Total Disaster!! PLEASE HELP!!

[KarenBM]

I tried to update the website this afternoon only to be told that there was an I/O error with one of the graphics. OK, so I closed the software down and tried opening again - no go. It stated there were bad sectors and would I like to reformat the disk. I then checked and repaied files with Windows repair system. Windows stated that it had replaced bad clusters in various Actinic related sectors - including Actinic~1.log, Candprod.fil and actinic~1.mdb. Now when I try to open Actinic I get a message saying:

"Unable to locate database for the selected site. The site will remain unchanged"

Upon looking I can see that the folder "Sites" has dissapeared from the Actinic folder. Is there any way to recover the site? I have been working on the site every day and not done a snapshot since 15th February. Since then we have had many hundreds of orders come through, plus lots of new stock etc.

Please help me, I am totally at my wits end! I could cry!

Thank you in advance.

Karen

[NormanRouxel]

Before doing anything else make a backup copy of Site1 - if you can see it - (preferably onto another drive, CD or memory stick if you have one). Also copy / paste the info in Housekeeping / Security into a textfile and backup that too.

Once you've done these come back and we'll try to suggest what to do next.

[NormanRouxel]

Also, if you have Snapshots, and they're on the same disk, it would be a good idea to get them backed-up somewhere else as it looks like your disk is failing and can't be trusted.

[KarenBM]

Before doing anything else make a backup copy of Site1 - if you can see it - (preferably onto another drive, CD or memory stick if you have one). Also copy / paste the info in Housekeeping / Security into a textfile and backup that too.

Once you've done these come back and we'll try to suggest what to do next.

The site1 folder has dissapeared. There is a file (unspecified format)called "site" which I cannot move, delete or rename - Window reports that it is corrputed and unreadable. File size is only 16KB so whatever was in there, i.e. Site1, has gone. See scrennshot.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Karen

[KarenBM]

Also copy / paste the info in Housekeeping / Security into a textfile and backup that too.

Where is that? I can't find it

[NormanRouxel]

You have to be able to run Actinic to get that info. However it will be in your Snapshot (even oldish ones will help there).

Unfortunately you're in big trouble. Hardware disk errors make me think that your system drive is failing and that any attempt to keep going on that drive would be pointless and might also overwrite any info that may be recoverable in the future.

The best bet is to get the most recent Snapshots off your disk and onto some removeable storage. Have you done that yet?

[KarenBM]

Yes I have moved a snapshot from Feb 15th onto a CD. Unfortunately that is the most recent snapshot

[NormanRouxel]

You really have 2 awkward choices.

1) Re-install Actinic on your existing system and re-import the Snapshot. This will hurt your chances of recovering anything from the suspect disk. You'll also be at risk from an untrustworthy drive.

2) Stop using your existing system right now. Find a spare system and install Actinic and the Snapshot on that.

This way you can investigate, somewhat at leisure, whether there is any chance of recovering an old database backup, or other files from you dodgy drive. The dodgy drive could be installed in the replacement system as drive D: where you can look at it with various file recovery utilities. If you closed Actinic recently via the DataBase Backup options, it will have written Previous.mdb and Backup.mdb files that contain that days database. There's a chance that data recovery software (or services - e.g www.ontrack.com) can help get that data back.

You should also be careful about downloading orders as Actinic may require an upload first if it sees major changes. Don't upload until you have recovered anything that's only available on the web-site.

Both of these scenarios lose all recent work and orders. If you've lost images in this crash, they and the product text and prices can be seen on the live site. There's not much else you can recover from the live site.

None of this is good news, but that external Snapshot means you're in a much better place than the numerous "my hard disk died and I've never made any backups ever" posts that have been made here.

[KarenBM]

Thanks for that. Unfortunately I haven't got a spare system I can start again on.

What I have done so far is to create a new Sites folder and placed an old Site1 from January that I had. I then imported the snapshot from February. It's a total mess as we have had many hundreds of orders in since then and lots of new stock. Stock levels are now wrong and on more than 8000 products lines that's going to be an impossible stock take!

I have to say that Actinic had been struggling for a while, I even posted about it to these forums some months ago. I have had a problem with the application hanging wihen trying to view Completed orders and other similar problems. This was why I did not have an up-to-date snapshot, I have left the machine running and the application open for many weeks.



Karen

[wjcampbe]

Karen,

Put everything else aside and go out now and buy a new hard drive - you just cannot afford not to.

[KarenBM]

I have ordered a new external HD which will be with me Tuesday. I am not confident enough to install an internal drive myself. In the meantime I have been trying to recreate the shop from the site and have spent approx 24 hours working non-stop - and I mean non-stop! Periodically I create snapshots etc and place them on a CD. The stock levels are going to be the biggest pain.

What do you guys do? Create snapshots every single day? You need to if you employ automatic stock control and have a large site that is constantly updated. I would be very interested to hear how other people handle the security and back-up situation.

Karen

[wjcampbe]

Karen, try a search for backup on the forum. We have discussed it several times. I run daily weekly and monthly backups (including storing a zipped copy of site1 folder on the server once a week).

[Mike Hughes]

I have a second hard disk in my PC and run Norton Ghost daily to backup the primary drive to it (Full backup weekly with daily incrementals). I also backup the database everytime I close actinic, again to the second disk.

The most common forms of PC failure all involve the hard disk so if that happens to the primary hard disk I can simply recover from the backup or switch it to a second PC and recover from there.

Just in case something happens that wipes both hard disks I also do a less regular backup of my important data files to DVD.

Mike

[orcahouse]

Karen,

Similar to Mike - I have an external hard disk that I use solely for system backups. I use Acronois TrueImage (rather than Norton) and do automatically scheduled monthly full back ups and daily differential back ups. I can then very quickly reconstruct the original disk or clone it onto a new disk. With so much invested it's a relatively small outlay for peace of mind.

Tom

[TraceyHand]

What do you guys do? Create snapshots every single day?
Karen

Yep
either to CD or a removable, external hard drive.
But you do learn the hard way, unfortunately