Hi Girard,
You have a point about DP getting a little long in the tooth. I do use other database programs, but the speed and rock solid reliability of DP and the rapid almost bulletproof nature of the development is such that unless I have to I would prefer to use DP. I once had some downtime in a DP database, I think it was back in 1995 when Novell brought out a new Netware client for Windows 95, and I got some data corruption, it took a while to figure it out where the problem was. I wish in my Access, MSSQL and MYSQL databases I could claim to have had 15 years of breakdown free time! I do agree that backing up a DP database is really not too onerous. At worst program, str, data, index, instruction manual baby photos are all going to fit on the smallest $10 USB flash drive around, and then still have space for a handful of previous zipped backups. Brian _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of GIRARD74 Sent: Tuesday, 12 October 2010 7:21 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Dataperf] Error 154 I can't imagine why if this database is so monumentally important and consists of literally millions of records that backing it up would not be "THE" priority above and beyond anything else. While a DOS-based program, even DataPerfect's files could be easily protected through the use of Carbonite or some other relatively inexpensive off-site backup system. On the other hand, how much time does it take to export data from this particular database, make a change to its structure and then import all those records back into the modified system? Even with a speedy processor, a fast hard drive and plenty of memory, it has to take hours to perform these tasks, no? As a staunch supporter (and lover) of DataPerfect in the late 80s and early 90s, unless absolutely necessary (and for the life of me I cannot imagine how this could be), wouldn't moving to a more flexible database program be a better idea? _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Don Friedman Sent: Monday, October 11, 2010 12:24 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Dataperf] Error 154 Tim - thanks - yeah, I had looked it up but never before come across a circumstance where it was even impossible to rebuild the .str file. I was writing a modification of a report when it happened and can't imagine what I did if in fact it was anything I did do. And while I have backups of the sort of large database structure itself, I had just recently imported a million records in one panel, 600K in another and 500K in yet another and didn't have a current backup of the project in development. Once nothing else worked I simply started again and am re-importing the voter data. This time I'll be backing up in stages, that you can count on! Generally I back these large databases up once I've finalized them for the election cycle and have them in multiple places. As it is I'll be doing this until the wee hours to catch up to where I was supposed to be which was already behind schedule. Oh well, the wonderful part about elections is that win or lose they have a definite ending date. Thanks. Don 2010/10/11 Tim Rude <[email protected]> Don, I'm sure you've already looked up Error 154 meaning, but just in case you haven't... _____ Error 154 - Attempt to read block 0 as text. The file DataPerfect is trying to read is corrupt or not a valid format. Restore from backup. If there is no backup, try deleting the .IND file, exporting all data, deleting panel files and .TXX file, importing data. _____ If it's the STR file that's corrupted, you'll need to restore from a backup. (You do have a backup right?) Otherwise, try renaming your panel files one at a time to see if it's one of them that has become corrupted. Also try renaming your .TXX file to see if it's the corrupted file. Once you track down which file is corrupt, you can restore a copy of it from your most recent backup and hopefully get into the database. Then export all data, delete panel, index (IND), and text (TXX) files (leaving just the STR file), and then import data back into the database. You'll likely end up with some lost data. If you have a recent backup, you might be best to just restore the backup and then re-enter any data since the backup was made. Also - be sure to run a diagnostic or two on the hard drive that hosts your database. If the drive's getting flakey you're spinning your wheels until you replace it. Tim Rude ----- Original Message ----- From: Don Friedman <mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, October 11, 2010 10:30 AM Subject: [Dataperf] Error 154 I am in an election cycle and was just modifying a report on a very large voter database and got kicked out with an error code 154. Re-entering the database doesn't work. Removing the index file and attempting to rebuild that doesn't work. Trying to export the .str file so I could delete the report I was working on doesn't work. Every attempt to use the database is stymied by this error code. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could recover this? Don -- Don Friedman ProfessionalRecords.Com LLC PRS Data Systems 205 S Main Street Pittsburgh, PA 15215 412-784-1600 - 1-800-PRS-FILE 412-784-1615 Fax _____ _______________________________________________ Dataperf mailing list [email protected] http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf _______________________________________________ Dataperf mailing list [email protected] http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf -- Don Friedman ProfessionalRecords.Com LLC PRS Data Systems 205 S Main Street Pittsburgh, PA 15215 412-784-1600 - 1-800-PRS-FILE 412-784-1615 Fax
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