Jump to content

Totally corrupt database- can't do anything!


This topic is 5536 days old. Please don't post here. Open a new topic instead.

Recommended Posts

  • Newbies

Hello everyone,

Please help, I'm practically in tears and about to tear my hair out!

I work for a non-profit organization that provides relief to Africa. We use Filemaker to manage our events and table staff. Recently, something in my database became corrupted and it would give me the message that I needed to recover the database when I tried going to a certain layout or view certain records.

I have literally tried everything to recover this info.

I've tried deleting the corrupt individual records, and it freezes the database again.

Every time I try to use the "recover database" option, it freezes during recovery at step 13 of 16.

I know which layout is corrupt, but I am unable to delete that either.

I even tried saving a copy of the database as a clone or compacted, but it freezes and tells me that it needs to be recovered....which freezes again.

Lastly, I tried going back to a backed-up copy of the database from a few months ago, and deleted all the records and tried rebuilding it just with my 2009 events. As I was entering new records, they started looking corrupted with all these weird fonts.

When I try exporting the data into excel, it only exports SOME of the data, so I have no clue what to do outside of building an entirely NEW database. And I am a beginning at Filemaker.

Any help you can provide would be MUCH appreciated!!

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am sorry to hear you're going through this. It's good to hear that you have backups. Why do you need to go to "a few months ago." Nevermind, that's probably all you have, yikes...

Perhaps it is a corrupted font. Can you try another box?

As for the export, have you found all your records first? Otherwise, it'll export the found set.

Call FMI.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, you can export the data out of the corrupt file (without running recover or compacting it first), although it's recommended that you Save As Compact first ... if it freezes, you have no choice. Export each table as .MER (and be sure to Show All Records on each table first, as Barbara suggests). And be sure, when you select the fields to export, that you are using the full table and not the layout list (if you don't understand what I mean here, ask; otherwise you can miss grabbing all fields).

Then you can import the data into your older design copy (table by table). When you import, do NOT "perform auto-enter" during the import. But be SURE to write down the last serialID number from every table in your corrupt file (be sure they are correct) and then check them off as you re-set your serials in each of your new tables to this number PLUS ONE.

Good luck to you. I am very sorry you are going through this; we all have, usually more than once. Begin backing up at least daily then it'll be less painful if it crashes in the future.

LaRetta

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow! That is scary! I have a database i manage for our international IT company - I have several tables over 5 files that over 30,000 records in each!

Thank GOD our company is a 3rd party service provider for Netapp data storage - their snapshot technology lets me 'snap' back to a copy of the database files from any month and any year since we have had the database (Snapshots are taken every hour!)

Just as an aside, I had a corupted layout one time, caused when the server crashed while i was editing a layout. Anytime after that when accessing the layout, it would crash the server again. The recovery thankfully fixed this

Question, you mention only some of thedata is being exported, is it possible the other data is in a related table?

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

YOu need to export from every table individually - you cannot export related data from a parent table (at least not for this purpose).

... since we have had the database (Snapshots are taken every hour!)

Uhm, served files can not be backed up by an outside source while being served. You must use FMS to back up ...

uh, how ARE you serving your files? You haven't specified your configuration in your first post. I hope you have FileMaker Server on a server box by itself. And FMS should be handling your backups. If you back up a file which is being served, it is worthless.

Also, you should never continue to use a file in which you've used Recovery. Recovery is only to retrieve the data for import into a new good, clean empty clone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is 5536 days old. Please don't post here. Open a new topic instead.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.