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trouble with memo fields

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    trouble with memo fields

    At some point this morning, one of our tables (which contains several memo fields) began to act erratically. I have updated the tables indexes (which went fairly quickly) and an now packing the table (which is proceeding very slowly). I just noticed though, that the suffix of the memo field component of this table (My_table.fpt) is empty (0 kb) and that another file (My_table.$$M) is present in the application folder containing the amount of data that should be in the My_table.fpt file. (This file is not present in our back-up from last night.) Once the pack operation is complete, I will attempt to simply delete the empty My_table.fpt file and rename the My_table.$$M file to .fpt.

    Does anyone have any experience with this phenominon? Thanks,

    -Bill

    #2
    RE: trouble with memo fields

    P.S.: Does anyone know if it would be inadvisable to kill the pack operation that I have in progress? I believe that the only way to do that would be to end task A5. Unfortunately, it appears that the pack will take several hours to complete. Thanks for any insight.

    -Bill

    Comment


      #3
      RE: trouble with memo fields

      I just packed a smaller table and watched. The $$M is a temporary file and disappears when the pack is over. I couldn't move fast enough to catch the size of the FTP, but I'll bet the $$M is the temporary FTP.

      Comment


        #4
        RE: trouble with memo fields

        Hello Bill,

        I bear bad tidings.

        The .$$M file was created by A5 when it was unable to complete a compact on your database. I do NOT think you should rename it to .fpt.

        I would guess your memo field and/or your indexes are corrupt. It may be time to revert to a backup.

        One less traumatic thing to try is restore just your .cdx files from a backup and then see if you can rebuild your indexes. This saved me once when my index definitions were corrupt but the data was ok.

        Let's wait to see what some others say.

        Good luck. I have been in the same place this term so you can believe me whan I say that I feel your pain.

        Bill H.
        Bill Hanigsberg

        Comment


          #5
          RE: trouble with memo fields

          Thanks to you both. I guess that I simply have to wait for the end of the pack - this unfortunately looks like it will take most of the rest of the day.

          The index definitions in the table look ok - and the indexes rebuilt quickly. But unfortunately, this did not cure the problem. Fortunately, we have what appears to be a good backup from last night.

          Any other thoughts would be welcome. Thanks,

          -Bill

          Comment


            #6
            RE: trouble with memo fields

            Bill,

            It sounds like you'd be a good candidate for my memo repair scripts.
            Check the Code Archive for my posting
            Melvin Davidson 11-02-2000 15:42

            Note: Scripts were written in V1, but should work on all later versions as well.

            Good Luck,
            Melvin

            Comment


              #7
              RE: trouble with memo fields

              I had some issues with indexes. The definitions seemed ok and the update ran but things still were out of kilter. I replaced the cdx files as I discribed above, rebuilt the indexes and we were on our way again.

              Thing is, it was easy to try. Just restore *.cdx and update all indexes. If it works you're done. If not, you do a full restore.

              (These problems sure do age you!)

              Bill
              Bill Hanigsberg

              Comment


                #8
                RE: trouble with memo fields

                Thanks for all of the advice. As it turns out, the problem I was experiencing was one that I have run into before, but didn't remember. The symptom was that if I went to the end of My_table in record number order and began to page backwards I would hit several pages of blank records (maybe a few thousand). These records were missing data that logically should have to be there (id numbers, etc.)

                Rebuilding indexes and packing the table did not fix the problem, but copying the table (all the .ddd, .ddx, etc. files) off the server (on to my local machine) and back on did. I believe that this problem has more to do with disc fragmentation that with the database. But, of course, the data could not have been all that fragmented, because NT Explorer was able to gather it all together when I copied it.

                As I say, this has happened to me a few times with different tables. If anyone has any insight as to how to avoid it in the future, please let me know. Thanks,

                -Bill

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: trouble with memo fields

                  Hello Melvin,

                  I'm really curious how you approach the issue of memo rebuilding. I haven't looked at your script, but I'm fairly familiar with memo field files. The 'pointer' field in the dbf just references a given 64k block in the fpt file. This block 'header' then tells how many blocks comprise this particular record. There is nothing that I'm aware of in the fpt file that would tell us what record from the dbf file it belongs to. It appear that many corruption issues are the result of a allocation reference in the ftp file that is way to large and begins to encompass megs of useless hard disk clutter. Can you give me your thoughts and how you accomplished this?

                  Thanks,

                  Jim

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: trouble with memo fields

                    Jim,

                    I built my scripts as a necessity to repair some damaged memos of one of my clients. The only requirement is that the table is "keyed" on a field or fields. But come to think of it, you just might be able to use the recno() itself as a key.

                    Basically, I take the memo fields, key them by the field(s) (or recno()) and then write the memo to a flat file.
                    Then I drop the memo field in the table (which by default fixes the corruption), add it back again, and then read/write back the corresponding information from the flat file. Read my posting, and you will see. :)

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