then it probably isn't an e-book.

Obviously, if Notepad can't open it, it's probably corrupt.

Good Luck,

Denis