Sage data file name

[Chellebear]

Hello hello!

I am in a jam! Would anyone be able to brainstorm with me?? Pretty pleeeeease?

I am not a techy, I know a bit about Sage beyond the actual use of it, but not a lot! But I love tinkering, and the challenge of seeing if I can figure something out!!!!

I use Client Manager. - I have all versions since 2011, and they all should have their last update on. I have windows 10.

Last night, I made the biggest, stupidest mistake ever (come on, we've all said that one, at some point )... it was late, I was really tired (heavy workload at this time of year!). I was doing some invoicing on my own company file, and then I restored a clients back up... without opening their company first. And I haven't backed mine up in ages

I'll just pause while you all throw tomatoes. I know, I deserve it, I'm an ass! Who doesn't back up!?

Back in May16, I moved up from 2013 to 2015, on a new laptop (that back up was deleted from a pen drive (why would I do this?!) and is unrecoverable, as its part overwritten). I will have taken it from my 2013 version.

I still have the old laptop, as I didn't move all my older versions of sage onto the new laptop, and I still use it. I appear to have deleted my 2013 company from this. (again, why would I do this!?)

Is there anything I can do?

If I use a file recovery software, on both laptops, to scan the company.000 folder - is there anything I can look for, that might help me recover the posting data? Maybe from the 2013 version? Is it all held on one file, like it would be on a .001 back up file? Would I be a able to restore a Jan16 back up and overwrite the normal data file. Prob not that easy, but hey, got nothing to lose!

Any advice is super appreciated.

Michelle xx

[Al_Hindmarsh]

Basically you have to find either the last usuable backup of your company - the .001 file, or find an old version of your sage 50 data.

For the backup, the .001 file have you ever emailed it ? If so look in the sent items folder to find it. Otherwise do a search for all the .001 files on your laptops and see how old your copies are. If you find a file and the name on it is not helpful like "backup", go to restore in Sage 50 and select the file and it tells you what data is on it.
If you saved the backup somewhere it may have been put into a .zip or other compressed file format (.rar .pk7 etc) so don't forget to check those too.

Failing that you can try and find the data directory and use that. I don't know whether you actually deleted the company in Sage 50 or just deleted the selection from the company list - hopefully that's all you did when you "deleted" it. If that is the case we go to your old laptop to get the data directory:

Depending on what version of Windows you are using Sage installs the data directory in a selection of places. You can find out where by going to the Help and About in your Sage program in that company or a similar one - look for the data directory entry. Failing that look for directories called ACCDATA. The directory you need is in the company directory and is called ACCDATA, so it would be COMPANY.XXX\ACCDATA.

Once you find the ACCDATA folder - copy the whole folder.

Then in your new laptop, find the directory of your original company.xxx you overwrote (Help-About, data directory again), rename ACCDATA to ACCDATAOLD, then copy the folder ACCDATA from your oldlaptop into the Company.xxx folder. Then open Sage and with luck it will be there
and say its an old version and want to upgrade - thats it.

Hope that made sense !

[Chellebear]

Hi Al, thanks for your kind reply.

The back up file is irrecoverable so I am going to have to focus on "normal" company files.

I will have deleted the company, not the name from the opening list - I did it so I wouldn't inadvertently start posting into my old version, forgetting I had moved up to 2015! I am an old woman! My memory is not what it used to be! LOL

The recovery software seems to find files, as opposed to folders. Is there an actual file that stores the posting data call ACCDATA.XML or the like? I am not bothered about losing reports, templates etc. I am just unsure if the data is in one single file (like a back up would be). If it is, what would the name of that file be - presumably its usually sat in the ACCDATA folder?

Michelle

[Al_Hindmarsh]

Sorry Michelle it's a whole load of data files ending in .dta plus other file extensions - about 470 of them. But if you find a file called ACCDATA.INI and can recover all the files in the same directory that should do it.

Stupid question - have you checked in your recycle bin for any Sage stuff ?

cheers
Al

[Chellebear]

Hi Al, thanks again for your reply.

Yes, I've been through my recycle bin on both laptops, and even found the back up on a pen drive, using a recovery program, but its been partially overwritten so isn't viable.

I'll run the recovery software again, and see if its got any of the files with the extension you mention. I'll compare that to a normal ACCDATA file. Sounds like I may just have to repost. I don't have a lot of information to re-input, I was more interested to see if it could be done as I enjoy tinkering with things like this!

[brucedenney]

There are a couple of things you can do.

1/ Learn from the mistake. Always make backups in future. Take breaks, don't overwork. Remind colleagues.

2/ Get the most recent backup you have and start redoing your accounts.


If you look in the bank rec directory, you should still have the PDF's of the bank recs, so that should help.

If you have printed/pdf records statements. emailed statements/invoices etc they will all help.

Attempting to recover files is a waste of time, you will never get a full set to data files from the same point in time.