Restore Help Needed

[Wurz1]

I seem to have foolishly lost my database.

I run regular backups on closing down iMatch but am slightly concerned I may not have been doing this correctly as using 'Pack & Go' to restore the most recent 'backup' from 2 days ago doesn't seem to restore an actual imd5 database file.

Any suggestions?

[Mario]

Did you include your database in the Pack & Go Package (The Pack & Go Application).
Including one or more databases is optional.

When you verify the package, you can see if they contain a database: Verify 
The verify protocol lists all databases in the package.

How did you restore? Back into the original folders or into a separate folder so you can restore individual files manually with Windows Explorer?

[Wurz1]

Seems I haven't been including the database

I found one from a couple years ago so guess I'll just have to work forward from that.

Databases:
None.

[Mario]

That's unfortunate
Pack & Go shows a warning "You have not included a database..." when no database is included in the package.

Don't you have a "real" backup of your entire disk you can extract the database from?
I mean, your disk/SSD can die from one minute to the other, and all your data is lost unless you have a full backup.

[Wurz1]

Well yes, or so I thought.

Got a HDD with everything on AND backed up to OneDrive, but I have obviously not taken sufficient care as all my actual documents/files (including photos) are all there but more recent database backups missing.  I have been doing some serious 'tidying up' so have obviously not been careful enough. 

My much older backup is now restored and I will work from that. Only a home user so can probably get back to where I need things to be in a couple of days. Not working any more (36 years working in IT mean I should have known better!) so will keep me occupied.

Thanks anyway.

[Mario]

36 years working in IT mean I should have known better!

You probably know the proverb: "No backup, no mercy"

And that backups which are not regularly tested and restored are no backups.

Using software like Macrium Reflect, TrueImage or the free Duplicati make it quite easy to backup all data (!), regularly (!), automatically (!) to multiple (!) media (like external disks and cloud) and to retain daily, weekly, and monthly backups for a suitable time span.

Pack & Go is not a backup tool. IMatch pushes it as such after I've learned that many users don't do backups at all. If their SSD suddenly dies, they have at least their IMatch database and settings.