can anybody repair damaged files?

[fchieli]

We have a couple of FilemakerPro files shared on an Appleshare IP volumes. One of the computers accessing the files crashed.

One file got damages and trying to open it generates a "the file is damaged and cannott be opened.Use the recover command to recover this file".

Using the Recover command (on a copy of the file) seems to work fine , I get the usual xxx kbytes were recovered , 0 fileds were skipped etc. , but it generates a file that doesn't open and gives me this message:

"The access privileges in this file have been damaged or possibly tampered with.

Please contact Filemaker Technical Support if the problem cannot be resolved."

The file version is Filemaker Pro 4 and was open using OS9

Can anybody attempt (for money) to repair the file for us?

[Steve T.]

Hmm... it's probably the DATA that's most important to you, right? I hope someone helps you out with a complete recovery, but if not, you might try to salvage the data by opening it up using other software products. I just tried opening a FM db in Excel and was surprised to see that it has some kind of FileMaker Wizard... of course, mine crashed before opening the file, but the fact there's a FileMaker Wizard may be hope for you. I also opened a db up in BBEdit and managed to see some of the raw data. It may be possible to zap all gremlins and maybe write something to filter everything except alphanumeric characters and spaces. Even then, unless you can identify the delimiters beforehand (field separators, record separators) it's a big job trying to make it sensical again. Of course, I wouldn't even attempt this unless there were no other options, but sometimes critical data recovery is, well, critical.

Maybe someone else can offer better alternatives or refine my suggestion if not give you a golden fleece answer.

--ST

[Leb i Sol]

Hello fchieli!

My suggestions will go in hand with Steve's....

Have u tried doing Access/FM/Excell <---ODBC----< Bad FM.fp4 to pull the data?

how about trying to use newer version of FM and do a conversion.....

if (the DATA) is not that confidential u can post it here....

I am FAR ( really far ) from being an expert in FM but I have gotten so much help from the gang here that I would gladly attempt it for free...

5 people working on the same problem is better than 1

Take care!

lebisol2(AT)hotmail.com

[FileMaker Programmer]

Are you still unable to open the data? Perhaps I could have a look...

[gdurniak]

FileMaker's Knowledgebase has an article on this

http://www.filemaker.com/ti/101692.html Damaged Access Privileges, Can't Open File

The NY FileMaker Developer's Group has additional info here

http://masdevelopment.com:3455/1/57 Damaged Files and Hidden Corruption in FileMaker Pro

FileMaker now offers a file recovery service, to restore both data and structure

http://www.filemaker.com/support/technical_support.html File Recovery Service

[bruceR]

It sounds like you have file sharing (as in system level file sharing) turned ON on the host computer. This is the most common way for this kind of damage to occur. The host computer must have fiie sharing turned OFF.