As I was planning to collect the latest issue of THE NUGGET from the printer this morning, I needed to process a couple of payments I had received over the past few days before I could print the address labels for the envelopes. Last night I opened MS Excel to make the necessary changes to Wargame Developments' computerised accounts ... and was greeted with a message that informed me that the file was no longer there!
I eventually found the back-up copy of the file, but when I tried to open it, I discovered that it had been corrupted. This presented me with a major problem, and I have spent more than five hours recreating the computerised accounts from the paper records that I have. I still have a few items to sort out before this task is finished, but I at least I can print the labels I need.
So why did this problem arise? As far as I can tell, a recent automatic upgrade of MS Office took place whilst I had the now-corrupted file open, and it was during the automatic back-up of that file that it became corrupted. This should not happen, but it did ... and it has cost me time and not a little effort 'repair' the damage that has happened.
I eventually found the back-up copy of the file, but when I tried to open it, I discovered that it had been corrupted. This presented me with a major problem, and I have spent more than five hours recreating the computerised accounts from the paper records that I have. I still have a few items to sort out before this task is finished, but I at least I can print the labels I need.
So why did this problem arise? As far as I can tell, a recent automatic upgrade of MS Office took place whilst I had the now-corrupted file open, and it was during the automatic back-up of that file that it became corrupted. This should not happen, but it did ... and it has cost me time and not a little effort 'repair' the damage that has happened.
I had that update and now my system is playing up. I have really gone off MS in a big way.
ReplyDeleteSimon Jones,
DeleteIn some ways it is pleasing to find out that I'm not the only person who has been afflicted by problems since the latest update ... but I am sure that you find it equally annoying that an update can degrade ones computer's capabilities quite so much.
I hope that you have managed to recover any lost or damaged files.
All the best,
Bob
Maybe you should have stuck with an old version of Office, one that Microsoft has ceased to update? My reason is meanness but it does have other advantages.
ReplyDeleteAnd you could of course be really anal like me and have multiple back ups of the most important files (in my case on my other PCs, on several free cloud accounts and on USB memory sticks in the workshop at the bottom of the garden): of course, none of this should be necessary and so far I've never needed to use these back ups but I have this underlying feeling that inanimate objects are out to get me ...
Mike Hall,
DeleteThe upgrade did not seem to be optional; it appears to have happened automatically.
I always keep back-up copies of files, but in this case the back-up seems to have been corrupted at the same time. It is almost as if the computer was making the back-up at the same time that the upgrade was taking place ... and corrupted both the original and the back-up copies of the file.
Are inanimate objects out to get us? Sometimes I think that they are ...
All the best,
Bob
Slightly off topic, but when is the PDF version of NUGGET 311 going to be ready?
ReplyDeleteStephen Briddon,
DeleteWith luck (and a following ewind), N311 should be available later today.
Just pray that I don't have another computer 'problem' to deal with!
All the best,
Bob
Bob, maya I suggest LibreOffice as an MS Word/Exel alternative? I use this software; it's much less bloated than Microsoft's and is free :)
ReplyDeleteRed_Cardinal,
DeleteI've used LibreOffice in the past, and it is as good as you say. Unfortunately I need to use MS Office for certain projects, and I am rather stuck with it for the foreseeable future.
All the best,
Bob
I often send important files to myself via email. Such are in my inbox as well as my outbox. I have 10 year old files that I downloaded again this summer, when my desktop computer failed.
ReplyDeleteSorry for your troubles, Bob. Technology can be a real pain.
Justin Penwith,
DeleteThat is an excellent idea! I've done something similar with some special audio files, but never thought to do the same with data files.
All the best,
Bob