I was sent four PERSONAL ANCESTRAL FILES [examples as follows]
indiv3.dat.b00
indiv3.dat.b01
etc.
Got a problem: a client sent this note below...to me with accompanying files... An internet search has not turned up any software that can analyze a file and determine how to open it by defining its extension. It is assumed by the note that the program was a PERSONAL ANCESTRAL ... *.paf file generator, put out by the Mormon Church for a genealogy. I downloaded the program and set it up, but it does not recognize the files. Suggestions???
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Guess what? I did download & run a copy of Badcopy on that darn damaged floppy--BUT, this was when the floppy drive wasn't recognizing my floppies. So, maybe it's worth another try--although the Manager of [computer store were PC was recently purchased] did say he ran a software (don't know which one) to try to fix the floppy without success. He was able to find out that 3% of the data is damaged on the disk.
There's also a problem with how PAF is written to a disk. PAF is backed up all in one big chunk & the index to those files are on the first disk (.bak file). All disks that follow are given file names such as .b00, .b01, etc. I have a damaged .bak disk & some .bXX following disks. I can't access the .bak disk so PAF won't allow me to access the corresponding following disks that would contain information. The thought was to use an older .bak disk then load in the current .bXX disks--but PAF won't allow this. The Manager said he logged a tech support e-mail with the tech support for PAF to see if there is a way around this. But, he hasn't contacted me so I'm not hopeful.
It gave me "an invalid key"error message
I ran Bad Copy on some back up disks that I made back in Dec. '05, the disk was also damaged but the 3 files were recovered.
So, I ran Bad Copy on the "most current" back-up .bak floppy, there was a .4% lost data report but at the end the message was "Sorry, no recoverable data found".
Perhaps if I can get the Dec. '05 floppies working, I'll have a more up-to-date database.
Right now, the Dec. 2005 .bak file is damaged. The message I get from PAF is that it cannot read the file. So, I don't know if running Bad Copy will make any difference. Most of the .bak files are about 1.38KB but this one only reads it only contains 4 bytes, so something must be wrong with it. If I can't restore this .bak file, then the other following files can't be accessed.
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Years of work will be lost as a result of the original hard drive breaking down...
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