Sage Act - lost everything please help

[marada]

I posted this on the SAGE ACT forums but have not had a reply. If anyone could help I would be really grateful as I am now really desperate. Thanks Helen

A few days ago I had a catastrophe in that my hard drive decided to die unexpectantly. I have now purchased a new hard drive, installed windows and am trying to reconfigure everything. I did not do an official backup of my ACT databases however I did manually copy the database files over to a USB flash drives a few weeks ago. I have the ADF, alf ,PAD as well as the database folder. Logic tells me that I should be able to restore my ACT database from this even though I have not done a backup the official way? I am using Sage act premium 2011 Hot Fix 4



The problem is that when I try to open the PAD or ADF file it does not work. As suggested when I try to open the ADF file I get the following message:



"This database cannot be opened because the SQLServer version of this database cannot be identifed"

I have tried looking at guides and as suggested delted the PAD file and tried opening with the ADF file but I still get the above message. I also have the latest edition for my program
and according to services.msc "SQL server (ACT7) is an active service." There is nothing wrong with the SQL server on the new install as I am able to create a new database etc, but I just can't open the old one.


I am really at a loss as to how I can get my database up and running again? I am extremely anxious as the database contains nearly 6 months of work and extremely important customer contact details etc. If anyone knows how I could get this working I would be extremely grateful. If there are no solutions I would even be willing to pay someone to get this working as I am extremely desperate.

 

[chrishankinson]

is either your database server or client machine running a 64 bit OS? I've seen this before with some migrations but I have to say I'm not an expert.

 

[bediwin]

Logic tells me that I should be able to restore my ACT database from this even though I have not done a backup the official way?

Not necessarily - or at least not easily. You can't just take a copy of a running database and expect it to work because the database could be doing any number of things with the files even when you yourself aren't touching it and they may not be in a suitable state to take a copy of.

I think your best bet is to contact either Sage or your reseller and ask for support.

EDIT: I should add that it doesn't sound good - it sounds like the copy you've taken is quite badly corrupted.

 

[Anjam]

I think when you install ACT it creates a random sa password for the SQL database. The sa password for your new install will probably be different to the sa password on the old database. ACT support should be able to fix for you (once you get through to them!)

 

[marada]

is either your database server or client machine running a 64 bit OS? I've seen this before with some migrations but I have to say I'm not an expert

Yes the machine is running windows 7 64 bit.

 

[chrishankinson]

Yes the machine is running windows 7 64 bit.

were you running a 64bit OS before?

 

[marada]

I think when you install ACT it creates a random sa password for the SQL database. The sa password for your new install will probably be different to the sa password on the old database

Any idea how to fix this as I have not had any reply from SAGE as of yet. I desperately need to fix this ASAP as I need to access customer records urgently.

Thanks Helen

 

[marada]

were you running a 64bit OS before?

yes I was running windows 7 64 bit before. I installed the operating system again on a new hard drive from the same windows 7 install disk

 

[Anjam]

Any idea how to fix this as I have not had any reply from SAGE as of yet. I desperately need to fix this ASAP as I need to access customer records urgently.

Thanks Helen

Helen,

Sorry it has been a number of years since I have worked with ACT. Do you have ACTDiag? You should be able to mount/dismount your old database into your new instance of SQL server.

Your version of ACT is pretty new, do you have Sage cover? If yes then give them a call rather than use their forums.

 

[marada]

Do you have ACTDiag? You should be able to mount/dismount your old database into your new instance of SQL server

Yes I have ACTDiag but can't see how I would mount my old database into the new instance? You only seem to be able to change things for already mounted databases and mine as never been mounted as I can't open it as per my first message.

 

[Anjam]

Not sure if you have already tried this but worth having a go if not;

You can use ACTDiag to attach an ACT! by Sage 2007 (9.x), ACT! by Sage 2008 (10.x), ACT! by Sage 2009 (11.x), ACT! by Sage 2010, or Sage ACT! 2011 database, comprised of ADF and ALF files, to the local SQL Server® instance for Sage ACT! 2011.
Click the Windows Start button, select Run and type "actdiag" The ACT! Diagnostics utility launches.
Click on Tools and choose "Attach ACT! Database" and click "Normal Attach".
Browse to .ADF file of your database and click OK.
Once database is listed in Database List of ACTDiag, you can launch Sage ACT! and open database within Sage ACT!.

 

[marada]

Not sure if you have already tried this but worth having a go if not;

You can use ACTDiag to attach an ACT! by Sage 2007 (9.x), ACT! by Sage 2008 (10.x), ACT! by Sage 2009 (11.x), ACT! by Sage 2010, or Sage ACT! 2011 database, comprised of ADF and ALF files, to the local SQL Server® instance for Sage ACT! 2011.
Click the Windows Start button, select Run and type "actdiag" The ACT! Diagnostics utility launches.
Click on Tools and choose "Attach ACT! Database" and click "Normal Attach".
Browse to .ADF file of your database and click OK.
Once database is listed in Database List of ACTDiag, you can launch Sage ACT! and open database within Sage ACT!.

