I have a couple files (fp3 and fp5) that were deleted on our server. I used data recovery software to get the deleted files back, but they are all corrupted, well most of the are, and beyond the point of using the "recover" feature in FM. If there any other option I have besides sending the files out to FM Disaster recovery for $100 a file?

Are you on a Mac or Windows?

The question is how much FMI can do with the recovered files. If they contain data from overwritten sectors that do not belong to the FMP database, I don't think they can do anything.

Do you have a tapebackup of the server, where the files still are good, then the best bet (and maybe the only) is to restore the files from that backupset, and recreate any missing data from the time of that backup, until the files were deleted.

/rant on

Why do people still setup servers, without using the same amount of ressources in insuring that any data on that server is backed up daily ?

/rant off

Just my 0.02

Sort of along the lines of what Johds said:

You could get an older version of the file (from backup or whatever is closest) and make a clone.

Then take the corrupted file and import from that file into your clone. Just remember that the DATA might be corrupt, so you might carry over the same problem. Just make sure from now on to have a good backup if it is important data.

Or if you dont have a file, create a new file with all the fields and import into that.

try to open the file in a text editor to extract the text. In BBedit (lite), you can use the "zap gremlins" command to strip control chars & high ascii.

Along the lines of cjaeger's suggestion, there is a free BBEdit extension (plug-in) from the CanOpener people, which does a much better job of opening something like a FileMaker file. It's almost readable. Works with BBEdit Lite, but does not work in OS X.

http://ftp.barebones.com//pub/third-party-plugins/CanOpener_Extractor.hqx