My first damaged IMatch database...

[Mario]

Today Windows spontaneously rebooted while IMatch was in full flight, importing files from a recent shooting.

I heard a squeaky noise from the speakers, the mouse froze and then Windows rebooted. I suspect some audio driver issue, by the data logged in the event log. Sigh. New hardware, new drivers, ...

When I tried to re-open the database, the database system reported physical damage.
This is one of the (rare) typical cases from the 'How to damage a database' book. The database was writing data at the time of the Windows crash. Windows acknowledged the data as 'written' but due to the spontaneous reboot, it never really reached the disk. So the 'image' the database system had of the database no longer matched what was really on the disk. Parts of the important index structures were corrupted, and that's it. Unrepairable damage.

It took me less than two minutes to restore the database from this morning's backup (I backup my system 3 times a day, and historize everything for at least 4 weeks). I use Macrium Reflect, which makes all this a snap.

IMatch databases are super-robust, but a immediate reboot or a power failure just at the right time can damage them. So: make backups if your database (and all other important data).

[jch2103]

Useful info for all of us.

Technical question: Do you use differential or incremental backups with Macrium?

[Mario]

incremental dailies for 2 two backups per day.
Differentials for the final backup in the evening.

[dwags]

I have been dealing with the same thing (caused by a hard drive failure)  but I am not so fortunate in that my backup also seems to be damaged. Luckily all photos were on a separate hard drive.
I can open my data base and use it, adding new images, categorizing them etc. but every time I open the database I get a warning that it is damaged and should I scan it, but then the scan freezes and I have to force close it.

Without a clean backup I tried the last resort of "repair database" but it froze as well.
Is my only option to start a new database from scratch, or can I salvage something when I'm working in it?
Dale

[Mario]

Is my only option to start a new database from scratch, or can I salvage something when I'm working in it?

This kind of damage is unfixable Some parts of your database may contain complete random data. Or data in critical sections may be missing or plain wrong.

If you have no healthy backup, you can only start fresh.
If you can still open the old database, you can export your categories and Attributes into files, and then re-import them into a new database after you have re-indexed your files. This way you won't loose anything or at least not much.

See "Category Export" in the help for details.
To export/import Attributes (if you have used them) go to Edit > Preferences > Edit Attributes.
Also write-back all pending metadata (if you have unwritten changes) so the new database picks them up.

Remember: Historizing backups is as important as doing backups. If you don't keep backups for at least a couple of weeks, they are useless in case of a 'silent' damage caused by a disk failure, virus problems etc.