Removing Corrupt Data

[ericsm]

I have a client that has corrupted their files by constantly force quiting out of them. I am now going to import their data from the bad files into clean clones. I was planning on importing directly from the old files.

Someone told me that I should first export the data into text files and then import the text files into the new clones. The reason - exporting the data into text files removes any corrupt data by removing the RTF formmating that (when corrupt data is present) removes the corruption from the data.

Is that true?

[StevenB]

It's true that going to a text file will remove your formatting and put your information in a basic, comma delimited format.

This also gives you a chance to browse through it and clean up anything that doesn't look right.

If you import the corrupt info to the new clones remember - garbage in - garbage out.

[ericsm]

Thanks for the response. I've been hearing a lot about this and on both sides. Finally, Darren Terry (Formally from FMP) sent me this:

"When I was with Tech Support, I used to advise this type of "text cleaning" (i.e. exporting first to a text file, then importing from the text file). I have since learned from engineering that there should be no difference between that and importing directly from a FileMaker file (though I can't remember who in engineering told me that). I think they posted such to this list at one point..."

I finished the import this past weekend and so far everything is working fine for the client.