Corrupted files?

[sukisue]

My office shares a database that is stored on a server. 2 people were correcting sets of files and unknowingly tried to edit some of the same records. This caused (we think) the database to crash along with the rest of the items on the server.

So now, we've been taken off the server until the problem files are fixed. But our problem is that we don't know which files are broken!

Or, might the problem be caused by something else?

Any suggestions?

Thanks much.

[Anatoli]

RE: My office shares a database that is stored on a server

If FM server did not share it, it was NOT shared at all and now you are paying the price.

Single user files, which are accessed by multiple users, doesn't make much sense.

[AudioFreak]

I have never had Filemaker crash due to another user changing a record at the same time. It always just gives me an error message that another user is modifying that record. I think something else probably caused the files to become corrupt, such as not closing them properly.

Michael

[stanley]

FileMaker Server prevents a second user from altering a record so long as it is being accessed by a previous user. I have never ever heard of this locking mechanism failing, so I doubt that this is what has occurred. It sounds to me, though, like you weren't running FileMaker Server. Rather, the database files simply resided on A server.

As Anatoli implied, it sounds like you had two FileMaker Pro users accessing the same single-user files at the same time as single users. That's not just bad database practice, that's bad computing practice, and is pretty much guaranteed to destroy your data, whatever form it takes.

As far as suggestions... put the files onto a client machine & open them individually. You'll soon find what files are corrupted and what are not. After that, if you're still having problems, let us know a bit more about the situation & we'll see if we can help.

-Stanley

[sukisue]

Thanks to all- I am going to find out if it is a filemaker server (I always just assumed it was).

As for the corrupted files- we copied the database onto our computer and we think we have narrowed it down to 7 files. But when we try to delete them- filemaker just quits. Any other way to get rid of these files?? We do have backed up copies but would rather fix this, most current version.

By the way- it's filemaker 6 on OSX.

Thanks

[Anatoli]

RE: By the way- it's filemaker 6 on OSX.

Oh well. Even if it is FM Server, every second user has problem with FM and MacX server.

FM Server is excellent on Linux, Windows and reasonably good on Mac OS.