willmassie Posted September 13, 2008 at 02:39 AM Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 at 02:39 AM I am having the same problem as was mentioned in this post: "What happened to ZDT... it will not load..." by Radial However, there was no definite solution mentioned in that thread. I get the ZDT logo but, after that, the program will not load. I am afraid to try simply reinstalling ZDT because I do not want to lose all my wordlists that I had created. Unfortunately, I have only backed up some of my wordlists. How can I fix this problem without losing my wordlists! Thanks, Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willmassie Posted September 14, 2008 at 07:32 AM Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 at 07:32 AM Problem still not solved. I really hope that I can fix this without losing all my wordlists! I have attached that last part of the zdt log file found under "Documents and Settings/[user name]/zdt". Maybe it will provide some help. Thanks, Will zdt.txt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luobot Posted September 14, 2008 at 02:22 PM Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 at 02:22 PM (edited) Will, I'm not an expert, so try the following at your own risk: Basically you want to backup your flashcard data, save it somewhere safe, Uninstall / Reinstall ZDT, then copy the backup file into the original location where ZDT expects to find it. Do a backup in ZDT (the backup is under the file menu). In the dialog box you'll see "Backup to" with a default path. Save the default path + file name somewhere so you remember where to go back to. Click "select all" to make sure all your categories are included. Click "finish" It may ask you whether you want to overwrite the existing file. Say "yes" and proceed to back it up. Go to the folder where you just saved the backup and copy that file to another folder that has nothing to do with ZDT. After you reinstall ZDT, you can copy your saved backup file back into the original ZDT folder from which it came. I think you should be back in business. But if you lose your data, then don't blame me. I take no responsibility. Edited September 14, 2008 at 02:36 PM by Luobot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willmassie Posted September 15, 2008 at 05:40 AM Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 at 05:40 AM Luobot, Unfortunately, I cannot open ZDT in order to backup my data. That is the whole problem. ZDT will not open at all. I did find the backup file under the "Documents and Settings/[user name]/zdt" folder, but unfortunately, it contains no data. I would like to know how to repair the current installation (or, if this is remotely possible, how to extract the data, without being able to open ZDT). If neither of these options are possible then I will just have to start from scratch again. In the future, I will be extra careful to backup my data. Thanks for your suggestion anyway, Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luobot Posted September 15, 2008 at 02:05 PM Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 at 02:05 PM unfortunately, it contains no data. Then it's way beyond my limited knowledge of ZDT, which just comes from casual use. I suspect that your only long-shot hope is to find some general purpose data recovery software, but you might try sending Chris Fong, the creator/developer of ZDT, an email at fongcn@gmail.com to see if he has any better ideas. Sorry I couldn't be more help ... good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted September 15, 2008 at 07:08 PM Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 at 07:08 PM Either your zdt program is corrupted, or one of your configuration files is corrupted. To test this: Rename your user.properties file to user.properties.bad. Rename your user.script file to user.script.bad. Copy the attached file to user.script. Restart zdt If it doesn't start, zdt itself is bad. If zdt itself is bad, save your user.script.bad file somewhere else, uninstall zdt, reinstall it, and copy it back to user.script. If it starts, it's your config files. Exit zdt, copy user.script.bad back over to user.script, and restart zdt. If it starts, it was your user.properties, count yourself lucky and just redo your settings. If it doesn't start (which is my guess), it's your user.script file. If you really want your words back, you can try to edit that file. It's a simple text file, you can try removing parts of it and restarting zdt, and when it starts you know you've removed the bad part..... user.script.orig.txt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willmassie Posted September 16, 2008 at 05:43 AM Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 at 05:43 AM jbradfor, I did as you said. I renamed user.properties and user.script to user.properties.bad and user.script.bad. I copied the file you sent me into the folder and renamed it user.script. When I restarted ZDT, it did load. However, it gave me an error window that said that it was "unable to find a valid user database at the above location." (I have attached an image of the error window below.) After that, ZDT will load, but there are no categories or wordlists (even the ones that normal come preloaded with ZDT). Afterwords, I inspected the user.script file (the one you sent to me) and all the data that had been in it was gone. It contained only 4 lines of text. I have attached it below as user.script.orig.rev2.txt. As per your instructions, after ZDT loaded, I did copy user.script.bad back into the folder and copied it over the top of user.script. But, upon restarting, I obtained the same error window and no categories or wordlists were visible within ZDT. I have also attached a copy of my original user.script.bad. Upon inspection, I found that it contained only 2 lines of text and no other data. This is very confusing to me. Is the data supposed to be stored in the user.script file? If so, where did all my data go? Thanks in advance for any help, Will user.script.orig.rev2.txt user.script.bad.txt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted September 16, 2008 at 04:25 PM Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 at 04:25 PM I have also attached a copy of my original user.script.bad. Upon inspection, I found that it contained only 2 lines of text and no other data. Ah. That is a problem. Based on the above, namely that file has only 2 lines, I'm afraid I have to conclude that all your data are gone. I know of no way to get it back. I think your only real option now is to uninstall zdt and reinstall it. This is very confusing to me. Is the data supposed to be stored in the user.script file? If so, where did all my data go? Yes, all the data are stored in user.script. As to where the data went, I have no idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luobot Posted September 16, 2008 at 05:59 PM Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 at 05:59 PM Some free data recovery tools: http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=Xaz&q=free+data+recovery+software&btnG=Search&lr=lang_zh-CN%7Clang_zh-TW%7Clang_en Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willmassie Posted September 18, 2008 at 03:11 AM Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2008 at 03:11 AM Thank you all for your help. I am just going to have to reinstall and start most of my word lists over again. Let this be warning to all: It is a good idea to manually backup your data to a safe location periodically! Thanks again, Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bogleg Posted October 2, 2008 at 10:50 PM Report Share Posted October 2, 2008 at 10:50 PM Yeah, I feel real bad about this. It seemed like everything that could go wrong did. Even the automatic backup got corrupted. Anyway, I haven't been doing much ZDT development in quite awhile, but I'll try to make this a priority to look into. I know there's nothing worse than losing all your data. In the meantime, make sure you take advantage of the backup features. Use it often. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drahnier Posted October 21, 2008 at 05:57 AM Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 at 05:57 AM I, too, run into this problem at times. Very frustating, however it had a very interesting side effect: I started to love Windows Vista! Vista Business comes with a feature called "shadow copies" which automaticlly saves a list of previous versions of files/folders. So, if zdt now doesn't start or complains of a currupted database, I tell Vista to restore Userszdt to a previous version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radial Posted January 29, 2009 at 07:38 AM Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 at 07:38 AM Thanks for the hint about the Vista file recovery. It worked like a charm. Saved me from losing a lto of data. I also did another backup today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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