Help.  We now get an error when trying to open one of our databases.  File / Open -- then we specify the file that we see right on the screen -- the open progress box shows up -- then we get the error with the full path name and the filename with the suffix "Database does not exist"

How can I repair or even open this file?  Have we lost everything?  What caused this problem?

Hmmm, then how could this also happen on a stand-alone Windows XP-Pro single-user setup.  I know that me and my other personalities are all only working in this one application (Sesame) with no Explorer, etc. stuff going on in the background.

Seriously, though, I understand what you said about the file overwrite, etc., but I don't see how this should happen in a single-use situation.

So if we damage a database, is there any hope to repair it?????

I know I've written some bad programming that causes an endless loop and I've done control-alt-delete>End Task on Sesame. Bad stuff, I know, but I had no choice. Control-Break didnt stop the loop.

Steve in Texas

By "stand alone" I mean not on a network.  So there are no other computers to write to that file.  And I did not do a reboot/restart/shut-down to interrupt anything.  That is why I was concerned.  "If unlock doesn't work return to a backup" is not a great answer if the office is running all day entering data.  At least in Q&A we could PRETEND the "recover database" could do something.  Perhaps in an upcoming release add a feature named "Save my butt the database won't open" and have it chug for a while on the file then say something official like "I really did try, but this is damaged beyond my ability."  <partial grin>  At least that I could show to the Powers That Be in the office and they might feel better about rolling back one whole day...

Much of what Q&A calls "Recover" is run on your applications each time Sesame opens them. The reindexing that often fixes a corrupted Q&A database is irrelevant to Sesame because we don't index.

When dealing with computers, regular backups are your best friend. Bad network cards, failing hard drives, power failures, etc. can all damage files. Of course, the Sesame Development Team gives top priority to any issues discovered with Sesame that can damage data, and we make every effort to deal with them immediately.

So far, other than a particular issue having to do with reconciling to an open application (fixed in 1.0.4), we have seen almost no data corruption. We have seen some structural corruption, but the data itself has almost always been recoverable.

Support is willing to sign reasonable non-disclosures and to destroy their copies of applications once they are repaired.

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FYI: I just took a look at some code and went through the Support database.  There is another circumstance that can cause this error, which is certainly possible on a standalone machine. If the db and dat do not match, then you can get this error. For example, if you make a copy of myfile.db and myfile.dat, open the original in Sesame, add a few records, then copy only the dat over your previous copy of myfile.dat, you will get this error.

If you check your admin log, you may see server_error 510150 as well as some "Failure to read a record" messages.

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What's up with the single-clicking is all the complaining we heard about having to double-click. 

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Steve,

I just tried this. It does indeed start opening two copies, both of which stop at the dialog boxes asking for dsr name. I cancelled out of both, closed the Designers, and my app was fine. Did you do this, or did you do something else? Most importantly, did you continue in one of the Designers, and then Reconcile to your still open db? This hole has been plugged in 1.0.4, but in 1.0.3 cancelling out of creating the dsr was affecting the locking in a way that would allow you to reconcile to an open db.

Steve,

It's likely that's why you thought Sesame was "locked up". It's likely that, with all those windows popping up, the second Save As dialog box was behind something else. Since those are modal, the main screen would have become unresponsive until you uncovered and dismissed the popup.

Did you continue working in Runtime or any of the Designers after this happened, or did you End Task out of everything?