Fix corrupt datebook.dat

[Angella]

Lets say you haven't had your palm for over a month...

and you've been using the palm desktop on a laptop for the last month.

And you did something bad last night, and corrupted the datebook.dat

and the datebook.bak is really old, because you haven't synced.

Oh - and you have all kinds of backup methods, but didn't use any of them (because you aren't always the brightest).

How would YOU go about repairing that corrupt file? I'm a computer programmer, but haven't touched palm programming... and I don't really have the time to start from scratch, so I could use a pointer - maybe someone has built a utility to export the data or something?

: )

[Jim Cooke]

The first thing I'd suggest is trying to use the Palm Desktop to repair the file. Go to Tools, Options. On the Tools tab, you should see "Check and repair any corrupted records" and a Check Now button. Of course, this only works if you can get the datebook file open at all. Any idea how you managed to corrupt the file so badly if it won't open?

The only other suggestion I can give is to try Dimex at http://www.linkesoft.com/dimex/ . This will allow you to export the datebook file in CSV format. Depending on the corruption, you may be able to recover anywhere from none to all of your records and then import them back into the desktop.

If neither of these methods work, you're stuck restoring from your old backup. Since it's clear you understand all the bad things you did, I won't go into a litany of why you shouldn't have done them. :)

[Angella]

thanks for the idea - I'm trying to find version 1.3 or older of dimex now (emailed their support) since I'm running an older palm desktop version (which, btw, doesn't have that feature, even if I could get into the datebook...)

Thank you... I'll let you know what I find out.