SOS Technical Reference Document
Copyright (c) 1994 by Synergistic Office Solutions, Inc.

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TOPIC..: Error 36: Invalid Data File
Error 38: Invalid Key File
Error 42: Invalid Key Declaration
Error 46: Key File Must Be Rebuilt
Error 47: Invalid Record Declaration
REVISED: 03/01/95

SUMMARY -----------------------------------------------------------------

Each of the above is a data file error of one sort or another. The
least serious of these are the key file errors, 38, 42, and 46. In
fact, beginning with version 3.15 of OM, key file errors 38 and 46
can be corrected automatically by the program. As long as the data
file itself (the file ending with DAT) is intact, the related key
files may be recreated without difficulty.

Errors 42 and 47 will occur most frequently after an update or after an
older data file has been restored to a system which has since been
updated. The new version of the program requires that the file be
converted to the newer format in order for it to be accessed. If this
error should occur at other times, there is a possibility of file
corruption, which may or may not be recoverable using the techniques
described below.

CORRECTION ---------------------------------------------------------------

In most cases, correction is straightforward but requires that the
FILES.CLA (for OM) or the FILESCM.CLA (for CM) be up to date and in the
directory with your data files.

Before you start, examine the error message closely to determine the name
of the file that is causing the problem. The name will be displayed along
with the complete DOS path, for instance:

C:\OM\PTINF.DAT

Note first, the location of the file, in this case "C:\OM". Next note the
label portion of the filename, in this case "PTINF". The location is
everything up to the last backslash; the label is the portion between the
final backslash and the period.

In most cases, errors 42 and 47 are "fatal errors", meaning that the
program cannot continue to run. Press a key to terminate the program.
If you started the program from the DOS prompt, that is where you will
find yourself. Do not be confused if a portion of a program screen
remains on your monitor. Look for the cursor. If it is at the bottom of
the screen next to a system prompt, you are no longer in the program. If
you started from a menu program or shell of some sort, you will return to
it.


File Errors Pg.2


1) Exit all programs and menus so that you are at the system prompt,
which will generally look something like:

C:\> or C:\OM> or C:\CM\MAINDATA>

2) (If your only hard drive is C:, skip this step)
If necessary, change to the drive on which your data files are stored
by typing the letter of that drive, followed by a colon and <ENTER>:

D: and press <ENTER>


3) Now change to the correct data directory. This will be the location
that you noted while inspecting the error message. For most OM users,
this will be the OM directory, so you would type:

CD \OM and press <ENTER>

For CM users, it will most often be the CM\MAINDATA directory, so you
would type:

CD \CM\MAINDATA and press <ENTER>

If you are using CM on the same machine as OM and sharing data files
with it, and it is one of the OM files that is causing the problem,
the file will be located in your OM directory. Check Appendix O of
your CM manual to see if the file is one of those that is shared.

4) Check the version of DOS you are using by exiting all programs and
typing, at the system prompt:

VER and press <ENTER>

If you are using DR-DOS, you must first disable the SHARE program
before attempting the fix. To do so, exit to the system prompt and
type:

SHARE /X

then proceed as follows.

5) ON A NETWORK, before doing any file maintenance, be sure that all other
users have exited from the SOS applications that use that file. To be
safe, make sure that none of the related programs, such as OM, CM,
Appointment Scheduler, and Electronic Claims, is in use.

6) You should now be at the system prompt in the directory in which the
problem file is located. If you were able to determine the file's
label, then type FIX followed by the file label, for example:

FIX PTINF
FIX JOURNAL
FIX TXNOTES
FIX DAYSHEET
FIX GLOSSARY

File Errors Pg.3


and press <ENTER>. If you typed the command correctly, the rest of
the process is automatic. If you did not type the command
correctly, you may see a selection box, listing all of the files
that are available to process with this utility. Just press <ESC>
to exit the utility and retype the command. Remember to type the
name of the file WITHOUT the ".DAT" at the end!

Note that you cannot run FIX on USERS, ACCESS, BASE, or JET. These
are encryted files. To rebuild the keys of any of these files,
type FIXFILES and press <ENTER> at the system prompt, or select
Rebuild/Pack Files on the UTILITIES menu, then select the
appropriate file group from the menu that will appear on screen.

