CAFAM - TECH NOTES NO 3

 01 MARCH 1998 (Revised 08 June 2002)

      Subject : NOT A DATABASE FILE ERROR MESSAGE  
      



 

Symptom

   The System does not open certain menus and indicates the dreaded message :
   "File Found is not a Standard Database File"

      

Reason

A file being opened has a damaged header - most likely caused by powering  off the   System without shutting down correctly

             

Fix

    There are three options open to you.....

 

1.     Select  "Recover from Back-up file" 
(in  UTILITLIES>REPAIR FILES>FIX DATA FILES>RECOVER FROM BACK-UP FILE). 
In this case CAFAM will recover the data from the known  good  position at  the last "Daily  File  Maintenance" which is prompted for whenever you exit from CAFAM.

CAUTION : Note that ALL your data will revert to the previous last good position at the File    
            Maintenance which hopefully was not too long ago

      

2.     If  the  above  does not work or the last File Maintenance was too long ago then the next option is  to  recover  from  your chosen  method  of hardware File Backup which is not part  of  the  CAFAM Software (i.e. Zip Disk, Tape Streamer etc). This presumes you have performed one fairly recently

 

3.     The third option is to try a Salvage Utility program.  We have used SALVAGE.EXE and found this product works well in salvaging files.   The program can be down-loaded by clicking here and is used as follows:

 

1.       Go to the MS DOS/COMMAND Prompt and change directory to the CAFAM 
  folder.

2.       Copy the offending file to create a back-up elsewhere
  (just in case Salvage fails!)

3.       Type SALVAGE <filename>

4.       Then launch CAFAM and Re-index the file in the UTILITIES section

 

Of the three options above,  we ourselves would try and use the third option (SALVAGE.EXE) first because it means the least loss of current data.  Provided a back-up copy of the damaged file is made, really you have nothing to lose in trying this first.

 


 

Zenner Limited (UK)
Zenner Aviation Inc. (Canada)

UK +44 (0) 1959 565 707
Canada +1 613 384 6523