recovering a file, this is very bad

[HunterPrescott]

im working with filemaker pro 6, on windows2000 professional. evertime i tried to recover the file, my computer would shut off at the 4th step. i thought it might be a hardware problem, so i transfered the file to a different computer. sure enough at the same point in the recovery, that computer would also shut off. any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated. like everyone else, the information in that file is vital to our business. thanks for your help.

 

[JeanW]

What is the reason for recovering ?

 

[HunterPrescott]

when i try to open the file it gives me an error message saying the file is damaged or that the access to the file is denied and that i should use the recover option to open the file.

 

[JeanW]

According to me, the only solution left is the latest good backup...

You have a backup, do you ?

There are maybe other things to try, but the backup is the most appropriate way to go...

 

[HunterPrescott]

what can i say, i'm an idiot. when my computer kept turning off i assumed it was a hardware issue. so i sent the corrupted file to the back up system. before it was done transfering i realized that i had made a major mistake, but it was too late. do you know of anyone or any company that can retrieve data from a corrupted file? do i have any other options, thanks?

 

[JeanW]

Do you have another backup ?

I usually make several backups, and backups from backups.

I have a few tools to attempt to recover data, not the whole file, just data, from corrupted files, without guarantee.
Therefor I need the file.

 

[JeanW]

And now that I think about it.
Recovering the data alone will not be enough.

Do you have an empty 'master file' of your solution ?

If not...you can't do very much with the data, unless you can recover the structure.
Making a empty master file from that structure is not a good idea, cause the corruption can still be in the structure.

 

[HunterPrescott]

yes i do have a copy of the original file with out any data, and i have the corrupted file as well. what do i need to do?

 

[JeanW]

There are a few 'outside tools' to recover corrupted FM files, I never used them, so I can't tell you if they are good or not.

http://www.officerecovery.com/filemaker/

is one of them, 150 $ is a lot of money to spend. If you want to go that way, try the demo first...

A cheaper way, that worked for several of my students (once every 2 or 3 weeks on average - don't ever believe they make backup....), if you don't have FM 7 or 8, download a trial version, try to open the FM 6 file in FM 8. If it works, export the data as cvs and import in the empty master file.
Chances are the conversion will break/skip a part of the corruption, check your data to be sure.
Try the conversion several ways, like drag and drop, open via FM, or if you're on Windows, go via Explorer and open your file by pointing to FM 8 as program to use etc.

 

[HunterPrescott]

i can get my hands on filemaker pro 8, ill give that a shot right away. thanks so much. if that doesnt work then i will have to try that other software, either way ill let you know how it worked out. thanks again for helping me out.

 

[HunterPrescott]

thank you, thank you, thank you for your help. i tried the demo version from officerecovery.com, and that didnt work. i took the damaged file to a seperate computer, installed filemaker pro 8.5. all i had to do is drag the corrupted file over the file maker icon, it asked if i wanted to convert the file, i of course said yes. about an hour later the file was open without even 1 record missing. i cant tell you how good that felt, my boss was gonna fire me if i didnt figure it out. i'll never make that mistake again. thanks you so much. im overwhelmed, i cant say thank you enough. thank you!!!