HELP? PS won't open BMP

heyy there gfxvoid

I have been working on a magazine cover lately for a school assignment.

I have been saving it regularly but for some reason I can't open it now as a .psd!

I can't edit or do anything now. this is the message that comes up

http://i41.tinypic.com/2ekmd1y.jpg

please tell me how to fix? I've been using the same PS the whole time


Edit: I meant psd not bmp in the titled


Edit: ok I had an older version to use and I'm up to date now. this can be deleted now

First things first. Never use BMP. It's a very large file size and the quality is pretty poor.
BMP is what Paint uses to save it's image. A typical image could be increased from several Kilobytes, to a couple of Megabytes just by using the different format. The quality is also pixelated and it doesn't blend as smoothly as a JPG or PNG.

In reality, PNG is your best file-type for images as it's lossless format (does not reduce quality) and supports transparencies. JPG is also widely used in things like web design as it can be reduced in file-size but still keep a relatively good quality. It's not as sharp as a PNG, but it's alot cleaner then something like a GIF.

As for your Photoshop, I really don't understand what would be causing that. I would try checking the preferences and look at what filetypes you have allowed to be run by the program. You may need to check an extra box somewhere. Also, check what happens when you save the image.

When saving your work, it is recommended to have two copies. A PSD file (Your Working file), and the image file (GIF, JPG, PNG, etc.) If anything goes wrong with your image file ,like in your case, you can always recreate it from the PSD.

EDIT: Didn't realise that you edited as I had Dinner halfway through typing up the post, but I'll leave it so there can be a discussion on PSDs, GIFs, JPGs, and PNGs.