Is there any recovery from "logically deleted recordings" being purged from dB

[TuckerTFT]

Tonight I ghosted my original GBPVR recording drive (the D: drive ... disk 2) and I engaged in the process of replacing it with a larger brand new drive.

After physically installing the new drive, when I restarted the computer to get back to Windows XP so that I could restore the ghost image to the new drive, a Windows Installer dialog box popped up showing "Configuring GBPVR Service" (or something along those lines). It was at this point that I realized that I had neglected to set the GBPVR Recording Service to manual, so I immediately "canceled" the Windows Installer and stopped the service.

By the time that I got it stopped I fear that it may have already purged from the database recordings listed as "Ready" that it could not find (since the D: drive no longer existed at this point).

While the log doesn't state that it removed specific "Ready" recordings records from the dB, the following lines from the log and the fact that the dB is now about 100 MB smaller than it was and has a time stamp equivalent to the timings in these log lines lead me to believe that such is the case:

1/4/2006 9:52:30 PM.625 VERBOSE [35] getValue() loading new key/value into cache: /settings/AutoRemoveMissingRecordings
1/4/2006 9:52:30 PM.671 VERBOSE [35] getValue: /settings/AutoRemoveMissingRecordings : true
1/4/2006 9:52:30 PM.671 VERBOSE [35] Purging any stale logically deleted recordings

Also, the fact that the recording service log file doesn't contain the lines below, which existed in the previous Recording Svce log file and, in fact, are the recordings that I had in my "Ready" listing also leads me to believe that the "Ready" recordings records got purged from the dB:

1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\Thats Entertainment!\Thats Entertainment!_20051129_11001330.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\Thats Entertainment, Part 2\Thats Entertainment, Part 2_20051129_13301545.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\Thats Entertainment! III\Thats Entertainment! III_20051129_15451800.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\One Magic Christmas\One Magic Christmas_20051214_19002100.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\Santa Who\Santa Who_20051217_11001300.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\The Night They Saved Christmas\The Night They Saved Christmas_20051217_13001500.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\Three Wise Guys\Three Wise Guys_20051217_15001700.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\Silent Night\Silent Night_20051218_17001900.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\Unlikely Angel\Unlikely Angel_20051218_19002100.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\The Blues Brothers\The Blues Brothers_20051231_19452215.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\Live Aid The Day the Music Changed the World\Live Aid The Day the Music Changed the World_20051231_23000000.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers 70th Birthday C\John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers 70th Birthday C_20060101_00000100.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\Eric Clapton Sessions for Robert J\Eric Clapton Sessions for Robert J_20060101_01000200.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\Ringo Starr and His All Star Band 2003\Ringo Starr and His All Star Band 2003_20060101_02000300.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\The Zombies Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre London\The Zombies Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre London_20060101_03000401.mpg
1/4/2006 5:59:07 PM.000 VERBOSE [35] - checking D:\Video\Capture\GB-PVR_Recordings\The Big Band Sound of World War II\The Big Band Sound of World War II_20060101_04010500.mpg

I really will not know for sure until my new D: drive is fully restored from the ghost image and I start up the recording service, BUT in anticipation that this was what happened ... short of restoring a backup of the .mdb (which, of course, I don't have) is there any way to get the entries for my "Ready" recordings back into the dB?

Also, there is an .ldb (db lock file) sitting in the GBPVR directory. I suspect that my cancel of the "GBPVR config" (the Windows Installer dialog I mentioned above) may have disabled the ability of GBPVR to dispose of this file in an orderly manner. Is this likely to cause me a problem? Should I just delete the .ldb before attempting a restart of the service?

Finally, there is a second .mdb file which I have never seen before. It is named "gbpvr.retained.mdb". It has the exact same size and date/time stamp as "gbpvr.mdb". Can someone tell me what the "retained" file is and whether it may be of any help in my recovery?

Thanks much.

[sub]

You're sort getting outside of normal activities here, so it gets difficult to give definitive instructions to fix it.

Finally, there is a second .mdb file which I have never seen before. It is named "gbpvr.retained.mdb". It has the exact same size and date/time stamp as "gbpvr.mdb". Can someone tell me what the "retained" file is and whether it may be of any help in my recovery?

If you're really lucky, the 'retained' version will still have your recordings in it. I'd back up both files before doing anything. Next I'd probably try removing gbpvr.mdb and renaming gbpvr.retained.mdb to gbpvr.mdb, then check if you've got you're recordings back.

If they're still gone, then isnt really much you can do. The best you can get is using the export/image recordings feature to manually create a XML file that lists your recordings, but you'll have to manually add show names and descriptions.

[sub]

Also, there is an .ldb (db lock file) sitting in the GBPVR directory. I suspect that my cancel of the "GBPVR config" (the Windows Installer dialog I mentioned above) may have disabled the ability of GBPVR to dispose of this file in an orderly manner. Is this likely to cause me a problem? Should I just delete the .ldb before attempting a restart of the service?

Dont worry about the .ldb file. It'll sort that out itself.