Restoring a database from backup

[mlawson]

I am new to FMP. I have been working with a client that has FMP 5.5. The files are being hosted on a Mac and the clients are Windows XP. The previous tech did all the installs. I am learning as I go. I have scheduled daily backups of all database and that is working great. My questions is how do I restore a database from backup? I have looked through all the help files and searched online but only could find information about the recovery of a corupt database. If anybody can provide assistance I would greatly apperciate it. Customer needs to have a database restored due to accidentally deleting records. Thanks

[Wim Decorte]

I think you're talking about 2 separate issues:

1- restoring from a backup

2- recovery of a corrupt database

#1 - restore goes pretty much like this:

- you close the hosted files on the server (using the remote admin plugin from a client or the local admin app on the server)

- you shut down FMS after you've confirmed that all the hosted files are closed

- you replace the bad file with one from the backup

- start FMS again: it will automatically start hosting the files again

# 2: recovery is a last ditch measure to get data out of a corrupted file. Once a file is corrupted it should never be used again.

After you recover a damaged file, export the data and delete the damaged file. Then import the data into a good backup.

Now the clincher is knowing what a good backup is. So keep lots of backup sets around. A file doesn't get damaged just like that, usually there are deployment issues leading up to it (flaky network, OS-level file sharing,...), so that needs to be looked into.

[mlawson]

Thank you for the response and clarification. I was able to restore the database from backup by just copying the file after the server was stopped. Thanks. I was headed in that direction but was not sure if that was the proper procedure for restoring a database in FMP. I have another problem now in that one of the databases that is located in the same directory as all other database does not show up in the list of available databases to connect from the client. Any suggestions? I am going to post another topic but since you have helped I thought I would ask. Thanks again.

[Wim Decorte]

Check the event log to see what FMS tells you about the file. It'll probably say that the file is damaged...

[Steven H. Blackwell]

And if the file does report it is damaged, do not Recover it as a first step. With the Server stopped, open the file in FileMaker Pro and save a copy as compressed. Also see FileMaker Tech Info # 5594 for important information.

Steven

[Ronald_K]

Steven, it is my experience that damage files cannot be compressed. As a matter of fact, I think a failure to compress is one of the first signs that a file has some damage, usually too little to show in standard usage of the file.

Ron

[LaRetta]

Ron, I've had 'Save a Copy as Compressed' work perfectly fine on badly damaged files. I believe there are too many variables to trust that a file is fine just because compression works on it. I don't believe that's what you were saying ... but I wanted to clarify in case someone though a successful compression meant their file was fine because it doesn't. :wink2:

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Take a look at Tech Info 5594.

Steven