Tip of the Month for: October 2014

Recovering Corrupted Files

Corrupt data files can occur for a variety of reasons, but the recovery of them is the same regardless of the reason and is almost always something that can be done by users without the need to incur support charges from Data Resources.  Corrupt files can occur from things as simple as power losses, PC crashes, users doing  Control-Alt-Delete or using the Task Manager when they think they are stuck or don't know how to get out of a situation.  But they can also be the result of hardware problems, network problems, virus/malware infections, or anti-virus programs interfering with the updating of files on your server.  For tips on configuring your anti-virus software to work better with Answers data, refer to the July 2012 tip of the month.

When Answers encounters a corrupt files, it will prompt the user if they would like to recover it or not.  At this point, you always need to answer yes in order to get the file recovered.  Answering no may get you out of the program, but the file will still be corrupt for you and others the next time they try running a program that accesses this same file.

If you are the sole user of the file that is corrupt, then answering yes to recover it will repair the file in the majority of cases.  However, it is important to understand that in order to recover a file, everyone else must be out of  the file and then one person try to recover it.  This is the overwhelming reason by far that most users are unable to recover their own corrupt files.

When a corrupt file is encountered (which shows up as an Error 98xx), before answering yes to try to recover it, it is imperative to ask all other Answers users to close out of any open Answers programs.  Depending on the file that is corrupt, it is possible that some users could continue to work, however due to the interrelated nature of Answers programs, it is safest and most efficient to ask all other users to get out of Answers so you can recover the corrupt file.  If users do not exit out as asked, then you will typically get an error on the rebuild process such as a Rebuild Error 255 or other 3-digit error numbers. When you get an error such as this on a rebuild, then the corrupt file will still be unusable.

If you receive such an error, then you need to verify once again that everyone else is out of Answers.  If the file will still not recover and continues to give a 3-digit error number like 255, then reboot your server and ask all users to remain out of Answers after it reboots until the file is successfully recovered.  Then go into Answers on the server and try to recover the file once again.  Make sure you have written down the file name so you  can recover it directly (without going into any other programs) by going to System Management-->Answers Software Mainteance-->Recover a Corrupt File.  Here you can type in the name of the corrupt file provided in the Error message.

There are rare cases where files are so corrupt that they do require attention from us.  Occasionally we can uses some different commands to recover corrupt files that the standard recovery process cannot.  And in worst case scenarios it may be necessary to  restore a copy of the file from a backup prior to the corruption, but these type problems happen a very low percentage of the time.  By following the above guide lines, users should be able to recover the vast majority of corrupt files on their own without incurring any support call/email charges.