* Upgrading to Windows 10

[blackbill]

Since I upgraded my desktop computer to Windows 10 I cannot access my data in Family Historian. The FH programme loads ok but when I go to the project window and select my project I get the error message C;/users/Black's/Documents/Family Historian Projects/Black Riach Project.FH data/Black Riach Project.ged. File not found.

I have tried going to File/Backup Restore/Restore and select my latest back up but I get the error message "no items match your search" although the backup file appears to be present and selected.

[NickWalker]

If you go to Start and then File Explorer, can you see the Family Historian Projects folder? If so then open up that folder and then (presumably) the 'Black Riach Project'. In that folder you should see a file called 'Black Riach Project'. Try double-clicking that and hopefully you should find it opens in Family Historian. Check if your pictures display correctly. If it doesn't open and you get the same error, see if there is a Black Riach Gedcom file in the 'Black Riach.fh_data'.

If you reply to this and let us know how it goes, we'll be able to advise what to do next.

[blackbill]

Thanks Nick
I found the file you suggested and when I clicked on it FH was opened. However it immediately came up with the error message
"unrecognised file format".

I cannot see any gedcom files. My most recent backup is a zip file.

[tatewise]

Did you follow the advice in glossary:windows_10_upgrade_tips|> Windows 10 Upgrade Tips?

Did you create full backups on external media?
Major upgrades are renowned for causing major corruption.
See New computer with Windows 10 (13390).

Within FH use File > Backup/Restore > Restore and locate that .zip file to restore it.
If it was only a GEDCOM Backup then that is all that will be restored, no Media.

[blackbill]

Yes I have backups on an external drive and I also have a copy on a laptop. As I said in my original post I have tried using the restore facility within FH but it did not work. I have now tried using restore with my backup file and it still doesn't work with the error message "Restore failed. Unknown error".

Maybe I should try reinstalling Family Historian?

[NickWalker]

Hi Bill

I really don't think it is likely that the upgrade to Windows 10 will have deleted your Gedcom file. Can you list what you see in the 'Black Riach.fh_data' folder that I mentioned in my first reply.

Nick

[blackbill]

Hi Nick

Thanks for your patience. I have the following in the 'Black Riach.fh_data' folder

name dated modified type
Log files 2/6/2013 File Folder
Media 27/1/2016 File Folder
Plugin Data 2/6/2013 File Folder
Black Riach Project -2012-05-20 0043 17/3/2013 compressed (zipped)folder
Black Riach Project 30/12/2015 compressed (zipped)folder


Bill

[NickWalker]

Certainly from what you've listed it doesn't look like your GEDCOM file is there and this explains the error you got (but as I said I really don't believe the Windows upgrade will have deleted it, but that doesn't help you as I have no idea why it isn't there!).

Back in File Explorer, try clicking on the 'Quick Access' item in the left-hand panel and type *.ged into the search box at the top right and then see whether the search finds any ged files on your computer. You can use the View toolbar at the top and choose 'Details' to see the information more clearly. If there are any files called 'Black Riach' and the dates are recent then reply and let us know the folder path where those files were found.

In case the search doesn't help and to save time, another question - when would you estimate you last added any data to your Family Historian GEDCOM file? Where was the backup file zip that you said was the most recent one and what was the date of that? If you're not certain whether you have the latest backup or where your backups were stored, you could try a similar search as in the previous paragraph and look for FH*.zip to try to locate the most recent backup - let us know what that's called and where it is.

Best wishes

Nick

[blackbill]

Hi Nick

Some progress!
I did the search for *ged files and although I found several old one the most recent wasn't included.

I went to where I know I store my most recent backup. The file path is

This Computer
Documents
Bills Documents
Family History
Family Historian Backup - this is where the three most recent backups are located in zipped format.

I clicked on the most recent zipped file and that revealed the ged file, so I copied it to the same folder as the zipped files and went to "restore" in FH and put the known location of the ged file in. It seemed to work ok but I got an error message "File not terminated correctly (no trailer record found)" and it had only loaded my root person.

I then clicked directly on the ged file and it opened up FH with all my data present. However all my multimedia files are missing and the program was very slow running.

Bill

[blackbill]

Hi Nick

I tried again using the restore and it worked this time (including my multimedia files). However when I shut FH down and reopened it again it couldn't find the files. The error message was as per my original post "C;/users/Black's/Documents/Family Historian Projects/Black Riach Project.FH data/Black Riach Project.ged. File not found."

Bill

[tatewise]

Bill, when you Restore a full Project, FH insists on giving it a different Project name from any existing Project.

What new Project name did you choose?
Is that new Project name listed in File > Project Window?
Does it open your restored Project?

[blackbill]

Hi Nick

I repeated the restore and this time called the project Black & Riach (adding the &). It was not listed in the project window.
However in the project window I clicked on "new project" and brought it in that way. All seems to be ok except my multimedia files are missing.

Bill

[johnmorrisoniom]

From my observations on theis post, it seems like the file is being restored to location "A" but the project default location is "B". If you have correctly restored a backup to a new project, it should be visible in the project window. What is the location of the project you restored, and what is the location shown in the project window (The default is I think C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Family Historian Projects)

[NickWalker]

Are your missing multimedia files in the Media folder you mentioned in this post:

Thanks for your patience. I have the following in the 'Black Riach.fh_data' folder

name dated modified type
Log files 2/6/2013 File Folder
Media 27/1/2016 File Folder
Plugin Data 2/6/2013 File Folder
Black Riach Project -2012-05-20 0043 17/3/2013 compressed (zipped)folder
Black Riach Project 30/12/2015 compressed (zipped)folder

[blackbill]

John - You are right the new project is stored in This PC - Documents - Family Historian projects. However it does not show up on the projects window in FH.

Nick - Yes the Media 27/1/2016 folder contains all my photos

Bill

[johnmorrisoniom]

You have only answered one of the questions that I asked.
What is the projects location set to in the project window (See screenshot)

Capture.JPG (39.12 KiB) Viewed 10593 times

If this does not match where your project is saved to, then it will not be shown. You may need to use
More Tasks....
Project List>
Choose location for Projects....

Then browse to where your project has been saved to.

[NickWalker]

Bill

Follow John's advice to get the project list showing.

Rather than restoring to a different project, what I would do to try and resolve the original problem is the following...
1) Make sure Family Historian is closed
2) Copy the Black Riach Project.ged file from inside the most recent backup zip and put into 'Black Riach Project\Black Riach.fh_data folder (which is what you said you did in an earlier post). However, effectively just by doing this it should restore your data so there should be no need to choose any restore options in Family Historian.
3) Open up the project, either by running Family Historian and selecting it from the Project Window (if you've managed to follow John's advice and it shows there) or by double-clicking on the Black Riach Project file in C:/users/Black's/Documents/Family Historian Projects/Black Riach Project.

[blackbill]

John & Nick

Thank you both for your advice and apologies for the delay in replying to you. I took ill last Saturday and am just now getting back to normal.
I have done what you suggested and all is now well.

I'm thinking I may have caused the problem by storing my backups in a different folder from the main FH folder. Would it be best to keep them together in one place?

Bill

[davidm_uk]

I keep my backups on a different disk drive(s). If you don't do that then if your disk fails or gets corrupted then you've lost all your backups.

In fact I keep copies of all of my backups, not just FH, on a separate internal disk drive, and on an external usb drive, and on a NAS drive, and in the cloud. I have this all set up to happen automatically, so that I don't have to remember to do anything other than periodically check that it's all working properly.

[tatewise]

Bill, checkout glossary:backup_and_recovery|> Backup and Recovery.