Dynamsoft Forums

Hi all,
I've been having a very hard time with one of my VSS databases lately and I definitely need hints and tips from experienced users.

In the middle of last week we noticed that a file in one of our databases could not be opened.
This is a text file, not a binary. It's a header file in a subproject, short history, rather small.
So I ran Analyse from the Visual Source Safe Administration tool (we're using VSS2005 and Studio 2005) and indeed, the file was corrupted.
At the end of the analyze log, it was suggested that I run analyze using the -F -D -V3 flags, which I did.
I also used the -b flag to specify a backup folder.
I started that analyze command at night, knowing that no one would access the database during the evening
although some files were in checkout and Studio and possibly VSS were opened on some computers (and therefore had an opened link to the database).
When I looked at the log the next morning, it said that files had been fixed. So I went to look at the database to see
if the file could now be read only to realize that the whole sub-project was gone, along with hundreds of files in other subprojects of the same database. Those files were behaving well up until that point.
The code itself can be recovered. What I have on my dev machine is the current code. But I don't want to lose the history of the files or my labels. If I look at the database in VSS, the missing files are not listed in the Deleted Files, so I cannot simply recover them that way. Looking at the history from the top of the database, I see that the user Rebuild purged or destroyed the files and subprojects that are now missing.
Now, that was last week, and everyone was after me to recover the missing files and go on with their work.
I looked all over the place and asked a question on the microsoft forum but found no help whatsoever.
So I went into the backup folder that analyze had made and copy/pasted the files where they belonged.
It seemed to only partially fix the problem in that the files were back and accessible but when I ask for their properties, I get error messages on some of the tabs.
So I reran analyze but this time I did not put in the -d flag. I did not want to risk files being deleted again for no reason.
But guess what? It deleted them anyway. And of course I have many more errors that I had before.

So now I'm looking for a way to clean up these files so that they don't disappear everytime I run a fix on the database. Any suggestions?

Hi SoDel,

You may use VSS Archive Utility to backup the project including the files and add the current version of the files, which are clean, on your dev machine to the VSS database.

Meanwhile, I recommend you try SourceAnywhere, which is a SQL-based source control system designed as a replacement for SourceSafe. You can get better performance, security and reliability with SourceAnywhere.
http://www.dynamsoft.com/Products/Reasons%20to%20Switch%20from%20SourceSafe%20(SourceAnywhere%20Standalone).pdf

Thanks.

Thank you for the reply Catherine.
If I understand the Archive utility correctly, it will allow me to archive the database as it is now
(ie, with lots of missing files) and then restore it,
and what you suggest is that I then add the files as if they were new?
Won't that completely destroy their history information?
How is this different from simply adding them now as new, without using the Archive utility?

I will look into your suggestion for SourceAnywhere. Would transfering to that software keep the current history of my database?

Archive utility allows you to backup all data or a specified version range of a project to a file. In case you may need to access the history versions of the files, I suggested you archive the project with problem for backup and remove it from current database, and then you can add the latest version of files so that you can move on with the work.

SourceAnywhere provides VSS Import Tool, which allows you to transfer your VSS data, including the history info, to SourceAnywhere database. Since SourceAnywhere uses SQL Server as backend, the integrity of your data can be ensured.

Thanks.

I now understand what you meant, and what you wanted me to do.
I won't have easy access to the history of the files, but it will be there somewhere.
That would be an acceptable solution.
Thank you!

I'm just wondering what the point of the Analyze backup is, if there's no way to recover the files!?

You may do backup manually before Analyze to avoid the problem.