Urgent help needed! Trying to fix corrupted DB, coming up with error "Unable to cast object of type 'system.DBNull' to type 'SystemString'." [ Edited ]

[nccarroll]

I'm running ACT!Pro on Windows 8 machine. Trying to recover a vital database that somehow got corrupted. Have been following this post:

http://kb.swiftpage.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17715

and at step 6 in the 2nd section, when trying to Delete Database within the ACT! Diagnostics menu, I get the above error message and I cannot delete the troubled database.

What do I do?

Thanks

[dshaw111]

Have you tried this KB: http://kb.swiftpage.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27879/kw/27879

[dshaw111]

Or perhaps this: http://community.act.com/t5/Act/Purge-Database-from-Act-Diag/td-p/235195

[nccarroll]

Admittedly, I'm a novice, but that article deals with another error message: 

• You are attempting to customize columns (add, remove, resize) in a list or tab view and receive the error "Unable to cast object of type 'Act.Shared.Windows.Forms.FacadeBoolPropertyDescriptor' to type 'Act.Framework.MutableEntities.MutableEntityFieldDescriptor'.

I was not attempting to customize columns, just delete a file that was labeled "suspect"...  Going in to change the preferences when I'm in the middle of trying to solve another problem of  "Suspect" database seems like a can of worms, no?  I'll try the other solution. It seems more applicable.  Thanks!

[wellmet]

Try detaching the file instead of deleting it and see if that works.  That basically tells SQL to release it.  Then you can delete it from Windows Explorer.  A "suspect" file can usually be recovered though so if you don't have a recent backup I wouldn't delete the database.

Stan

[nccarroll]

How do I detach it?  From with the Run command actdiag, I can see the DB name listed there, but it's listed now as "Recovery Pending" (it used to say SUSPECT)... when I highlight that line and try to access the commands, that's when I get the error message referenced in the subject line.

I tried stopping SQL Server (ACT 7) within Services as answer 17715 tells me, but I still can't seem to do anything to the file.