When it is complete you will be back at the system prompt.
Start the program again to see if the problem has been corrected. 
If not, read on.

ERRORS ON MANY DIFFERENT FILES -----------------------------------------

To automatically run FIX on all the fix-able files in your OM
directory, use the following command:

FIXOM and press <ENTER>

To automatically run FIX on all the fix-able files in your CM data
directory, use the following command:

FIXCM and press <ENTER>

SUBLICENSE AND SECONDARY DATA DIRECTORIES --------------------------------

If you are using sublicenses or have data sets in other directories,
it is especially important that you pay attention to the location of
the file in any error messages you encounter. It won't do any good
to rebuild a data file in some other directory!

IF CORRECTION FAILS ------------------------------------------------------

If the techniques described above do not eliminate the error, it
could be that your data has been corrupted by some sort of hardware
problem or that you are using the write-delay option of a disk
caching program, such as Microsoft's SMARTDRV.EXE, and all data was
not safely stored on the disk at the time of a power failure or
system crash. For more information about disk caching, see the
related help document.

To further investigate this possiblity, the first thing to do is to
run the DOS utility, CHKDSK. If you are on a network, it will
probably be necessary for you to bring up the file server in single
user mode.

Exit out of all programs so that you are at a system prompt on the
correct drive. Generally that will be the C: drive, so the prompt
will look something like:

C:\>

File Errors Pg.4


It does not matter if you are in the root directory (as above) or a
subdirectory. Now type:

CHKDSK and press <ENTER>

If you get about two thirds of a screen of drive and memory
statistics, and nothing else, then things are not so bad. If, on
the other hand, you get a message that errors have been found, with
notations of lost clusters or cross-linked files, then the news is
not so good. The following command will frequently clear the errors,
but it is almost a sure bet that there are damaged files on your
hard disk. You may want to consider re-installing your programs and
restoring your data from the most recent backup.

To eliminate many errors that are detected by CHKDSK, type:

CHKDSK /F and press <ENTER>

You may be asked if you want to "save lost chains as files".
Theoretically this may be appropriate if you want to later inspect
the *.CHK files in your root directory to see if you can figure out
which files or programs were corrupted, but in practice we have
rarely found it to be useful. The recovered files are usually a
mish-mosh of portions of files, or an unrecognizable mass of
"garbage characters", the origin of which is next to impossible to
determine. Bottom line is that usually you will not lose anything by
replying "NO" to this question ("save lost chains...")


INSUFFICIENT DISK SPACE ----------------------

Rebuilding data files requires enough space for fairly large
temporary files to be built. Be sure you have free space at
least equivalent to three times the size of the file you want
to rebuild. For example, if you want to rebuild PTINF and the
PTINF.DAT file is 3,000,000 bytes in size, you may need up to
9,000,000 bytes of free space to successfully rebuild it. To
check the size of a file, as well as the free space, use the
DIR command. For example to check the size of PTINF.DAT, you
would type the following at the system prompt:

DIR PTINF.DAT and press <ENTER>

The size of the file will be displayed, as will, in most cases, a
"bottom line" showing how many bytes are available on disk.

If necessary, the affected files (with extensions of DAT, K*,
and MEM), along with FILES.CLA (or FILESCM.CLA in the case of a
CM file) from the data directory, and CFIL.EXE and FIX.BAT from
the program directory (\OM or \CM), may be copied to another
drive or computer for the rebuild, then the fixed files (DAT,
K*, and MEM) can be copied back into the working directory.




File Errors Pg.5


MISSING OR INCORRECT VERSION OF FILES.CLA OR FILESCM.CLA -------

The FILES.CLA (for OM) and FILESCM.CLA (for CM) files contain
the data definitions used to convert the data files. If these
files do not match the version of the program you are trying to
run, the conversion will not be successful and the error will
recur. In almost all cases the date of this file should be the
same or very close to the date of the main program file (eg:
\OM\OM.EXE or \CM\CM.EXE). If the dates are not the same or
similar, you should reload the update from your most recent set
of distribution disks. The update process will copy the
correct definition file into the data directory.