Salvaging corrupted project files

[Steve Grisetti]

I haven't been able to make this work yet, but does anyone have any idea if this is even remotely possible?

When version 4 corrupts a file, Premiere Elements can no longer open it.

However, as many people know, a Premiere Elements project file is actually just a text file, directing the media files to connect to each other. And, even a corrupted file, can be opened in WordPad.

My question: Is it possible to recover a corrupted file by copying the text from one of these files and pasting it into an empty or new Premiere Elements project file and make it usable? I guess it depends on what corrupts. If the content corrupts, obviously this exercise will do nothing. On the other hand, if something just poisons the file itself, can the content still be salvaged? Or is it possible to "edit" the text in the file and repair it, as you can with HTML?

Or am I just overthinking this?

Meantime, thank God for Auto-Saves!