I am hoping that someone here can help me with a problem that I am having.

I am a end user (at work) of a Paradox 3.5 database that we use in our dispatch office.

Every once and a while we have to go in and restructure our dispatch field.

The other day when another dispatcher was attempting to do this, it appears that she did something that messed things up a bit.

This is the problem; when we are in paradox we usually go to Modify, Restructure, Dispatch (that particular field), add the astrick and bring everything back up. This time around when we enter D:\SDO paradox is adding and extra " \ " at the end automatically and the the field that we need to restructure is not showing up plus there is a bunch of other fields that are showing up.

Is there a way that I can fix this problem so that I can restructure that particlar field?

Forgive me if this is not making any sense, I have never used Paradox up until this point so I am not that familuar with it.

Thanks again,

Ron

Ron,

If you're running 3.5 under any version of Windows, you should urgently
investigate upgrading to version 4.02. 3.5 is very old, and is not suitable
for running under the recent "windows" releases. You'll get info on the
upgrade issues from Steve Green's site (www.DiamondSG.com).

This should NEVER be required (or, only EXTREMELY rarely - maybe once every
few years!). It most certainly should not be "normal"!

If some damage occurs, or, as it seems, an Index is damaged or deleted, then
you must determine WHY this is happening. You must put effort into fixing
the CAUSE of the problem, rather than regular repairs after the problem
arises.

Furthermore, if the data is getting damaged, then, sooner or later, it will
be REALLY damaged, and "repairs" will not fix it. You'll simply have to use
Good Backups.

1. That sounds like the data is "badly" damaged. In that case, cut your
losses, and revert to a good backup.

2. For repairing, you might also investigate a commercial product named
chimneysweep, as at http://sundialservices.com/products/chimneysweep/. It
comes highly recommended. However, Restructure, or Chimneysweep, can repair
only what's "repairable" - more or less. If the data is really badly damaged
/ destroyed, then it just simply ain't "repairable" no more!

3. If you can "view" some or all the data in the old damaged Table, then
perhaps you should create a new Table, with the required structure (do not
Borrow the structure from the old Table), and then either "insert" the
records from the old DB to the new one, or export the old data to a temp
file and import that to the new DB.

4. If you cannot even "view" the damaged data, then maybe it's still
possible to investigate the DB contents using some "backdoor" approach (eg,
using a Hex editor), and, hopefully rescue some/all of it, but that's way
beyond the scope of a simple message here!

- Mike

Ron wrote:

I don't see your original message, just the comments that Mike quoted.. but
I agree with every word Mike wrote.. we repeatedly tell people here that
running 3.5 for long periods on modern hardware/software is a disaster
waiting to happen.. and for you, unfortunately, the wait is over.. you are
describing a badly damaged table..


--
Steven Green - Waldorf Maryland USA

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