topic Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work in Installation & update

HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:24:47 GMT

Hello,

I lost information from the work file.
Last night I had a complete pln file with several stories, elevations, sections, etc....the works.

Today I tried to open it and it's completely empty.

As you may imagine, I'm completely desperate and I'd like to know if this has happened to someone else.

I've tried to look for temporary files and autosave files but unsuccessfully. I am not sure where are these located.

I tried the bpn as well, but it is empty also.

I recall, yesterday night I was having some problems with a dashed line not showing properly on a published PDF. After restarting the pc it published ok. And Im sure I saved it properly and no error window popping out on exit.

The good version had around 15 Mbytes. This one has 3Mbytes. I don't know what does the 3MBytes stand for, though.

Can anybody give me a hint on what happened to my file? If not for this one at least for future working files? My main fear is that I cannot understand WHY such thing happened.

Many thanks,
Joaquim

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Dwight — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:14:28 GMT

Have you reviewed the Backup file .bpn???

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:50:21 GMT

Yes.

It is the same as the PLN file. Like I said. I don't know what happened. Maybe I saved the currupt file twice ending up overwriting the BPN as well.

😞

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:11:57 GMT

perhaps you saved the file to an alternate location or under a different name. search your hard drive for .pln files that were recently modified.

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:00:41 GMT

I was about to suggest what Dom said.

Also - are you on a network? If so, and if the server is running SBS2003 you should be able to get a previous version of the file:
1)Right click on the file
2)Click on Properties
3)On the window that comes up click the top right tab called 'Previous Versions'. (see attached image).

I know that's a couple of big IFs, but it might help.

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Dwight — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:06:27 GMT

I suspect that from the condition of your backup file that your cat or pet iguana inadvertently deleted this data.

While this horror has never happened to me, I have always used the sequential daily save method as an archiving and protective backup strategy. At the end of each day, when the project is saved, the project is ALSO saved as the next day's project. This means that you have a project record for every day of the week: each day's decisions. I do this because I HAVE had the horror of wanting to review something I over-wrote. Changed my mind twice, eh?

It is a flaw of Archicad that each design alternative from yesterday is so easy to inadvertently mess up with today's design development that you can lose valid alternatives by saving over them. This has happened to me, and it is a relief to copy parts from an old file into the current workspace.

And another flaw is saving after inadvertent deletion of elements. Since the undo queue is dropped after each save, as soon as you save a project with errant deletions, you geese are cooked. Like, why is the "S" key right next to the "Z" key. Deadly. Nice to spelunk yesterday's save to recover stuff.

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:52:27 GMT

I'm not sure i like the idea of having 5 different copies of my model file hanging around - i think it might promote confusion when returning to a project you haven't worked on for a while. How do you ensure everyone knows what is the latest and appropriate file to work on?

Data back-up and safety, however, is a very important topic. I would be interested in hearing what kinds of techniques other users implement to develop a set of best practices.

for myself, I use a freeware product to perform an incremental backup to a network drive daily and to an external drive that i take home weekly. In addition, I have 2 hard drive in my local computer configured in a RAID 0 (duplicate copies) In case one fails another is immediately available.

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:07:27 GMT

Hi Dom,

Care to share the name of the freeware software you are using?
I'm currently using the DriveHQ. 1Gb free.

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:22:22 GMT

The program is called Syncback and is available free at:

http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html

note, when I said back-up to a network drive, I mean a drive located on my local network and not through an internet service.

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Dwight — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:25:20 GMT

You keep yesterday's work around to quickly revert or to copy parts that you inadvertently delete today. Once a project is saved or you pass the undo queue, what do you do about a mistake? This is about decreasing the backup void.

I work alone, so remembering to open a new version every day is not a problem.

When you make incremental backups, the last version gets OVERWRITTEN, right? So when you revert, it is to last week's work. This is fine if you mess up on Monday, but as the work progresses throughout the week, your exposure increases.

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:41:45 GMT

you are, of course, absolutely right and I can certainly see the merits of your system. I'm simply inquiring about what other systems users may implement and perhaps discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls to each.

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:24:38 GMT

Dom wrote:
I'm not sure i like the idea of having 5 different copies of my model file hanging around - i think it might promote confusion when returning to a project you haven't worked on for a while. How do you ensure everyone knows what is the latest and appropriate file to work on?

We have a folder called 'Superseded'. Every time a major design change happens the old file gets renamed with a letter at the end (my drawing a.pln, my drawing b.pln etc....) and put into the superseded folder.

Dom wrote:
Data back-up and safety, however, is a very important topic. I would be interested in hearing what kinds of techniques other users implement to develop a set of best practices.

Nightly backups to tape. Stupidly we keep the tapes in the same room as the server, so if we have an earthquake or a fire the files will be lost anyway.

Re: HELP URGENT!! Lost work

Erika Epstein — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:10:52 GMT

Tom wrote:
Nightly backups to tape. Stupidly we keep the tapes in the same room as the server, so if we have an earthquake or a fire the files will be lost anyway.

Aside from a daily back-up every Friday I toddle on down to my bank where I switch out an external hard drive back-up in my safety deposit box. I figure if it doesn't survive the earthquake/fire, probably neither will I.