Thanks for your suggestion. When I do that I get the following message:

"The database cannot be opened because it is version 700. This server supports version 661 and earlier. A downgrade path is not supported"

 

[Anjam]

Did you use the correct version of ACT for the new install? The Version/Service pack of your current SQL instance is earlier than the lost SQL instance. Try a windows update or download the latest service pack for SQL Express.

 

[marada]

As far as I am aware the SQL is up to date and is the one that is installed as default when act installs, therefore it would be the same as on the other install. I think the warning message is talking rubbish.

 

[marada]

I also tried opening with a trial edition of sage act 2012 on another computer and still had the same problem.

 

[Anjam]

Yes, I am thinking that too. Version 655 is SQL 2008 and Version 661 is SQL 2008 SP2. Either the database is corrupt or something else is causing it to return an incorrect version number. SQL Express won't mount it if it thinks it is a newer version (even if it isn't).

If the data is important I suggest calling ACT Support, they have access to tools that end users don't to repair databases. If you have Sage cover the support should be free.

 

[Anjam]

I'm am intrigued by this problem now and can't stop thinking about it. If you have time you could try installing a standalone instance of SQL 2008 R2 Express and Management Studio Express, make a copy of the sql database see if you can attach it.

This won't help you in getting ACT working but may give you a more meaningful error with regards to why the DB won't mount.

 

[marada]

Hi Anjam
I really appreciate your help. Do you mean install a standalone instance of SQL 2008 R2 as per this guide:

How to Manually Create the Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 (Express Edition) ACT7 Instance
http://kb.sagesoftwareonline.com/ap...%AE-sql-server%E2%AE-2008-r2-(express-edition)

 

[Anjam]

Try using this guide as it is not ACT specific http://blogs.msdn.com/b/petersad/ar...ver-2008-r2-express-edition-november-ctp.aspx

Give the instance a unique (to your computer) name like SQLTEST

Then google for SQL Management Studio Express and install that.

 

[marada]

ok thanks for posting the guide. I am going out now but will try it tonight and report back

Thanks Helen

 

[worldy]

Listen, I think someone has mentioned this already. But just contact Sage support on 0845 111 5555 - I don't know why your messing around with this. The support is normally very good and they should have no problem advising you or even remoting in and assisting.

If you don't have support purchase it!, as you need this fixed!!!

 

[marada]

I did what you said and installed SQL 2008 R2, however the problem is if you don't have the SQL instances attributed to ACT then it is impossible to use the ActDiag to attach the database. Any ideas?

 

[Anjam]

Use management studio express to attach the database as mentioned above. Like I said it won't fix your ACT but may give you a meaningful error. Also remember to take a copy of the database and attach the copy.

Couldn't Sage support help?

 

[marada]

I have management studio express and when I open it I get the following screen:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/707/studios.jpg/

What do I do here?

Thanks Helen

 

[marada]

I just telephoned SAGE and they said that the way I copied the database has probably caused corruption and there is nothing they can do from their end. I mentioned that I thought they had tools to repair corrupt databases but they said they don't have anything to repair a database that is corrupt thought being copied in this way. They said if anything I may get more luck from Microsoft tech as they consider it a SQL issue. The guy was really helpful who I spoke to and he clarified this with his supervisor, however there is nothing they can do their end. This leaves me in a real mess. If anyone is willing to have a look at my database and see if there is anything they can do I would be willing to pay them if they could recover.

Thanks Helen

 

[bediwin]

Okay, two questions for you:

1. Do you still have the original (dead) hard drive?
2. How much data are we talking about here in terms of value? £Hundreds? £Thousands? £Tens of thousands?

Reason I ask is I'm wondering if it's worth you shipping the drive to a recovery lab.

 

[Anjam]

Sorry I have just read your first post. When you say you "copied" the data to a USB you couldn't have copied the actual database because it does not allow copying while SQL is running. Unless you stopped the SQL instance first?

You may have copied the ACT share and the PAD file but missed the SQL database which is stored in a different place and has all the data in it.

You may have to attempt a recovery from your failed hard disk if you still have it.

 

[bediwin]

Sorry I have just read your first post. When you say you "copied" the data to a USB you couldn't have copied the actual database because it does not allow copying while SQL is running. Unless you stopped the SQL instance first?

You may have copied the ACT share and the PAD file but missed the SQL database which is stored in a different place and has all the data in it.

You may have to attempt a recovery from your failed hard disk if you still have it.

I think that's exactly what happened, which is why I'm driving in that direction. You cannot "just copy the files" when there's a database involved - it doesn't work like that because even when you're not touching the database, it can be doing all sorts of things with the files. There are ways around this but I'm going to keep from discussing them here because we'll go off topic.

 

[NetwiseHosting]

Hi Helen,

Just wondering where you are upto with this?

As others have suggested, if you have the faulty hard drive then there is a chance, normally pretty sizeable, that the information can be recovered one way or another. This is something I would very much recommend leaving to the professionals though - we have contacts in this field if that helps.
All the best,

Matthew