I am (was?) running BD 2.5 on my other comptuter which lost its internet access when it got dropped and fell on it's external modem card a few years ago. The diary still worked fine until yesterday. I had just closed the Locations page and was trying to open the Sighings page when it choked, completely locking me out and giving the following error message:

Birder's Diary V2 has generated the following unexpected error:

Can't open database 'C:\PROGA~1\BDIARY2\bird_dat.mdb'. It may not be a database, or the file may be corrupt. (#3049) occured in "modBdiary.bOpenDatabase"

Please write down the entire error message.

Click OK to close and open a related help topic.

Click CANCEL to simply close.

        I would be delighted to pay whatever tech  support fee is appropriate as well as buy newer (my compliant)  version that could go in a grap my data and allow me to continue recording. It may have to be from a CD, or perhaps we could establish a LAN between this machine and it via an eithernet cable. Help. I'm looking at a total loss. Could buying a copy of a the original software and reloading it fix, or would it fix it while mindwiping the entire db? This relatively old stuff; I have moved and can't find the old disk. Then again I would be suprised if the original version is even available still.

Jonathan 

Hi Jonathan,

As Steve said, the first place to start is with the question "do you have a backup"?

If you do not have a backup, then you will need to get a copy of your current, probably corrupt, database off your old computer to one with an internet connection and upload it to me (after Zip'ng it) using the File Upload page on this web site.

Let's start here and then determine how to proceed.

Jeff

No backup. I guess I need to review how to implement that proceedure. Pritty lame, huh?

Hi Jonathan,

Ok - probably too late for a backup now. If your database is corrupt, you may have lost all.

Best process at this point is to send me a copy of your database so I can have a look at it. I won't charge you until I know what is going on and what it will take (if anything) to fix it.

1. Open Windows Explorer (My Computer) and browse to your v2 database location, which is "C:\Program Files\TBS\BDiary2\".
2. Find the file "bird_dat.mdb". Note: the file extension of ".mdb" may not show depending on your system settings.
3. ZIP that file by right-clicking and choosing Send to... | Compressed (zipped) folder
4. Upload the bird_dat.zip file to me using the Support => file upload page on this site.

Let me know if you need assistance on any of this.

Jeff

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for uploading your database.

I regret to inform you that it appears corrupted beyond my ability to work with the data. I cannot open it with MS Access nor can I open it programmatically.

There may be a resource somewhere on the web that can attempt to restore corrupt Access databaseses, however, I would bet that it would not be cheap (perhaps $100/hr for several hours of work - but this is just a wild guess).

Do you not have a Diary backup anywhere, from any time, on any media?

What about a system restore point that you could revert back to and get a copy of your database before the corruption?

What about a system backup that may have your database on it?

Just trying to think of any source that might have a copy of your database before the corruption.

Let me know how I can assist further.

Jeff