Losing most recent recording info

[bgowland]

I'm experiencing the following intermittently and was wondering if anyone else had noticed it.

Sometimes, but ONLY sometimes, I can start the Config app., click OK to exit (without making any changes) then when I open the main app., the most recent recordings in 'Whats New' have disappeared. The recording files are still there, just the info in the database file has disappeared during compaction. Also, any one-off recordings I've recently scheduled go missing from the Pending page. Specifically, it seems that any recordings before midnight (i.e., the previous day's recordings and older) will still be there - just anything recorded or one-off schedules since midnight go missing.

I've discovered that I can copy the gbpvr.mdb.original back in to place and that has everything expected. NOTE - this is not the same problem as the gbpvr.mdb going missing / being renamed as old.mdb - I've never seen that.

If nobody else has seen this then I can only assume I have some bizarre minor corruption in my mdb file.

Cheers,
Brian

[sub]

Have you got a gbpvr.retained.mdb file in your directory? This triggers GB-PVR to perform a version upgrade, which involves renaming gbpvr.mdb to gbpvr.mdb.original

[bgowland]

Have you got a gbpvr.retained.mdb file in your directory? This triggers GB-PVR to perform a version upgrade, which involves renaming gbpvr.mdb to gbpvr.mdb.original

Hmmm. Now it gets complicated.

Yes I do - timestamp 04:28 this morning. The strange thing is, I tried to replicate the problem about 2 hours ago (17:23) but none of the recent recordings disappeared from the What's New list - even with the .retained.mdb being present and the process didn't create a .mdb.original.

The last time I saw it happen was about 4AM this morning - I deliberately recorded a programme between 02:50 - 03:50 to check this. After it had finished, I waited for the dvr-ms -> mpeg2 transcode to complete, checked it was in Whats New, backed up the DB then did the Config thing - sure enough the recording was gone from Whats New but everything else was there. To be honest, I don't know if I had a .retained.mdb file at that stage.

[sub]

Keep investigating, and I'm sure once we're aware of the exact circumstances that cause this, then we can come up with a solution for you.

[bgowland]

OK - here's a snippet from my config.exe.log at 17:23 (ish) when I DIDN'T lose my recordings...

Code:

17/09/2005 17:22:56.999    VERBOSE    [16]    getValue: /settings/Version : GB-PVR v0.94.12
17/09/2005 17:22:56.999    VERBOSE    [16]    Checking if UPGRADE processing is required
17/09/2005 17:22:56.999    VERBOSE    [16]    Found gbpvr.retained.mdb
17/09/2005 17:22:56.999    VERBOSE    [16]    Trying to stop recording service...
17/09/2005 17:22:58.342    VERBOSE    [16]    recording service stopped
17/09/2005 17:22:58.342    VERBOSE    [16]    Deleting gbpvr.mdb.original
17/09/2005 17:22:58.342    VERBOSE    [16]    Renaming gbpvr.mdb to gbpvr.mdb.original
17/09/2005 17:22:58.342    ERROR    [16]    Encountered an error trying to upgrade the existing database: The process cannot access the file "C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\gbpvr.mdb.original" because it is being used by another process.
17/09/2005 17:22:58.405    ERROR    [16]       at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String str)
   at System.IO.File.Move(String sourceFileName, String destFileName)
   at xeb983fa94d0b4753.xfd6951461fe46d87.x1f0684532099dac8(Object xdf2e3583f942db7b, EventArgs xc4f45905cb1fc7ba)

What I'm guessing here is that the gbpvr.mdb.original was successfully deleted but something failed when renaming gbpvr.mdb to gbpvr.mdb.original, the process failed and I ended up with my original mdb hence no loss of recording data ???

The gbpvr.retained.mdb file mentioned in the log is the one I said, in my last message, was timestamped 04:28 but it didn't get processed so didn't get deleted and the gbpvr.mdb.original didn't get created.

Next...a snippet from when I DID lose my recent recordings...

Code:

18/09/2005 00:21:41.811    VERBOSE    [16]    getValue: /settings/Version : GB-PVR v0.94.12
18/09/2005 00:21:41.811    VERBOSE    [16]    Checking if UPGRADE processing is required
18/09/2005 00:21:41.811    VERBOSE    [16]    Found gbpvr.retained.mdb
18/09/2005 00:21:41.811    VERBOSE    [16]    Trying to stop recording service...
18/09/2005 00:21:43.124    VERBOSE    [16]    recording service stopped
18/09/2005 00:21:43.124    VERBOSE    [16]    Renaming gbpvr.mdb to gbpvr.mdb.original
18/09/2005 00:21:43.124    VERBOSE    [16]    Renaming gbpvr.retained.mdb to gbpvr.mdb

As you said, the gbpvr.retained.mdb overwrote the gbpvr.mdb and everything that had been recorded since 04:28 was lost. I'm not sure why the attempt at 17:23 failed though.

