Our server crashed today and after unlocking our application, all our forms are gone but the database and records seem to be intact. (I can only see the data if i build a new form bound to the database fields.) This ap had a lot of forms and TONS of programming that I need to recover.....my last backup is 2 days old

Anyone have this problem before? Is there any hope of recovering?

I've tried reconciling my backup ap but the forms still don't show up. Also, creating a backup of my damaged app only copies the ap without the forms. Perhaps I can 'merge' and 'trim' to get my data into my backup with good forms, but it sounds unlikely.

I've sent it in to tech support but I really need to fix this tonight, hopefully.

Thanks for any insight.

Steve

Thanks for the suggestion...no luck. (Forms still didn't show up.)

I'm also getting an error if I try to change the application name from the actual filename to what it was before "Order".

I'll just wait till tomorrow.

Thanks again for the response....kept me from staying up all night

Steve

Thanks BobScott,

We are definately looking for a better way to backup our data. Currently we use "Second Copy" that runs on our serer and backups data every hour, but I have it set to skip our Sesame Data folder becuase it cannot be copied while someone is working in the application, I assume.

I would like to see a thread started discussing various backup techniques and specific details about how to do it....do all users need to exit the app? Does the server need to be shut down?, etc.

Obviously, my manual method of backing up whenever I happen to think about it is not working out

THanks,
Steve

Quote:


Sesame only opens the file to save any changes - a very brief operation, and then closes the file again. It would take nearly constant monitoring to detect "file in use".

Earlier, a Linux user needed a script that could detect when a Sesame file is in use and waited for it to be not in use (usually only a matter of milliseconds), before copying it. I don't know if Windows has similar tools, though I suspect that the Unix tools have been ported.

These goes to show that a good backup system is a must. Unless you have multiple revisions of the files, you are likely overwrite the file with a bad one and then nothing can be done.  If I understood it right, Bob Scott suggested last seven daily backups in different folders, one is likely to lose maximum of one day of work. This method gives seven revisions, may be eight, good enough.

The backup should be simple and automatic. GoBack by Symantec (Symantec bought it from Roxio, before that it belonged to Adaptec) bailed me out many a time. It automatically keeps the multiple revisions of files. It also does the system (registry) restore that is now undermined by Microsoft with Windows XP that comes with system restore.

Second Copy gives option to backup automatically every two hours, I think that is really suicidal. What it means that in two hours bad file will overwrite the good one, so you are racing against time. 

I would like to know what are the good file backup systems available in the market. What are the main features one should look for and your good and bad experiences with the systems.

I would like to wish Steve best of luck to recover from the catastrophe.  Yes, catastrophe.... I have gone through that, so I know how taxing that could be.

Bharat Naik

Just as a side note, while attempting to recover Steve's application, we took a look at the datestamps on the records. The oldest record in his application was dated December 9th, 2003. That means the oldest bit of information in the app was built using a Beta copy of Sesame only a few days before the release of Sesame 1.0. The newest bit of data was only a couple of days old when we received it.

Steve's app may the oldest application in continous use outside of Lantica.