The file you are attempting to restore does not contain an Act! backup - NOT RESOLVED

[craigj1]

I do not.

The databases we all on my old computer, which was running Vista.  I reinstalled the OS after backing everuthing up (never suspecting that I'd have any problem retoring my backed up ACT databases).  My new PC runs Windows 7, on which, of course,my version of ACT does not run.

So, am I SOL?

[gmartin]

Are you able to create a new database (File > New Database)? If not, what is the error?

[craigj1]

Yes Greg, I am.

[gmartin]

Was the version of ACT! that the backups were created with ACT! V6 (2004) or earlier?  And you are attempting to restore them with a current version of ACT! (ex: 2012)?

If yes, you will need to unzip the backup files first and then open the database through the current version using the DBF file.  When unzipping the backups, be sure they are contained within a folder and not on the desktop.  Here is an article for opening an older version database: KB Article 28596

[craigj1]

The version of Act I have is 2008.

Thanks for sticking with me on this.

Craig

[gmartin]

Sorry for any duplicate questions, but I may have missed some information.

- With the test database you created - are you able to back it up and then restore the backup (Restore As option).

- The backups were created with ACT! 2008 and the version you are restoring with is also 2008 - is that correct?

- Are you using the Restore As option?

- How large are the backup files?

- If you extract (right click on the backup file > Extract All) one of the backup files, what are the contents (file/folder names)?

[craigj1]

With the test database you created - are you able to back it up and then restore the backup (Restore As option).

Unable to access ACT - it's telling me my "trial" version has expired!

- The backups were created with ACT! 2008 and the version you are restoring with is also 2008 - is that correct?  Yes

- Are you using the Restore As option?  Yes

- How large are the backup files? One was 17.1 MB

- If you extract (right click on the backup file > Extract All) one of the backup files, what are the contents (file/folder names)?

SalesSolutions (the database name - Drive - C-Users - Craig - Documents - ACT - Act for Windows 11 - Databases - SalesSolutions database files -

And then the following folders:

Backup

Dashboards

Layouts

Queries

Reports

Templates

And under Backup:

CRAIG-PC_master_D20090825T074808.BAK

CRAIG-PC_model_D20090825T074808.BAK

CRAIG-PC_SalesSolutions_D20090825T074808.BAK

RESTORE_PAD

There is no dbf file anywhere!

[gmartin]

Do you have your serial number?  Are you able to register or getting an error when attempting to?

If you are attempting to register and getting a message that you can't register, use a Private Notes and send my your serial number so I can check the registration tolerance.  To send a Private Message: click on my username > then select 'Send a Private Note' in the right side column.

There wouldn't be a DBF file in the backup (the BAK files are expected).  Here is an article with instructions for restoring a database using the new ACTDiag utility and the BAK file: KB Article 27607

[craigj1]

Greg, I do have the serial number, and was able to register.

I downloaded the ACTDiag utility and tried to restore the .BAK file using it.  While it said the file was successfully restored, it was not (I tried opening it from ACt and it doesn't appear in the folder I'd designated.  Not surprising, sinc I got an error message that began with "Incorrect syntax near "-")

In addition, the ACTDiag User's Guide for ACT 2008 says nothing about how to restore a database.

[gmartin]

Ok - unfortunately I think I see the problem... The database name is 'Craig-PC' and the '-' is an unsupported character for a database name. My assumption is that this database was converted from an earlier version of ACT! (pre SQL).

To attack this from a different side > are the original database files still available? Were all the files on the computer backed up prior to the update to Windows 7? You can search for '*.ADF' to try and locate.

If they are available, we can try opening the database with the ADF file. If that doesn't work, we can rename the files (remove the '-') and open with the ADF.