So...answering the question - if a muppet like me installs a new version but clicks Cancel instead of OK on the Config app. that pops up at the end of the installation process, sometime later if he clicks OK in Config he'll get the retained mdb overwriting whatever went before.

Sorry - sometimes I click OK in Config at the end of an upgrade but sometimes I click Cancel. Urrk.

[sub]

The key question to me is why do you have a gbpvr.retained.mdb file? This is only created as part of the upgrade. None of the gbpvr processes will create this file. Its only made by the MSI installer when it renaming the gbpvr.mdb to ensure its kept as part of the upgrade.

If you didnt have one of these files, which you shouldnt, then none of this process would run in the first place.

So...answering the question - if a muppet like me installs a new version but clicks Cancel instead of OK on the Config app. that pops up at the end of the installation process, sometime later if he clicks OK in Config he'll get the retained mdb overwriting whatever went before.

No, this shouldnt be the cause. This processing happens when the config app starts and there is a gbpvr.retained.mdb in the directory. Its all over and done with by the time the config app is made visible. It doesnt matter if the user clicks OK or Cancel later, as the renaming etc is all done up front...

[bgowland]

The key question to me is why do you have a gbpvr.retained.mdb file? This is only created as part of the upgrade. None of the gbpvr processes will create this file. Its only made by the MSI installer when it renaming the gbpvr.mdb to ensure its kept as part of the upgrade.

I've included the config.exe log for the time of upgrade. Is this any use? I see there are errors on the upgrade.sql point - I don't know if that is relevant.

[sub]

17/09/2005 04:27:44.655 VERBOSE [16] Trying to stop recording service...
17/09/2005 04:27:44.655 VERBOSE [16] recording service stopped
17/09/2005 04:27:44.655 VERBOSE [16] Deleting gbpvr.mdb.original
17/09/2005 04:27:44.655 VERBOSE [16] Renaming gbpvr.mdb to gbpvr.mdb.original
17/09/2005 04:27:44.655 VERBOSE [16] Renaming gbpvr.retained.mdb to gbpvr.mdb
17/09/2005 04:27:44.655 VERBOSE [16] Excuting upgrade.sql
17/09/2005 04:27:44.733 VERBOSE [16] <snip>
17/09/2005 04:27:44.811 VERBOSE [16] Renaming upgrade.sql to upgrade.sql.done

That all seemed to go well, and by the end of it there should be no gbpvr.retained.mdb file.

Do you still have this gbpvr.retained.mdb in your directory? If so, can you just delete it or does it reappear at some later stage? If it does reappear, under what circumstances? At this time is a MSI installer message added to the Windows Event Log?

I see there are errors on the upgrade.sql point - I don't know if that is relevant.

Yes, this is normal. It tries to apply all the database upgrades since v0.90. You already have these, so these particular statements fail.

[bgowland]

That all seemed to go well, and by the end of it there should be no gbpvr.retained.mdb file.

Well that's the thing - the retained.mdb was timestamped 17/09 04:28 which was the time(ish) of my upgrade to 0.94.12. It was still there at 17/09 17:23 when I tried the test on clicking OK in Config when the main mdb failed to be renamed to gbpvr.mdb.original (when I didn't lose any recordings).

Do you still have this gbpvr.retained.mdb in your directory?

It disappeared (got renamed successfully to gbpvr.mdb) at 18/09 00:21 which was when I did lose my recordings (obviously as it had overwritten my working DB).

...does it reappear at some later stage?

It hasn't come back since 18/09 00:21.

At this time is a MSI installer message added to the Windows Event Log?

For me, the MSI Installer still only appears at the first time I run the GB-PVR main app. after an upgrade (17/09 04:28 was the last time) - its the DejaVu... font thing as usual. This doesn't lose any data in the DB.

[sub]

Oh well just keep an eye on it. It sounds like something might have stopped gbpvr.retained.mdb from being removed that first time which stuffed you up next time you started the config app. If the file comes back let me know and we'll look again.