Well it had to happen to me sooner or later. Just as I was backing up my database after an input session, my computer crashed. The backup file saved to disk. When I got back into Windows after the crash, I tried to open TMG and of course, my project file is corrupt and gives me the “is not a valid data file” or project file or whatever it says message. I tried to restore from that new backup but it won’t read it either. I then went to the next most recent backup file and it looks like it will restore that one. I stopped the wizard when it asked me if I was sure I wanted to restore over my data file, or some such wording. (I believe this was step 3: Data) Not sure what the right answer is and I think just to be on the safe side, I would like to restore the project to a new name. I didn’t see a place on that screen of the wizard to specify a new name. This is the first time this has happened to me and I’m nervous about the possibility of losing 20+ years of data. I am scrupulous about backing up after every input session (or during sessions) and then sending those files to Dropbox. I’m using v9.05. I opened another project file and looked through the help and I don’t think I'm seeing the answer to my questions, although there is something about an overwrite warning and making a copy of the project file first with a new name and then restoring to that. Does the restore process require an underlying project file in order to work? I’d like to know what I can expect from the rest of the wizard. And if there are any gotchas I need to be aware of. Thanks for your help. Robin in Short Pump

Robin, Create a new temporary Windows folder. Now in Step 2 of the Restore, select that folder in "Restore project to this folder". Once done you can open and check that the project is complete. If desired, you can now use TMG to "rename" the project. Or you can use TMG to "delete" the bad project in your original folder, and use TMG to "move" the restored project from the temporary folder into your original folder. It would also be appropriate to review Terry's Tips about using restore and what to check concerning the Preferences after a restore: https://tmg.reigelridge.com/new-computer-version.htm#restore Hope this gives you ideas, Michael

Thanks Michael. I will report back. Robin > On Feb 2, 2019, at 12:04 PM, Michael J. Hannah <mjh@rr-nm.net> wrote: > > Robin, > > Create a new temporary Windows folder. Now in Step 2 of the Restore, select that folder in "Restore project to this folder". Once done you can open and check that the project is complete. > > If desired, you can now use TMG to "rename" the project. Or you can use TMG to "delete" the bad project in your original folder, and use TMG to "move" the restored project from the temporary folder into your original folder. > > It would also be appropriate to review Terry's Tips about using restore and what to check concerning the Preferences after a restore: > https://tmg.reigelridge.com/new-computer-version.htm#restore > > Hope this gives you ideas, > > Michael

Looks like my restore went well. During the process it asked if I wanted to override a bunch of files that were “existing” and I said no to all. Hope that was the right answer. Now when you say to have TMG “delete” and “move” the files, are you talking about just editing the path to the files in the Preferences? Robin > On Feb 2, 2019, at 12:04 PM, Michael J. Hannah <mjh@rr-nm.net> wrote: > > Robin, > > Create a new temporary Windows folder. Now in Step 2 of the Restore, select that folder in "Restore project to this folder". Once done you can open and check that the project is complete. > > If desired, you can now use TMG to "rename" the project. Or you can use TMG to "delete" the bad project in your original folder, and use TMG to "move" the restored project from the temporary folder into your original folder. > > It would also be appropriate to review Terry's Tips about using restore and what to check concerning the Preferences after a restore: > https://tmg.reigelridge.com/new-computer-version.htm#restore > > Hope this gives you ideas, > > Michael

