access violation errors and complete loss of data

[davidwhyte]

Over the past few months I have trialled a lot of PIM software (TexNotes, AZZ Cardfile, HyperClip, Zoot, Idea etc).

I settled on using MyBase and have been - fairly happily - using the unregistered version for a few months now.

I was planning on registering MyBase but happened to come across a link to Ultra Recall by accident on a blog site.

I have been trialling the unregistered version of UR for about a week now and love the look and feel of Ultra Recall and also the ability to customize with attributes. I like the way the items are stored with their 'proper' icons and also the synching with websites. The ability to configure your own templates is another great idea.

I have created items which link to all the websites that I have logins for and I can store additional details into the Item Text field. I have been importing all my disparate documents into UR so I have them available at all times. It has been working well, generally, and I was really looking forward to having all my information on hand in the one place.

I have had quite a few errors though, mainly access violation ones on document items. Most of the time, the program would just close and I could re-open without any data loss.

Since the unregistered version limits you to 250 items, I have created eight .urd files and was planning to consolidate these after my imminent registration. Even though you are limited to 250 items in the unregistered version, it does allow you to import more than this in a single import. I was receiving access violation errors on a few MSDN articles which had been saved as web archive(.mht) files and I was wondering if the access violation errors were because I had about 380 items in the file.

I thought I would prove/disprove this by moving a few of these articles to a new file. I selected about 6 or 7 of these items and right-mouse dragged them into a new .urd file selecting Move Items from the popup menu. It seemed to move the items OK but when I changed focus to the original database, the 'deleting items' message was being displayed. This disappeared and all appeared to be well, however, when selecting one of the items I had just moved into the new DB I received another access violation error which shut the program down. Upon restarting the program, it tried to open the first database automatically but couldn't and gave me an error along the lines of 'Query not properly ended'. I apologise for not making a precise note of the message (as a developer myself I should know better!)

I was really disheartened now as NOTHING appeared in my .urd file. I closed the program and re-opened but it was still the same. I thought maybe a Compact and Repair would restore my items but I think now it may have made the situation worse.

As I am new to UR and have multiple .urd files I haven't initiated any sort of backup yet (*slaps own wrist*).

As I have just been dumping all my misc documents into UR for organzing afterwards I am unsure as to the exact documents that I have lost.

The only thing remaining for me to do is to scour my Recycle Bin and try and cross reference anything in there that I don't have already imported into another one of my 8 (well, 7 plus one broken) .urd files.

I still really like UR but I'm very upset and a little angry at the moment and am also concerned that others may encounter data loss when all our eggs are in the same basket.

David