Family Historian User Group

was busy adding to my project file (which has over 4300) names I went into the source window corrected one item and then saved from the source window the computer then went blank and and I could not get any to any key strokes I then had to turn off the computer and restart when I tried to open my project folder it came up with a box saying :unrecognised file format: If you are trying to insert picture or other multimedia you should go to insert menu and choose the appropriate menu item. to restore from back up use restore on the file menu.
As I did not do any of these things or have the chance to back up the file what can I do to rectify the situation? it would seem that the file was saved but not in the correct ged com format
Can anyone please help?

Regards
Bob Holbrook

ps I have recently upgraded to ver 5

ID:6352

Sorry to hear of those problems Bob.

Do you have any file backups in any form for your Family Historian Project?

If not, and you are using Windows 7, then an earlier version of the GEDCOM may be recoverable.
I will give details if you confirm you have Windows 7.

BTW: You may not know, but the safest way to power-off a PC, in an emergency like that, is to hold its power-on button for 10 seconds.
Do NOT switch off at the mains, as it can cause havoc!

Hi Tatewise,

Many thanks for your reply to my problem
Yes I did a full back up when I upgrade from v4 to v5 on th 21/6 and was able to reinstall from backup, since then I have updated about 50 records (yesterday) and it was whilst I was attempting to save and close from the sources area that it crashed. The only way to get out was to shut down my computer the way you stated. I thought there might have been a bug in v5 so I did notify Calico Pie of the problem.
I am using Windows 7and did a full repair on it just in case that caused the problem. I am up and running on the backup so I will just have to put up with losing th 50 or so updates that I put in.

Once agian thans for your prompt reply

Regards
Bob

Sorry about the FH V5 lock-up. This behavious has not been reported by anyone else as far as I recall.

It probably would not have helped in this case, but Windows 7 has a little known file version recovery feature.

Locate the problem file (GEDCOM in this case), right-click it and select Properties.
Then select the Previous Versions tab, and after a while, any saved earlier versions are listed, and can be opened, copied, or restored.
These versions may have been saved in a Restore Point or a Windows Backup.

Just a question.
Won't the Auto Save function have saved the file say 5 mins before before the computer crash corrupted the active data?

It sounds like FH was in the act of performing a manual Save when the problem arose, and that probably corrupted the GEDCOM file.
So any previous Auto Save would have been obliterated.