My First Corrupted Database

[Fujisawa Rob]

I've been playing around with the 5.0 trial as a possible RPG campaign management tool. All was going well, until this morning: I received an "Invalid database file was specified" error. Notes:

1) Running on Windows 7 64 in a VirtualBox VM
2) UR DB was open when the VM was closed (saves the state of ram, similar to hibernation. I've done this many times prior with zero issues)
3) File is stored on a shared drive (shared from the host OS, no issues with any other app)
4) When I re-open the vm, I was getting errors about not being able to find some pdfs that were open in UR tabs, although I could browse the shared folder just fine from Explorer

I've looked at the DB (a copy, actually) in a hex editor. It appears that the headers are completely gone. It doesn't even look like a SQLite file any more, so none of the usual tricks work.


1) Is there any hope of recovery? I don't have a backup unfortunately. This was a test db, and most of the stuff in it were links to external documents or web sites. The file is about 30MB, I suspect this size is due to parsed text. Still, I am dreading having to recreate everything in it. Sigh.
2) How can I prevent this in the future? I was *this* close to purchasing the product and moving my copious notes out of PhatNotes, but I must admit my confidence is a little shaken. Yes, I know I can take a backup, but that still doesn't prevent the loss of work. Is there an internal backup feature? Obviously I will be sure to close UR before closing the VM, etc.

Thanks! Great product, stupid user :0

[quant]

sorry, cannot really help, could be sth with vm

i use/abused (cold reboot when ur was running or doing something) ur for many years, and i never had a corrupted file (apart from the item that was currently edited and not saved)

[kinook]

We've never encountered that, but if the VM was powered down while UR was updating the database, it is possible for that sort of thing to occur (probably more likely on a shared vs local file). See here for how to minimize when UR updates the database: http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=3728

This could slow UR down, but you could also set the SQLite synchronous level to Full (default is Normal) using the attached .reg file. See here for more details: http://www.sqlite.org/pragma.html#pragma_synchronous

See here for possible recovery options: http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=2673

And of course, we recommend that you always keep a regular backup of important files.

[Fujisawa Rob]

Originally Posted by quant

sorry, cannot really help, could be sth with vm

i use/abused (cold reboot when ur was running or doing something) ur for many years, and i never had a corrupted file (apart from the item that was currently edited and not saved)

I wish I knew what happened so I could be sure NOT to do it in the future. Admittedly my setup is a bit unorthodox, but I've not had problems with anything else. I may run a "local" copy (on the VMs C: drive) of the DB and use the host shared drive as a back-up location.


Thank you for the replies.

[Fujisawa Rob]

I was able to recreate about 95% of what I had before from my web history and Recent Documents (since nearly everything in the DB was links to external URLs/docs). My main intended use will be as a 'control panel' that puts all of the documents, random generators, dice rollers, screens, etc. under one pane of glass for easy reference. I've tried other products (including MyInfo) but UR does it better than any other. I've got most things integrated into the browser, so it's very transparent as to whether you are editing an internal note or an external doc, or viewing a web resource. Even linking to .exe programs (e.g graph paper generator, dice roller) works very cleanly.

I'm running backup program test called Syncovery, which I like because it does block-level incrementals and synthetic backups with versioning. However, it can't do a shadow copy of the UR db when it's open. I may look for something that understands SQLite natively and can do a dump or something to back up.