Master Portfolio openning error, unable to open

[Dann]

Hi Mark,
Error message says, The investment file could not be found... Cancel pressed, then skipped openning missing investment. Then another error message ...
Data file is incomplete or in an incorrect format ... i pressed again cancel to proceed. But in the end an error message "Other error reading portfolio" and unable to open the master portfolio.
I dont remember doing anything unusual except i switch off the power before Windows XP completes to logoff.
I could not also open from the Backup Folder as well...
I am using Version 8X Pro on Windows XP installed on Passworded folder

Dann

[Mark]

Hi Dann,

It sounds like your data file(s) may have gotten corrupt somehow. This could happen if the power gets turned off while those files are being written to disk. If you can't open a portfolio, try opening individual investments with "File / Open Investment(s)....". All your pricing/transaction data is in the investment files, so you may be able to open these, and then re-construct your sub-portfolio hierarchy if the portfolio file is corrupt.

[Dann]

Hi Mark,
This is completely a disaster to me, as my external backup is 3 weeks old. I am able to open from my external backup master portfolio file(*.mms), but will only able to open few investements. When i open the latest individual investment files within the old master portfolio still error message comes out "Data file is incomplete or incorrect format".
Actually, what happen is FM is already exited when the power switched off.

I hope there's still a way to recover those latest investment *.dat file.

Dann

[Mark]

Hi Dann,

If you use "File / Open Investment(s)...", can you open your investments? Please try one at a time, so you can know which one(s) are corrupt, and which ones are good. Do not use "File / Open Portfolio..." until you figure out what investments are good/bad. If you get a message that a file is incomplete or in an incorrect format, you won't be able to use that file, and must instead get a backup of that file.

[Dann]

Hi Mark,
I am trying to do that, but out of 160 files i think less than 20 is good (able to open) but the rest is bad(not able to open), including those in the backup folder which is 3days older than in the main folder are also are bad. I don't understand why those autobackup files are also bad which are a back-up 3 days ago before this disaster happened.
Take note the autobackup files dated Oct11 and it was running ok, the error occurs only today Oct14. Why i can't open the Oct11 autobackup data files.

Dann

[Mark]

Hi Dann,

If the backup files are dated from before the power-off problem, it seems unlikely the cause of the problem is from the power-off. I'm not sure why they are corrupt. Maybe you have a virus, or some hard drive errors? Have you scanned your computer for viruses, and also done a checkdisk on your hard drive? Are the files that don't open a reasonable size? For example, if they are only a couple kB then they are basically empty. If you'd like, you can email me one of the corrupt investment, files, and I can take a look.

[Mark]

Hi Dann,

I received your test files. I verified that the corrupt one you sent me is indeed corrupt. I stepped through the opening process in a debugger, and your file is simply truncated at a seemingly random point in the file. Everything looks fine up to that point, but then the file is chopped off. Hopefully you have an older backup that you can restore. Sorry I don't have better news.

[Paul King]

Hi Mark - I am having essentially the same error - but in my case I initially get a message stating "the specified file was created with a previous version of fund manager. In order to open this file it needs to be converted to the latest file format."

I have not updated fund manager since version 10.9 , nor have I trialled a more recent version, and the data files opened normally with the current version only a few days ago.

I get this message with every portfolio file I have created.

Attempting to open individual investments gives me the same message

If I go ahead and click "yes" to convert the file, in all cases, for all investment the result is "data file is incomplete or in an incorrect format".

This is true of backups as well. Is it possible that a windows update or other system change might have made Fund Manager incompatible somehow? (running Windows 7 x64, all latest Microsoft updates)

[Mark]

Hi Paul King,

Sorry to hear about the troubles. Did you verify when you start FM that you are using 10.9? If so, it kind of sounds like your files have been corrupted somehow. What happens when you do a "File / Restore..." and pick a backup (*.FMB) file? Are you getting an error message?

[Paul King]

Hi Mark, the FMB files seem to open normally , though the last onoe of those is way out of date. Sadly, my most recent backups (last year or so) were made by manually copying entire harddrive - and they don't open for some reason

[Mark]

Hi Paul,

Are your most recent backups, *.FMB files? What happens when you try to open them exactly? Did you check what version of FM you're actually running?

Also, by default, FM automatically creates backups for you. Maybe you have some other *.FMB files you weren't aware of. See "Options / General Preferences... / Data" for the location of your automatic backups.