Robin Kaspar wrote: > Looks like my restore went well. During the process it asked if > I wanted to override a bunch of files that were “existing” > and I said no to all. Hope that was the right answer. Possibly not, Robin. It sounds like you did not follow my suggestion to create a new temporary Windows folder and restore the project into that empty folder. Since it asked to override files, it sounds like you were restoring into the same Windows folder as where your original project files were located. Since you did not "override", it is possible that some corrupted files of that project may have been left intact. > ...when you say to have TMG “delete” and “move” the files, > are you talking about just editing the path to the files > in the Preferences? No, this is different. *If* you restored the project to a different folder than where your original project was located, once you verify it is good you may wish to "move" it (back) to the orginal project folder. When in TMG, "File/Close" the current project (not Exit). This will leave you in TMG, but no project actively showing. Now use the TMG File menu still on the screen and choose "File/Delete Project" to delete all of the many files of the bad project. That gets rid of all the old, possibly corrupted, files of that project. Then use the TMG File menu and choose "Move Project" to move all the files of the verified good restored project back to the original folder. Realize that a TMG project contains many tens of files. It is not just one file. That is why you let TMG do the moving/deleting. Once the resored project is back in the original Windows folder you should still check the paths to files in the Preferences to be sure they point to the correct Windows folder. That is a separate thing. Hope this makes more sense, Michael

I did create the temporary folder to restore to and I confirmed the wizard pointed to that folder. Was there a special place that folder should have been located? I put it as a sub folder under the projects folder. I was surprised it was detecting existing files. Sent from my iPad > On Feb 4, 2019, at 4:40 PM, Michael J. Hannah <mjh@rr-nm.net> wrote: > > Robin Kaspar wrote: >> Looks like my restore went well. During the process it asked if >> I wanted to override a bunch of files that were “existing” >> and I said no to all. Hope that was the right answer. > > Possibly not, Robin. It sounds like you did not follow my suggestion to create a new temporary Windows folder and restore the project into that empty folder. Since it asked to override files, it sounds like you were restoring into the same Windows folder as where your original project files were located. Since you did not "override", it is possible that some corrupted files of that project may have been left intact. > >> ...when you say to have TMG “delete” and “move” the files, >> are you talking about just editing the path to the files >> in the Preferences? > > No, this is different. *If* you restored the project to a different folder than where your original project was located, once you verify it is good you may wish to "move" it (back) to the orginal project folder. When in TMG, "File/Close" the current project (not Exit). This will leave you in TMG, but no project actively showing. Now use the TMG File menu still on the screen and choose "File/Delete Project" to delete all of the many files of the bad project. That gets rid of all the old, possibly corrupted, files of that project. Then use the TMG File menu and choose "Move Project" to move all the files of the verified good restored project back to the original folder. > > Realize that a TMG project contains many tens of files. It is not just one file. That is why you let TMG do the moving/deleting. > > Once the resored project is back in the original Windows folder you should still check the paths to files in the Preferences to be sure they point to the correct Windows folder. That is a separate thing. > > Hope this makes more sense, > > Michael

Hi from a warm New Zealand I want to merge a small Dataset of 50 individuals to my Primary Dataset. (There are no duplicates). I know the procedure but am concerned about ID Numbers. How do I make sure that those individuals now in the Primary Dataset are issued with "new" IDs" preceded by their "new" Dataset Number? Thanks Garry

Garry F Bell wrote: > Hi from a warm New Zealand > > I want to merge a small Dataset of 50 individuals to my Primary Dataset. > (There are no duplicates). I know the procedure but am concerned about > ID Numbers. How do I make sure that those individuals now in the > Primary Dataset are issued with "new" IDs" preceded by their "new" > Dataset Number? Of course one could make a backup and then just try it to see what occurs knowing one could go back to the backup. Or... From the topic on Merging Data Sets in the Import/Export chapter of my on-line book, the subtopic of merging people says: https://www.mjh-nm.net/IMEXPORT.HTML#MergePeople "The people in the sending dataset are added to the receiving dataset. If they are actually the same person, they will need to be merged individually. The ID numbers of the people in the sending dataset will retain their ID _order_ but begin at one number higher than the highest ID number in the receiving dataset, i.e. gaps in the ID numbers in the receiving dataset will not be used." Hope this is clear, Michael

