Very weird problem here, no doubt self-inflicted.

I have a database built with FM7 developer. Over the years I have had system crashes and the computer re-booted without Filemaker having had a chance to close properly. Filemaker would always scan for unused blocks and the file would run fine. Periodically, I would run the file maintenance utilities to compact and optimize the database. Recently, I tried to open the database in FM8 it says the file is damaged and will not open. It then says to use Recover. When I use Recover it gets to step 2, "Rebuilding Data Pages" and the FM program terminates. I tried this with someone who has FM9 and the same thing happens. As I said, it runs fine under FM7, but I would really like to update it to use features found in more recent FM versions. Any ideas?

Frink,

You won't like my answer. Not even a little bit. Based on your posting I am making the assumption that you do not have a pre-crash backup, and even if you did, it would be missing months/years of development work.

I am afraid that the only reliable solution to your problem is to re-build. From Scratch.

And though this sounds onerous, it is actually much easier the second time. You now know what you want your database to do, how to do it, and when. Resist the temptation to copy over elements, though you could have the old database open in seven while you are building the new one in a later version of Filemaker for reference.

When rebuilding, you have the opportunity to create a system that is more efficient and streamlined. Get rid of all your old spaghetti code and unneeded fields.

Good luck!

*susan*

Thanks Susan. I had a feeling that might be my only recourse. Oh well, you are right about two things, it does always go faster the second time (I've had my share of that game) and it will let me clean out all the "garbage" I left behind during initial development. One last thing I may try is to delete all the records from the main db and then try re-importing them back in (that is if I can open the "emptied" db in 8 or 9).Just a thought, I'll let you know.

One more thing, you said "you can have the old database open in 7 while building the new one in 8" but I have tried to open 8 while 7 is running and it doesn't work. Do you know a trick I don't?

Not a trick. It just works... and I do this all the time on both platforms.

Good luck!

*susan*