Dbase 3 Data Unavailable From Auxiliary Drive 3

[aa18ron]

I have been using Dbase for 8 years and found it robust but I had to reinstall Win98 which seems to have lost all of my dBase, Outlook Express and Schedule 7.5.

BUT I had always copied my hard drive to an auxiliary hard drive - including dBase. I can "see" my dbase files on my auxiliary drive but when I try to bring it into my C drive I get the opening "license" page with my name files and then an error "one file lost" and I see the program files and some dbf files but not the dbf files that have most of my data.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[1oldfoxman]

I'm understanding that you can open the dBase development environment, but not see your database files.

So have you searched your c:\ drive to verify that the .dbf files you're looking for are somewhere on that drive? If they are there but not in the same directory as the dbase.exe file, you'll need to either execute a SET DEFA TO command to point to those database files (SET DEFA TO c:\MyDir) or use config.db to set the default path to where those files live (DEFAULT=c:\MyDir).

Maybe I've misunderstood your problem.

Dennis

 

[dbMark]

What do you mean by "when I try to bring it into my C drive"? Have you copied ALL the files from the old hard drive to the new C: drive? If you try to run them from that old drive, possibly something there is still looking for files on the C: drive but now it's got another drive letter.

Are you starting dBase in the directory holding all the dBase language files? It could be that the computer's DOS PATH is not reflecting the changed hardware configuration.

FoxPro uses SET DEFAULT TO ...
dBase uses SET DIRECTORY TO ...

 

[aa18ron]

I thank 1oldfoxman and dbmark for responding but I have to confess I am not a programmer and have been using dBase III plus with a shell that opens after the license page is accepted.

The shell permits me to bypass the acutal dBase commands and search for a record and goto a record number by selecting the file from a page which has my files listed alphabeticaally. Part of my problem is that I have forgotten what I learned about dBase commands.

But I did try the

SET DIRECTORY TO C:\DBASE
SET DEFAULT TO C;\DBASE

and received a Do you want help? from Dbase.

Thanks in advance for any further suggestions.

 

[1oldfoxman]

If by "shell" you mean a third-party environment manager like Alpha4 (or 5) or some other product (I've forgotten their names) you may be able to get to a "dot prompt" from one of their menus. This is where you want to enter the dBase commands. It is characterized by a period with blinking cursor next to it, dBase waiting for a command input.

If "shell" means an application program written by someone in dBase, try , <esc> or <ctrl><c>. If the programmer did not handle these keystrokes within their program, you may find yourself at a dot prompt, where you can enter the dBase commands outlined above.

In dBaseIII+, the command "SET DIRECTORY TO" I believe is actually "SET PATH TO" - try that as well to point to the directory where your data files sit.

As outlined above though, the first thing to do is to make sure your .dbf files got somewhere on the your C:\ drive to be found in the first place. Maybe you already did this, but you didn't say whether you verified their existence yet.

Dennis

 

[MiggyD]

1) Are you certain that [highlight]C:\dbase[/highlight] was the original directory (aka Folder) that you were running from with the original DBase (before you reinstalled)?

2) Since you have win98, have you tried copying the files from that "alternate" drive through DOS [red]WITH[/red] copy verification turned ON? Similar to:

C:\>copy X:\Backup\DBASE\*.DBF C:\DBase\*.* /v

the /v at the end is to verify the copy matches the original. Note: The above is an example, of course drive letters and directories will differ on your system.

3) To open Config.db, you should use NOTEPAD to open it and modify it as needed. Click FILE>OPEN; move to Dbase directory; change "File Type" from *.txt to All Files.

--MiggyD

 

[aa18ron]

I thank 1oldfoxman and MiggyD for responding.

Using MiggyD's Notepad method for finding the contents of config.db, here is what I saw:

default=c:
path=\files\db
color=bg/ ,w/r,gr
command=do dba

dba is the data base "shell" that was written for me many years ago (1987?. It stands for Data Base Assistant.

But when I get to the dot prompt in dbase and type do dba, it says "Would you like some help?"

I sure do need some help.

Thanks for any suggestions

 

[1oldfoxman]

Would you like some help?" - Doesn't seem to me to be a dBaseIII message but more likely coming from your shell application. It may be helpful to post/email the code for that program so we can see what may actually be triggering this message.

If the program file (dba.prg) isn't too big, post it here. If it's long, you can e-mail it to me if you like and I'll see if I can spot what may be missing. dpuls@nehealth.org

Have you verified that the database files (.dbf's) that you are expecting to see are in the c:\files\db directory?

 

[aa18ron]

Thanks to 1old foxman. I located the missing dbf files and my dBase 3 plus is substantially restored but there are some records that are not retrieved when I search.

Any thoughts?

 

[1oldfoxman]

some records that are not retrieved " - this could happen in three ways that I can think of in dBaseIII:

1. The copy of the .dbf file was older than your production file when you did the upgrade and some newer records were not included in the backup file.

2. Some records have the deleted flag set on and DELETED is set ON in the dbase environment. From the dot prompt issue a SET DELETED OFF command and see if the records show up then.

3. The index files are corrupted/not current with the database. From a dot prompt, open the database, open the related indexes and reindex.
USE MyDatabase
SET INDEX TO MyIndex
REINDEX
If there are multiple indexes, do this for each index file, skipping the USE command for subsequent indexes. Substitute your database and index file names for MyDatase and MyIndex of course. The index files are probably in the same directory as the .dbf's are have the file extension .NDX. Hopefully the index file names will make it obvious which ones belong to the .dbf's you're concerned with.

hth.
Dennis

 

[aa18ron]

Dennis : Thanks again will try your suggestions.

 

[MiggyD]

As 1oldfoxman mentioned (and listed), there are several reasons for your queries to fail; and, his list pretty much covers it.

The only one I can add is that your backup DBF is corrupt to begin with...black-/brown-outs or some background program(s) can do that...it's happened twice to me in my 17 years, and I can tell you it is infuriating.

I would suggest the following order (from 1oldfoxman's list):

- - - - - - - - - -
#2 -- easiest thing to check. If this is your problem, modify the "DBA.PRG" to include SET DELETE OFF in the beginning (before any “PROCEDURE” calls).

#3 -- a little time consuming but worth it in the long run. Not to mention, your indexes will be updated for next time.

#1 -- most time consuming. You'll have to re-enter the data you know you've lost. Just be thankful you had a backup to begin with.
- - - - - - - - - -

Please keep us abreast of your progress.
--MiggyD

 

[aa18ron]

Thanks MiggyD

I am in the process of going through the steps.

 

[aa18ron]

I write this post to again thank 1oldfoxman and MiggyD for their valuable help.

My dBase3 works better than ever!

aa18ron

 

[MiggyD]

Glad to have helped.

--MiggyD