Purge Database from Act Diag

[rconant]

I have two databases in Actdag that are marked "recovery".  I can't detach them.  When I try, I get a message saying Unable to cast object of type "System.DBNull" to type "System.String'

They are dead.  I don't need or want them  I just want to purge them from ACTDiag, and, I presume, from the SQL server.

How do I do that?

Roger

[wellmet]

Shut down the SQL ACT7 instance using services.msc and delete the [database name].adf, [database name].alf, [database name].PAD and [database name]-database files folder.  Then start the service back up.  That should do it.

Stan

[rconant]

Already tried that. (I didn't actually delete the files, but I renamed the folder in which the database is located and uninstalled/reinstalled Act.)

Didn't work.

[Romni314]

Had the same problem...multiple non-existent databases stuck in ActDiag, and unable to delete them.

FIX:

1) Create new empty database named Temp (I just named it Temp for this example)

2) Stop SQL service

3) Navigate to ACT databases folder

4) Copy all Temp files and matching 'database-files' folder

5) Rename Temp files and folder to match name of the missing database in ActDiag

6) Open the .pad file in notepad. On line 4, change ACTDatabase name="Temp" to match the missing database name. Close and save.

** Repeat steps 4-6 for all other DBs to remove

7) Restart SQL service

8) Start ACT, and open the problem database.

9) Navigate to Tools>Database Maintenance>Delete Database, and confirm

** repeat open/delete for all other problem DBs,  and Temp when finished

[andrea_mahoney]

just has the same issue

went to cmd prompt

type cd C:\Program Files (x86)\ACT\Act for Windows delete "db name"

db removed from actdiag

[daniel_graves]

that would be a simple solution, Andrea.

but when I try it, I get this error in command window 

"'delete' is not recognized as an internal or external command"

[toddwex]

Romni314, your solution worked for me.  Slightly revised:

FIX:

1) Create new empty database named Temp (I just named it Temp for this example)

2) Stop SQL service

3) Navigate to ACT databases folder

4) Rename Temp files and folder to match name of the missing database

5) Open the .pad file in notepad. On line 4, change ACTDatabase name="Temp" to match the missing database name. Close and save.

** Repeat steps 4-6 for all other DBs to remove

6) Restart SQL service

7) Start ACTDiag, and highlight the problem database.

8) Navigate to Tools>Detach Database, and confirm (you might need to do this for the temp database as well)

Now you will be able to restore or complete your database move.

[jb@plan.co.uk]

I recently had this issue after changing a drive letter.

I spent the best part of a day trying to delete the database, but despite following the guidance here, whenever I selected the database in Actdiag, I got the error message "unable to cast object of type 'system.dbnull' to type 'system.string'".

Eventually, the only way to resolve the issue was to uninstall both Act Pro 2018 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and reinstall.

Best of luck,

Jason Ball

[mmondo]

Sorry this is so late, but I found the answer that may help others.

https://www.act.com/docs/default-source/user-guides/ActDiagUsersGuide.pdf

There is a page about command line prompts you can run actdiag tools from!

You need to do this:

From the command line:

C:\program files (x86)\act\act for windows\>actdiag /detach databasename

The other posts didn't have the /parameter or the right directory.  Saved me a ton of heartache installing SSMS to get to the same problem.

[mikeyorke]

I just wanted to add that I was experiencing this exact problem...Database listed in actdiag as 'RECOVERY_PENDING', but any attempt to use the 'Actions' menu would cause actdiag to crash with the same error the OP describes. I followed the other steps to create a temp DB and also to use actdiag via the command prompt, neither worked.

In the end I noticed the users documents location (where the remote database files were stored) was set to use NTFS compression on the contents - probably the user did this as their C drive space was running low. I un-checked the option to compress the folder where the ACT database and files were stored. Actdiag now shows the DB as ONLINE.