Fox 2.6 memo problems

[lisaz]

I have an application running on Fox 2.6 that suddenly seems to have a problem with a memo field. Some of the memo field data doesn't seem to go with the right records. In most cases it does though.

I first tried to do the "pack memo" command. This resulted in "memo file is missing/invalid". Even though the database opened fine, reindexed and packed just fine.

I next did "copy to ... with CDX for !deleted()", which worked just fine. I then tried "pack memo" and the error message was gone.

Now I am finding that some of the records have memo fields filled with what seems to be data from quite a few other memo fields. This is pretty useless data when all thrown in one record.

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this? I wrote a program to find all the really large memo fields and are currently fixing them. I can't help wonder that after all this work, is this going to happen again? Does this have something to do with Win '98 running on only one workstation, while the rest are Win '95?

thanks in advance, Lisa

 

[dbMark]

The best action to take is to go back to your last good backup of the .DBF and .FPT since your memo table has gotten corrupted. The each record in the table has a specific 10 character reference lookup number to find the correct section of the memo file. Once that is messed up, you can't really trust it 100%. Various events could cause this corruption, and one simple cause could be a power failure, crash or somone turning off their computer while the table was open.

If you still have that last good backup around somewhere, you can write up a routine to step through the records of the current table, find the matching record if any in the backup table, and compare the two memo fields. By automating that part, let it do the searching and you can just view the ones that aren't matching and decide what to do about it one by one.

dbMark

 

[TheRambler]

Hi,

Rob444 has offered a download to fix corrupted memo files, you might want to check it at:

How do I repair a corrupt memo file??
thread182-699726

The readme.txt file included in the download says:
It is well known, that if a FoxPro program (any version) appends/writes to a table and computer crashes, the table becomes bad. Next time when FoxPro uses it, appears errors like this:

Not a database file (Error number 15)
MEMO file is missing/invalid (Error number 41)

 

[lisaz]

Thanks for the advice. Doesn't the 'copy to' take care of any corruption? I like your advice on how to get the correct data back in, but still worried about stability. thank you.

I did try the fix mentioned in the next post, but couldn't get it to work. It wanted me to enter something for block size. I was trying this on an old database that wasn't corrupted and still couldn't get it to work.

thx

 

[tondi]

I have used a couple of utilities that seem to have worked well. Look for FixDBF and FixFPT. If you cant't find them let me know and I will send.

 

[rgrlahti]

Tondi,

I have just found this thread and would like to know how to acquire the utilities you have mentioned. It would be much appreciated.

 

[JRB-Bldr]

One of the places that FixDBF & FPTFix are available is:

http://www.jjtc.com/Fox/foxfiles/

Good Luck,


JRB-Bldr
VisionQuest Consulting
Business Analyst & CIO Consulting Services
CIOServices@yahoo.com