Hi Jeff,

I am running v 3.6.49 (both program and database). I have had no problems for the several months since I installed v3.6 and have been quite happy with it. However, just today suddenly I am unable to do backups when I exit, or even when attempted from the menu while running. When I attempt backup, it goes off for a few seconds to work, then I get the message:

"Backup Error!" in a box, with "File not found". In the backup box itself text is displayed that says "Error Occurred. Backup not completed!". The backup file is created, but apparently has something wrong with it.

I've tried this multiple times in multiple locations on both my C: and D: drives (including where all of my past backups are stored - and these older backups are recoverable still if copied over the database.mdb). I can see that the new backup file is there each time and is approximately the correct size (about 33MB). However, it is not loadable if I copy it over my database.mdb and try to run Birder's Diary again. So, the backup truly is not working.

What should I try?

Thanks!

Kevin, Fort Collins, Colorado

Hi Kevin,

Have you checked to see if you are out of disk space on your drive?

The backup process does the following:

1. Performs a copy/repair/verify/compact of your current database to the specified location, then
2. Copies the backup over top of your current database (so that you get the compacted and possibly repaired version).

It sounds as if it might be failing in step 1 if the backup cannot be copied back over database.mdb and used. The size should be smaller because of the compaction, than the original.

If you check and find that you have plenty of free disk space on both your destination backup drive and the drive which contains the BD database.mdb file (should be C:\), then ask yourself what might have changed recently on your system to coincide with this change in backup behavior. Is your drive or directory write-locked somehow?

Let me know what you find and if I can assist further.

Jeff

p.s. What version of Windows are you running?

Hi Kevin,

This started today. When is the last time you were able to successfully create a backup?

How about I get onto your system and have a quick look? Go to the Support >> Desktop Sharing page on this site; read the instructions and click on the Start Session button. I will get onto your system and see if I can't figure it out real quick.

Jeff