Hi Michael, and thanks for your reply. I merged the two Datasets i.e. Dataset #34 into my Primary, and intended, Dataset #1 and all went smoothly. (As all individuals in Dataset #34 were not in Dataset #1 there would not any duplicates to worry about) However I must be missing out a step as all those individuals in the Receiving Dataset have retained their original numbers e.g. 34:1 etc. Where have I gone wrong? Once I know the solution I can do a restore and start over. Thanks Garry >> Hi from a warm New Zealand >> >> I want to merge a small Dataset of 50 individuals to my Primary >> Dataset. (There are no duplicates). I know the procedure but am >> concerned about ID Numbers. How do I make sure that those >> individuals now in the Primary Dataset are issued with "new" IDs" >> preceded by their "new" Dataset Number? > > Of course one could make a backup and then just try it to see what > occurs knowing one could go back to the backup. Or... > > From the topic on Merging Data Sets in the Import/Export chapter of my > on-line book, the subtopic of merging people says: > > https://www.mjh-nm.net/IMEXPORT.HTML#MergePeople > > "The people in the sending dataset are added to the receiving dataset. > If they are actually the same person, they will need to be merged > individually. The ID numbers of the people in the sending dataset will > retain their ID _order_ but begin at one number higher than the > highest ID number in the receiving dataset, i.e. gaps in the ID > numbers in the receiving dataset will not be used." >

At 2/4/2019 23:29, Garry F Bell wrote >I merged the two Datasets i.e. Dataset #34 into my Primary, and >intended, Dataset #1 and all went smoothly. (As all individuals in >Dataset #34 were not in Dataset #1 there would not any duplicates to >worry about) >However I must be missing out a step as all those individuals in the >Receiving Dataset have retained their original numbers e.g. 34:1 etc. >Where have I gone wrong? Once I know the solution I can do a restore >and start over. Merging of project and data sets depend on the _direction_ in which the merge takes place. In your merge, data set (DS) #34 is the "new" data and your want to merge it into/append to DS #1. In the Merge Data Sets window. one of these will be shown as Data set A and the other as Data set B.. Below these fields is the options Mertge B to A and Merge A to B.. Whichever option is selkected depends on how you want the merge to go. I suspect that you want to merge DS #34 to DS #1. This adds the new DS to the old one. The result being that nothing is really changed in DS #1 except that DS #34 data has been added (at the end) and the DS #34 data has new ID#s at the end (in the high #s) of DS #1. So if your old data has new ID#s then you have done the Merge "backwards". In this case, you need to Restore a backup (you did this before the merge, right?), and re-do the Merge in the proper "direction". Lee

Thank you Gentlemen. Having had a good nights sleep, and a bit of rethinking, I went through the process again and immediately got the results I was after. Garry

Garry F Bell wrote: > I merged ... Dataset #34 into Dataset #1 and all went smoothly... > However ... all those individuals in the Receiving Dataset > have retained their original numbers e.g. 34:1 etc. I replied to the List while in bed last night before going to sleep: > After the Merge the "people" and their tags of the sending dataset > are copied into the receiving dataset. But the sending dataset > remains unchanged in the project... What I failed to recognize is that it seems you are confusing the concepts of Dataset and Project. Terry's Tips explains the difference between the two TMG concepts better than I can here: https://tmg.reigelridge.com/projects-datasets.htm But to use your case, TMG always opens a "Project", which may be comprised of many "Datasets" within that project. When you display a person or open the Picklist to search for a person, if the ID number is two parts (a number before a colon followed by a number, e.g. 34:1) that is indicating that this person is person number 1 in dataset 34. After your merge of dataset 34 into dataset 1 you now should *also* find what "looks like" the same person in the Picklist but with a number like 1:5213. That is the *duplicate* of person 34:1 which was created when dataset 34 was copied onto the end of dataset 1. But dataset 34 still exists with all its people, so you see both "persons". It is because these duplicates from different datasets can be confusing that I mentioned in my post last night: > If you wish, you may use the Dataset Manager to now delete the > sending dataset 34 as all its information is now also in dataset 1. Hope this helps explain, Michael P.S. You said "Hi from a warm New Zealand", well Hi back from the warm desert of New Mexico.